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Kurt Elling
He has come to embody the creative spirit in jazz ~ The Washington Post
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March 2012: In the studio, on the radio & red carpet, and at sea
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Hi Friends,
We're taking March to prepare a new recording and pull ourselves together for another round of touring. This one should be coming out in August or September.
As a way to follow up on The Gate, I'm going to be taking on music associated with the Brill Building -- the most famous music address in the world. Not only does it have a long history, it's an inclusive New York moment, which is the kind I like.
Plenty of surprises and new arrangements on the way. Even I don't know what all is going to happen. Wish us luck!
My best,
Kurt
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Kurt Elling on the Grammys, confidence, the jazz lifestyle,
his next album, and more In February, Minneapolis-based arts and jazz writer Pamela Espeland interviewed Kurt in advance of his show with Lizz Wright, "Be My Valentine." She posted the full interview on her blog, Bebopified, and a condensed version appeared on MinnPost. It's a fine, wide-ranging conversation, with lots of news and insights. The full interview is highly recommended reading. Bebopified: You're working on your new recording. Can you tell us something about it? KE: For some time, now that I'm living in New York, I've wanted to do something about New York. I've done so many things for Chicago -- theater pieces, individual settings of pieces of poetry to music that were Chicago-centric, and the New Year's Eve thing for the Millennium -- so many occasions, and I've enjoyed them all. And now I wanted to do something about New York. But I did not want to go to the usual suspects -- your Cole Porters, for instance, that so many people have done so many times, and so brilliantly. As a way to follow up on The Gate, I'm going to be taking on music associated with the Brill Building, the most famous music address in the world. Not only does it have a lot of history, it's an inclusive New York moment, which is the kind I like.
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The Metropole Orchestra
International Arrangers Workshop
Over 100 advanced young arrangers from all over the world applied for the 2012 edition of the Metropole Orkest International Arrangers Workshop in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Conductor Vince Mendoza and the Metropole Orkest are delighted with the high quality of the applicants and selected eight very talented arrangers to participate during master classes, rehearsals, and writing arrangements on a theme to be given at the start of the week.
The eight selected participants are from Austria, the Netherlands, Germany, Estonia, Canada, and the United States.
Their first assignment will be to write an arrangement for guest vocalist Kurt Elling who will perform all the arrangements at the final concert of the week on March 24 in Rotterdam at LantarenVenster. This show has been sold out for more than a month.
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 POEMJAZZ
POEMJAZZ is a very cool new CD featuring poet Robert Pinsky and pianist Laurence Hobgood.
Three-time U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky is a dynamic, prodigious, prolific, relevant, and true "people's poet," a rhythmic original who has resonated with jazz music since early in his life. Laurence plays while Robert reads -- in a spontaneous, unfolding, improvised musical conversation. Laurence is tremendously excited by their collaborative project. Kurt says, "The sympathetic reverberations between the music of poetry and the poetry of music have rarely been so fully amplified as they are on this recording. I wish we could all hear new work like this all the time."
Robert Pinsky told The Paris Review, "In jazz, as in poetry there is always that play between what's regular and what's wild. That has always appealed to me."
He also remarked, "In my opinion the medium of poetry is not words, not images, not lines. The medium for poetry is one person's voice. It's the human body. Breath."
Recently Robert and Laurence did a fifteen minute interview on WBUR radio in Boston. They performed three poems live -- two of Robert's that are also on the CD, and one from Renaissance poet Ben Jonson.
They talk about accompanying each other in a spontaneous musical conversation. Robert says he hopes to be surprised every time.
Laurence says, "In terms of the synchronicity of it, if I just listen to the sound of Robert's voice and don't get hung up on trying to have some sort of detached part of myself calculate meaning and things like that...that's when all the little magic moments happen."
Jazz writer Andrew Gilbert also previewed their first performance for The Boston Globe. Their next live concert, An Evening of POEMJAZZ, is March 16 at Carnegie Room Concerts, Nyack Library, Nyack, NY.
A limited-edition CD of POEMJAZZ with a booklet of poems was released on February 24 and is available at the Pinsky & Hobgood live performances and at Circumstantial Productions. v
Laurence also performs with special guest Laurie Lang at The Brink Lounge in Madison, WI on March 25. Then the Laurence Hobgood Quartet goes on a spring "barnstorming" tour in the Midwest from March 30 through April 5, beginning at the Green Mill in Chicago and featuring John Wojciechowski on tenor sax, and ending in St. Louis at Jazz at the Bistro, with very special guest Ernie Watts. | |
Kurt Elling on NPR's Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!
 In February, just before the Grammy awards, Kurt was the celebrity guest on National Public Radio's Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! - The Oddly Informative News Quiz show. He played "Not My Job," a three-question multiple-choice quiz. Laugh-out-loud hilarity ensues!
Listen to Kurt's cover of Ke$ha's "We R Who We R," his answer to say "something in jazz," and his scat-talking (which sounds suspiciously like Danish).
The game he's invited to play is "Dude, First Thing You Need to Do, Get a Drum Machine." His quiz questions are on other Grammy nominees -- Bruno Mars, Adele, and Bon Iver.
So did he win the prize for the listener in Boca Raton, Florida? Listen to Kurt's 10:05 "Not My Job" segment to find out! You can also read the transcript, but the spoken word is much funnier.
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The Kurt Elling Quintet
The Jazz Cruise
January 29 - February 5, 2012
Lee Mergner, Editor-in-Chief of JazzTimes, shared his impressions of this year's fabulous Jazz Cruise. Here's what he said about Kurt:
"Ask any cruise-goer for their musical highlight and you're likely to hear widely divergent choices. Jazz is, after all, a short word for a lot of different music and styles. For this somewhat jaded listener, the favorites tended to be artists or performances I had never seen before, and there were a surprisingly large number of those. I guess I need to get out more, or at least widen my choices.
"Kurt Elling was an artist whom I have seen many times over the years, but seeing him perform a half-dozen very different sets (he tried to not repeat any songs all week) with his working band of Laurence Hobgood, Clark Sommers, Kobie Watkins and John McLean gave me even more regard for his considerable singing and performing talents, and more appreciation for his excellent band.
"Elling did songs from every era of his now 17-year career and didn't hesitate to mix up the arrangements and repertoire, letting the air or tempo out of some tunes and speeding others up to a breakneck pace. His command of the stage and spontaneous repartee with the not-the-least-bit-shy audience showed the value of all of those years. He even riffed his way through a few onstage soundchecks. A truly modernist jazz singer, described by JT's Nate Chinen as 'the most influential jazz vocalist of our time,' Elling won over the traditionalists in the crowd."
JazzTimes also videotaped a series of interviews with artists on the Jazz Cruise. Those interviews are being edited into segments for the JazzTimes YouTube channel and for JazzTimes.com.
Watch: Kurt Elling on The Jazz Cruise (03:00)
Watch: Kurt Elling on his early musical development as a jazz singer (04:25)
Watch: Kurt Elling on his future projects (03:27)
In his own set of interview segments for In Person with JazzTimes, Laurence Hobgood spoke about his early development as a pianist, his teachers and mentors, his reliance on a spirit of collaboration, his work with Kurt Elling and Robert Pinsky, and his impressions of the Jazz Cruise.
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Grammy nominated!
The Gate
Kurt Elling with Laurence Hobgood, and featuring John Patitucci, John McLean, Bob Mintzer, Terreon Gully, Kobie Watkins, and Lenny Castro. Produced by Don Was.
Watch the behind-the-scenes
video and listen to Don Was
talk about The Gate, Kurt, and the band.
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 Short Takes
Again this year, Kurt was nominated for a Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album -- this time for The Gate. Every one of Kurt's recordings has been nominated, and he won two years ago for Dedicated To You: Kurt Elling Sings the Music of Coltrane and Hartman. Alas, he didn't win this year, but he did cut a fine figure on the Red Carpet. And who's that gorgeous woman standing behind him, looking right at the camera? Watch Kurt's short Grammy Red Carpet interview here.Kurt commented later: "I had a great time! I've been fortunate because I've been able to go several times, and I was a volunteer before, and I've got so many friends to see that I don't otherwise get to connect with.
And the Grammys have updated the pre-telecast so remarkably since I was first involved that you really have a sense of an occasion as opposed to feeling like second or third class citizens, as it used to. They do the full red carpet treatment and you feel like it's a real occasion. So it's worth doing."
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Lyrics, Second Edition
This elegantly designed book contains 33 lyrics, 27 from the first edition and 6 new ones, plus Kurt's expanded introduction on vocalese. The new lyrics are Waking the Dreamclock (2008), Samurai Cowboy (2008), Late Night Willie (2009), La Vie en Rose (2010), Love's a Tangled Road (2010), and They Speak No Evil (2010). Visit Kurt's Store for your very own copy. Lyrics was edited by Richard Connolly and designed and published by Circumstantial Productions.
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| MARCH - APRIL Gigs |
March 24, 2012
The Metropole Orchestra Invites Kurt Elling
Grand Finale of the Arrangers Workshop
LantarenVenster - SOLD OUT!
Otto Reuchlinweg 996 (Wilhelminapier)
Rotterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
April 3, 2012
Kurt Elling featuring Rodger Fox's Wellington Jazz Orchestra, with special guest Eric Marienthal
The Globe Theatre
312 Main St
Palmerston North, NEW ZELAND
April 4, 2012
Kurt Elling featuring Rodger Fox's Wellington Jazz Orchestra, with special guest Eric Marienthal
The Opera House
111-113 Manners Street
Wellington, NEW ZELAND
April 6, 2012
Kurt Elling featuring Rodger Fox's Wellington Jazz Orchestra, with special guest Eric Marienthal
50th National Jazz Festival
Baycourt Theatre
38 Durham Street
Tauranga, NEW ZEALAND
April 25, 2012
Kurt Elling Swings Sinatra
92Y Jazz
92nd Street Y
Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street
New York, NY
April 27, 2012
Kurt Elling Swings Sinatra
Frank Guaracini Jr. Fine & Performing Arts
Cumberland County College
3322 College Drive
Vineland, NJ
April 28, 2012
Kurt Elling Swings Sinatra
Zellerbach Hall
Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA
Coming up!
In May, Kurt and the band play three shows on the East Coast and then head for Europe, playing in France, Germany, and Italy.
Kurt's upcoming gigs in 2012 are on the Touring page on his website. That's where you'll always find the most current information. Check there often, as new dates are always being added.
To bring the KEQ to a stage near you Kurt and Laurence are on the road about 200 nights a year. They only perform where they've been invited (by people who write checks!) and they don't get to set their own itinerary. To hear Kurt and the band play in your city, region, or country, please ask your favorite jazz clubs or festivals to book them through Kurt's new booking agency, IMN (International Music Network). Thank you! |
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Your Moment of Elling . . .
Any music that jazz encounters, it absorbs and transforms.
It takes it into itself and transfigures that art form.
It's true when jazz musicians go after classical music, Afro-Cuban music, Brazilian music.
It's what jazz does.
It encounters unforeheard propositions,
and it absorbs and transforms those sounds
into something new and amazing.
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