Kurt Elling

Kurt Elling stands out as a singer and composer whose powerful baritone spans four octaves, earning him an international following along with repeated awards and critical praise for his singular approach to vocal jazz. Because of the ambition in his recorded work and his dramatic stage presence, his live shows regularly blend spoken-word outbursts, beat poetry, impassioned vocal interpretations of texts by Garcia Lorca and Rainer Maria Rilke, and songs associated with Ellington, Cole Porter, Johnny Mercer, and the Beatles, all delivered with intricate, swinging vocalese. Critics first took notice when his 1995 Blue Note debut Close Your Eyes, already Grammy-nominated, showcased his vocalese treatment of Wayne Shorter’s “Dolores Dream.” His initial Concord release, 2007’s Nightmoves, intertwined poetry by Walt Whitman and Theodore Roethke with pieces by Michael Franks, Antonio Carlos Jobim, and Ellington. After eight prior nominations he secured the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album with the 2009 concert recording Dedicated to You: Kurt Elling Sings the Music of Coltrane and Hartman. In 2016 he led the Branford Marsalis Quartet on Upward Spiral; the partnership continued through tours and the 2018 Grammy-nominated The Questions, which presented a sweeping, reimagined suite version of Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.” Subsequent funk-oriented projects with guitarist Charlie Hunter yielded 2021’s SuperBlue and 2023’s SuperBlue: The Iridescent Spree. Two closely recorded standards collections followed in 2024: the Grammy-nominated Wildflowers, Vol. 1 with pianist Sullivan Fortner and Wildflowers, Vol. 2 with pianist Joey Calderazzo.

Born in Chicago in 1967 and raised in Rockford, Elling absorbed music early through his father, the kapellmeister at a local Lutheran church, while participating in choirs and learning multiple instruments. Jazz entered his life during studies at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota. He later attended the University of Chicago Divinity School yet departed one credit shy of graduation to focus on a career as a jazz singer. Deeply shaped by Mark Murphy, he refined his personal scat approach in Chicago venues, above all the Green Mill, where he shared bills with Von Freeman and Ed Peterson before expanding his performances across the Midwest.

After submitting a demo to Blue Note, Elling joined the label and released Close Your Eyes in 1995. Jazz writers responded to both his distinctive voice and the caliber of collaborators such as Laurence Hobgood and Paul Wertico. His 1996 album Messenger projected a sharper, more streamlined persona that, combined with relentless touring and theatrical flair, attracted broader audiences nationwide. That same year he married and, whether adjusting his image or widening his appeal, issued the standards collection This Time It’s Love, which collected magazine honors and another Grammy nomination.

Extensive road work and guest spots prompted Blue Note to issue 2000’s Live in Chicago, drawn from Green Mill appearances, followed by the expansive 2001 set Flirting with Twilight, which opened with Elling singing a Charlie Haden bass solo. Man in the Air appeared in 2003 and Nightmoves in 2007. Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series yielded the 2009 live album Dedicated to You: Kurt Elling Sings the Music of Coltrane and Hartman. Elling also contributed to Hobgood’s 2010 and 2011 recordings When the Heart Dances and Left to My Own Devices.

He returned with his own 2011 project The Gate, produced by Don Was, placing modern jazz standards beside radically reworked pop, rock, and soul numbers performed by an ensemble that included Hobgood, John Patitucci, and Bob Mintzer. The following year brought 1619 Broadway: The Brill Building Project, saluting the classic pop repertoire that emerged from that New York landmark in the 1950s and 1960s.

On his eleventh studio album, 2015’s Passion World, Elling surveyed global compositions and idioms. June 2016 found him paired with Branford Marsalis for the quartet date Upward Spiral. That October he delivered his first holiday recording, The Beautiful Day: Kurt Elling Sings Christmas. In 2018 he rejoined Marsalis for The Questions, interpreting material by Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, and Leonard Bernstein with pianist Joey Calderazzo, trumpeter Marquis Hill, drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts, and additional musicians; the album reached number five on the Jazz Albums chart. A live edition with his own band followed, and 2019 brought Live in New York, shared with Australian trumpeter James Morrison and also featuring pianist Stu Mindeman, saxophonist Troy Roberts, bassist Clark Sommers, and drummer Ulysses Owens, Jr.

April 2020 saw the release of Secrets Are the Best Stories on Edition Records. With pianist Danilo Pérez, Elling supplied new lyrics to works by Wayne Shorter, Jaco Pastorius, Vince Mendoza, and Pérez himself, while adding his own compositions and adapting poems by Franz Wright, Robert Bly, Frances E. W. Harper, and Toni Morrison; the sessions also included drummer Johnathan Blake, guitarist Chico Pinheiro, alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón, bassist Sommers, and percussionists Roman Diaz and Rogerio Boccato. The funk-inflected, Grammy-nominated SuperBlue appeared in September 2021 in partnership with Charlie Hunter. Their February 2023 EP SuperBlue: Guilty Pleasures preceded the full-length SuperBlue: The Iridescent Spree that September, which featured flutist Elena Pinderhughes. Elling next teamed with pianist Sullivan Fortner for the intimate standards set Wildflowers, Vol. 1, containing a duet with Cecile McLorin Salvant on “A Wish (Valentine)”; issued in August 2024, it earned a Grammy nomination for Best Vocal Album. Its companion, Wildflowers, Vol. 2, arrived that November with Joey Calderazzo at the piano.