Artist info

The Jazz Series is pleased to welcome back vocalist Kurt Elling, one of today's most respected male jazz singers, accompanied by his primary collaborator, pianist Laurence Hobgood, and his trio. In June 2009 the multi-GRAMMY® nominee vocalist released Dedicated To You: Kurt Elling Sings the Music of Coltrane and Hartman. Not surprisingly, the vocalist's latest and eighth recording as a leader received immediate rave reviews and jumping right to the top of the jazz charts.

Having grown up in a musical family Elling developed an idiosyncratic scat style in Chicago -- primarily at the Green Mill where he still works when not globetrotting. Originally, his break came on the strength of a demo tape that led to Blue Note Records signing him in 1995. He has continued to issue recordings regularly and for the past decade has appeared -- deservedly so -- at or near the top of any number of important critics' polls.

Elling combines use of his rich baritone voice with total command of rhythm, texture, phrasing, and dynamics. His repertoire ranges from his own compositions to modern interpretations of standards, both of which can be the springboard for free form improvisation, scatting, spoken word and poetry.

Like the best in jazz, Elling is a risk taker and so on his second Jazz Series visit, the vocalist will not only showcase material from Dedicated to You, which was recorded live at Lincoln Center, but, working with pianist Hobgood and the rest of his colleagues he will also offer us a preview into his next release -- due out sometime in 2010.