13.09.2024
Text: Eylül Ege - Illustration: Naz Tansel
Warm Baritone: Kurt Elling
34th Akbank Jazz Festival is proud to present Kurt Elling, one of the rarest vocalists in the contemporary jazz scene with his virtuoso precision, four-octave range, creative improvisations and powerful storytelling. Described by The Guardian as “a kind of Sinatra with superpowers”, Kurt Elling will take the stage at Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall on October 7. Before the event, let's take a look at his journey and warm up.
Growing up in Rockford in the 1970s, Kurt Elling was born into music. Following in the footsteps of his father, who worked as a capellmeister in a Lutheran church, he spent his childhood singing in choirs and playing various instruments with different sound colours and playing practices such as piano, violin, horn, and drums. For Elling, this classical music experience combined with the counterpoint elements he learned from Bach motets and the concept of polyphony, were the first ingredients that flavored the unique vocal style he would develop in the future.
Tony Bennett’s performances with the Woody Herman Orchestra, which Elling watched on television in middle school, planted the seeds of his childhood dream of singing on stage. He became more familiar with jazz during his student years at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota, where he studied history and religion. There, he toured Europe with a 70-voice a cappella choir and during these special shows he frequently listened to jazz icons like Dave Brubeck, Dexter Gordon, Herbie Hancock, and Ella Fitzgerald.
After college, Kurt Elling returned to Chicago and started working as a bartender. He began playing at special events and performing weekly in clubs like the Green Mill Jazz Club. His scat skills quickly shone, while he also started a master’s degree in the philosophy of religion at the University of Chicago Divinity School. However, he eventually realized that pursuing both paths was challenging. Reflecting on this period, he said, “By day I was reading Kant and Schleiermacher, trying to get a handle on that, and at night I was sitting-in in clubs, and, of course, you can't do both and be effective. Eventually Saturday night won out over Sunday morning.” In light of such feelings, Elling's daytime quest for concepts were replaced by the inspired reflections of the night.
A demo he recorded during his teens in 1995, influenced by Jack Kerouac’s writing and Chet Baker’s minimalism, led to Kurt Elling's Blue Note debut, Close Your Eyes, and then a Grammy nomination. He then continued crafting his precious discography. One of the standout releases in Elling’s unique and precious discography is the collection titled Dedicated to You: Kurt Elling Sings the Music of Coltrane and Hartman, a tribute to Coltrane and Hartman recording from 1963, which is considered as one of the best jazz vocal albums of all time. This 2009 work is presents a musical narrative rearranged by Elling and pianist Laurence Hobgood in the Allen Room of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York.
Elling has also been involved in other fields in performing arts, collaborating with Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater to create multi-disciplinary works. In 2019, The Big Blind, a noir jazz musical he created with songwriter and producer Phil Galdstone and orchestrated by Guy Barker, premiered.
The source of Elling's endless dynamism lies in his ability to continually generate new vocal material by writing lyrics for the unique compositions of jazz giants such as John Coltrane, Keith Jarrett, Pat Metheny, Jaco Pastorius, Wayne Shorter, and Joe Zawinul. The poet Robert Pinsky describes this talent as follows: “In Kurt Elling’s art, the voice of jazz gives new spiritual presence to the ancient, sweet and powerful bond between poetry and music.”