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Kurt Elling
Jazz singing at its virtuosic, life-affirming, risk-taking best. ~ The Arts Desk
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June 2013: Swingin' Into Summer
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 Hello! You may notice that I have a slightly easier touring schedule coming up. I've been hitting the road very hard lately and am ready to be at home for a bit. I do have a family I like to see every once in a while. Moreover, I have a record to write, along with several other projects that have had to wait while the road took its course.
So . . . come and see us while we're still touring. Beginning the middle of July, I'll be more or less prepping for the next round.
Thanks again for all your support,
Kurt
Kurt swings into summer
In June, Kurt and the band go bicoastal in Florida with two shows back to back this weekend.
Special discount for Kurt's fans: Enter promo code ELLING to get 25% off general admission or 20% off VIP tickets. At the box office only, tickets for students (with ID) are just $15.
Jazz chanteuse Whitney James opens the show. Her 2010 album, The Nature of Love, features Ingrid Jensen on trumpet & flugelhorn, and Whitney was Jon Weber's guest on NPR's Piano Jazz: Rising Stars. "I've been a fan forever," James said of Elling. "It's a huge honor to be able to warm up a big crowd for him, he's amazing and I'm really looking forward to it."
On Saturday, June 8, the KEQ performs at South Florida JAZZ, Miniaci Performing Arts Center, in Fort Lauderdale, FL to close the SFJ 2013 concert season. This is Kurt's fifth performance at South Florida JAZZ. SFJ members get discounted tickets, and students (with ID) are only $15.
Then Kurt is off to England for the world premiere of That Obscure Hurt, a new jazz suite composed by Guy Barker, with lyrics by Robert Ryan, at the Aldeburgh Music Festival. Please see the story below for more about this show.
In August, Kurt and the band head south of the border to Mexico for the Tónica Jazz Festival in Guadalajara.
For all the details, please see JUNE-AUGUST Gigs below.
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That Obscure Hurt
Featuring Kurt Elling & Janie Dee
Composed by Guy Barker
Lyrics and narration by Robert Ryan
Inspired by Benjamin BrittenOn 12 June at the Aldeburgh Festival in Suffolk, England, Kurt Elling performs the world premiere of That Obscure Hurt, composed by arranger and jazz trumpeter Guy Barker in his new role as associate composer for the BBC Concert Orchestra, with lyrics and narrative by author Robert Ryan. The work was co-commissioned by BBC Radio 3 and Aldeburgh Music for this year's Aldeburgh Festival which celebrates the centenary of British composer Benjamin Britten (1913-1976), who lived in Aldeburgh and founded the Aldeburgh Music Festival in 1948.
That Obscure Hurt tells the story of an expat businessman who voyages back to London to sell his Soho jazz club, but while spending a final night there, he's stopped in his tracks by meeting the ghost of his younger self.
Benjamin Britten wrote two operas based on ghost stories by Henry James, "The Turn of the Screw" and "Owen Wingrave." Guy Barker, working with Robert Ryan, took the completion of a James ghost story trilogy as the starting point for this new work, inspired by Britten. From Ryan's adaptation of James' short story "The Jolly Corner," which weaves both jazz and echoes of Britten operas into its colorful fabric, Barker created a new, 70-minute suite for the massive combined forces of jazz and symphony orchestras, the vocalist, and the narrator, taking the audience on a taut and dramatic journey. All told there will be 77 artists on stage! That Obscure Hurt reimagines James' ghost story, relocating it from an apartment block in New York to a jazz club in Soho. There is a prologue about the dance bands who worked on the transatlantic liners. The Cunard dance bands ("Geraldo's Navy") are legendary in the jazz world - musicians such as Ronnie Scott, John Dankworth and Stan Tracey would sign on with the sole intention of rushing ashore in NYC to hear the new music being played in the clubs of 52nd Street and the Village by modern jazz giants such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Bud Powell.
Originally there were no songs or spoken narration planned for That Obscure Hurt. But as things developed, Barker began hearing songs, and while experimenting with an idea for the prologue set in NYC, all he could hear in his head was Kurt Elling's voice. And so Kurt was asked to play Harry Prince, singer at The Pagoda nightclub. Then it became apparent that a different form of narration was required in addition to Kurt's vocals, so British actress and mezzo soprano Janie Dee was invited to narrate. Says Kurt, "I am very happy to be working on this new project with Guy and Robert. They are both excellent craftsmen, and I am honored that they have been creating this piece with my voice in mind."
That Obscure Hurt has numerous allusions to Britten and James. Britten wrote a ballet called "The Prince of the Pagodas" from which Harry Prince's name and home club are taken. Curlew Rivers, a dissolute jazzman, also appears as a character; "Curlew River" is one of Britten's church parables. According to Robert Ryan, "that obscure hurt" refers to the unrequited love Alice feels, and it could also refer to the missing two fingers of the ghostly apparition in "The Jolly Corner." Henry James also called the mysterious injury he suffered as a young man his "obscure hurt," which may have led to his lifelong disinterest in marriage.
With all the layers of meaning and mystery, concert goers are in for a superb evening of original music and song! FREE Pre-performance Talk by Guy Barker, Robert Ryan and Andrew Kurowski at 6:30 pm.
That Obscure Hurt will also be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 beginning at 7:30 pm, and will be available as a podcast for seven days afterward.
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 Kurt's on the Rad-i-o
In addition to the live BBC Radio 3 broadcast of That Obscure Hurt on 12 June at 7:30 pm, Kurt's on these radio shows.
Featuring Kurt Elling Hosted by Ian Shaw
The multi-talented Grammy-award-winning jazz vocalist and composer Kurt Elling was Ian Shaw's special guest for the International Ronnie Scott's Radio Show last month. Shaw spoke to him backstage between sets at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club on his opening night of his incredible six-night sold-out residency in April. The pair talked about Kurt's new album 1619 Broadway: The Brill Building Project, and Ian played an array of music, including Kurt's "On Broadway" and "Pleasant Valley Sunday," as well as tracks from Jon Hendricks, Joe Williams and Nina Simone. Kurt's interview runs from about 27:00-34:20. Check it out!
Encore podcast: Did you catch Kurt's interview on the Jamie Cullum BBC Radio 2 programme earlier this spring? (15:41)
You can still listen to the podcast. After swapping stories and spinning songs, Kurt & Jamie do a rousing duet on "I'm Satisfied," accompanied by Laurence Hobgood. Listen here.
Kurt's fabulous concert last month in Dublin with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, conducted by Brian Byrne, was recorded for broadcast sometime this summer on RTÉ Radio.
Fans who were there said that Byrne's two new charts, a musical setting the James Joyce poem "Dear Heart, Why Will You Use Me So?" and Patrick Kavanaugh's "On Raglan Road," were inspired choices.
Later this summer Sirius XM Radio will be rebroadcasting the Kurt Elling Quintet Live at Jazz at Lincoln Center from October 2012.
This gala concert celebrated the release of 1619 Broadway: The Brill Building Project.
Look for details about both of these broadcasts next month on Kurt's Facebook page and on his website.
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Grammy-nominated!
1619 Broadway - The Brill Building Project
Kurt Elling with Laurence Hobgood, and featuring John McLean, Clark Sommers, Kendrick Scott, Christian McBride, Ernie Watts, Joel Frahm, Tom Luer, and Kye Palmer Watch Kurt's 1619 Broadway video and share it with your friends!  | |
Kurt Elling | 1619 Broadway: The Brill Building Project
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 Short Takes
June 21 is the Summer Solstice (in the Northern Hemisphere).
 | "Estate" (In Summer)
Taormina Jazz Festival 2012 |
June 21 also sees the world premiere of World War Z, the new apocalyptic horror film film with Brad Pitt - and zombies! Get ready for WWZ with Kurt's very hip version of Pleasant Valley Sunday from 1619 Broadway.
. . . people thinking by remote control,
and zombie dadbots,
and high school gun-bots
(here we come). . . .
Kurt's travel is climate-friendly. He buys carbon offsets from Carbon Fund
to reduce the carbon footprint from his air travel on tours.
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| JUNE-AUGUST Gigs |
June 7, 2013Kurt Elling Quintet Palladium TheatreSt. Petersburg College 253 Fifth Ave North St. Petersburg, FL
Special discount for Kurt's fans: Use promo code Elling for 25% off general admission, 20% off VIP tickets; student tickets are $15 (with ID) - buy only at box officeJune 8, 2013Kurt Elling Quintet South Florida JAZZ Miniaci Performing Arts CenterNova Southern University 3100 Ray Ferrero Jr. Blvd Fort Lauderdale, FL June 12, 2013Guy Barker: That Obscure HurtFeaturing Kurt Elling, Janie Dee, BBC Concert Orchestra & Guy Barker Jazz Orchestra Aldeburgh Festival 2013Snape Maltings Concert Hall Snape, Suffolk IP17 1SP ENGLAND June 29, 2013TWO SHOWSKurt Elling Quintet Rochester International Jazz FestivalKilbourn Hall Eastman School of Music 26 Gibbs Street Rochester, NY July 3, 2013Kurt Elling S(w)ings Frank Sinatra with the Jazz Orchestra of Concertgebouw ConcertgebouwConcertgebouwplein 10 1071 LN Amsterdam THE NETHERLANDS July 6, 2013FREE CONCERT!Kurt Elling Quintet JAZZ ™Piata Victoriei Timisoara, ROMANIA Free - standing only, but seats can be reserved in a special area in front of the stage with 50 lei / festival.July 7, 2013FREE CONCERT!Kurt Elling Quintet Giugno in JazzCentro Commerciale Campania SS 87, Località Aurno Caserta, ITALY July 8, 2013Kurt Elling Quintet Casa del JazzViale di Porta Ardeatina 55 00154 Rome ITALY July 10, 2013Kurt Elling Quintet Jazzclub UnterfahrtEinsteinstraße 42 81675 Munich GERMANY July 11, 2013Kurt Elling Quintet Schloss ElmauElmau, GERMANY July 13, 2013Kurt Elling Quintet Ghent Jazz FestivalDe Bijloke Ghent, BELGIUM August 5, 2013Kurt Elling Quintet Tónica Jazz FestivalTeatro Degollado Belén s/n esq. Morelos Centro Historico 44100 Guadalajara, Jalisco, MEXICO August 16, 2013Kurt Elling Quintet Rockport Jazz Festival Shalin Liu Performance Center37 Main St Rockport, MA
All of Kurt's upcoming gigs in 2013 and into 2014 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 is on the road upwards of 180 nights a year. He only performs where he's been invited (by people who write checks!) and he doesn't get to set his 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 booking agency, IMN (International Music Network). Thank you!
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Your Moment of Elling . . .
My advice to all aspiring jazz singers
and for everyone else alike is
to find something that you love --
apart from any expectations or
judgements you may have adopted
from parents or friends --
and give your all to its development.
Be smarter, more dedicated,
more intrepid and tireless
than anyone you meet.
If you work harder
and are more demanding of yourself,
more in love with it,
more energetic than anybody,
chances are you'll get what you want.
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