Fans of Kurt Elling have long known that his recordings, as clever and well-orchestrated as they might be, don’t quite match up to the power and charm of his live performances. Years of holding court at the Green Mill and other Chicago clubs are what really have brought Elling…
Who but Kurt Elling would open a ballads album by singing a Charlie Haden bass solo? It’s a typically ambitious move, transforming “Moonlight Serenade,” Glenn Miller’s perennial slow-dance favorite, into a hip, smoky ode. Elling is a distinctive vocalist, endowed with true musicianship: Listen as he sticks to his…
After taking the jazz vocal scene by storm, Kurt Elling got in a bit over his head, gaining as many critical kudos as catcalls. On his third disc, he finds a happy medium between romantic rumination and vocal experimentation. The highlight of the disc is “Freddie’s Yen for Jen,”…
This is one of the most interesting jazz vocal sets to be released in 1997. Kurt Elling covers a wide range of music, continually taking chances and coming up with fresh approaches. He is assisted by his longtime pianist Laurence Hopgood, different bassists and drummers, and on various tracks…
For his debut recording, Chicago vocalist Elling pushes the envelope, challenging listeners and his musicians with beat poetry, ranting, and his Mark Murphy-ish singing. There’s quite a bit of dramatist/actor in Elling, although the romantic in him is also pretty prevalent. Acting much like a tenor saxophonist, Elling can…
More than a decade into their career, Medeski, Martin & Wood continue to expand their sound. This time out, they’ve enlisted John King (Dust Brothers, Beck, Beastie Boys) as producer and engineer, and he brings a left-field pop sensibility to the table without ever sacrificing the personality and energy…
Uninvisible is further than ever from conventional jazz organ. While blues and funk influences are evident throughout the album, they float on a sea of shadows. Sound sources are obscure or exotic; on “Pappy Check” innovative scratching by turntablist DJ Olive creates an impression of African percussion more than…
Although Judi Silvano shows that she can sing words beautifully, the emphasis on this adventurous set (her debut as a leader) is on her wordless vocalizing. With the assistance of guitarist Vic Juris, bassist Drew Gress, drummer Bob Meyer, and sometimes her husband Joe Lovano (on tenor and, on…
Blue Note continues its intriguing series of jazz recordings offering beginning to end covers of influential ’70s pop albums with Fareed Haque’s masterful take on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s Deja Vu, which draws upon the classical guitarist’s jazz fusion chops as well as the Latin and Middle Eastern…
A casual listen might suggest that Floratone is a new Bill Frisell project (and that would be mostly correct), except every indication is that this is a fully collaborative project between Frisell, drummer Matt Chamberlain, and Tucker Martine and Lee Townsend. Composition credits are all shared and they all…