From March 19-24, eight very talented young arrangers, chosen from about 200 applicants, participated in the 2012 Metropole Orkest's International Arrangers Workshop. Vince Mendoza, conductor of the Metropole Orkest, declared, "Of the 15 years that we've been doing this, this is the finest group of students that I've seen here -- or anywhere for that matter."

Front: Vince Mendoza, Erica Seguine, Vidjay Beerepoot, Laura Winkler, Christian Elsässer, Malte Schiller Back: Rasmus Puur, Daniel Jamieson, Kurt Elling Not pictured: Jesse Passenier

Each wrote an arrangement for Kurt to perform at the Grand Finale Concert in Rotterdam.

Mendoza told the concert audience that night:

The Grand Finale Concert in Rotterdam featured the Metropole Orkest and Vince Mendoza, with special guests Kurt Elling on vocals and the "unbelievably swinging" Ulysses Owens on drums.

Kurt said later, "I was deeply impressed by ALL of the arrangements. They uniformly reflected deep musical intelligence and communicated transparent emotion. I thank all the fine young arrangers for their dedication to craftsmanship and hard work. I look forward to performing these with the orchestra once again at the The Meer Jazz Festival in Hoofddorp, NL on June 2  . . . and well into the future."

Selections from the concert were broadcast over two weekends on Co Live!, the Soul & Jazz radio program hosted by Co de Kloet on Radio 6 in The Netherlands.  Those are are now available as podcasts for your listening pleasure.  The full broadcasts are four hours each.  The segments with Kurt and the Metropole Orkest are listed below.

Part 1: Sunday, March 25, 2012
From 2:22:50-2:25:00 Kurt describes the tunes and their selection.
From 2:27:25 to 2:58:35 Vince Mendoza introduces Kurt and they play:
Butterfly (Herbie Hancock) - Rasmus Puur, arranger
Speak No Evil (Wayne Shorter / lyric by Kurt Elling) - Malte Schiller, arranger
Duke Ellington's Sounds of Love (Charles Mingus) - Laura Winkler, arranger
Tempted (Squeeze) - Vidjay Beerepoot, arranger

Part 2:  Sunday, April 1, 2012
Beginning at 2:02:50, the Metropole Orkest plays:
A Streetcar Named Desire (Alex North)
From 2:13:10 to 2:38:00 they perform:
An American Tune (Paul Simon) - Christian Elsässer, arranger
Late Night Willie (Keith Jarrett / lyric by Kurt Elling) - Daniel Jamieson, arranger
Time To Say Goodbye (Joe Zawinul / lyric by Kurt Elling) - Erica Seguine, arranger
From 2:40:30 to 2:47:25 they perform:
Tutti For Cootie (Duke Ellington / lyric by Kurt Elling) - Jesse Passenier, arranger
From 2:47:55 to 2:55:50 there is an interview and they conclude with:
Esperanto (Vince Mendoza / lyric by Kurt Elling) - Vince Mendoza, arranger


And if you'd like to read Kurt's new lyrics for Speak No Evil and Late Night Willie, they're in Kurt's book, LYRICS, Second Edition, now available in the Kurt Store. Time to Say Goodbye and Esperanto are included, too.  Check it out!

 

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  Short Takes  

Kurt performs twice at this year's Newport Jazz Festival on August 5 with the Kurt Elling Quintet and again with John Hollenbeck's Claudia Quintet + 1, featuring Kurt and Theo Bleckmann on vocals.

Kurt's fans get $10 off general admission tickets for Fort Adams State Park events by buying on-line with promo code DOF3 by Monday, April 30, 2012.

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Kurt performs a lovely duet, "O Cantador," with Kate McGarry on her new album, Girl Talk (Palmetto Records), to be released April 10.  Listen to a clip here and read an early review.

 

   

In January, Kurt performed half a dozen shows on the 2012 Jazz Cruise. 

 

Kurt Elling: Straight Ahead, Lee Mergner's JazzTimes article about Kurt's performances,  includes three video interviews in which Kurt talks about his early musical development, his many upcoming projects and his experiences on the cruise.

 

Mergner wrote earlier, "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."