“Kurt Elling’s rich, chewy baritone – and his easy-swinging, ring-a-ding-ding delivery on the Great American Songbook – often recalls Frank Sinatra. But his staggering jazz chops turn him into a kind of Sinatra with superpowers. Just when you think he’s at the top of his register, he’ll fly an octave higher; when you expect him to pause and take a breath he’ll find another tank of air and sustain a low note for another four bars; when you expect another instrument to take a solo, he’ll do it himself, taking us on an Ornette Coleman-esque sonic journey around all four octaves of his vocal range”.
John Lewis said it all, in his review of a Kurt Elling performance for the Guardian (UK), nailing the Grammy award winning singer’s qualities that have made him one of the world’s foremost jazz vocalists. He has won the DownBeat Critics Poll for fourteen consecutive years and was named “Male Singer of the Year” by the Jazz Journalists Association on eight occasions. Declared by The New York Times as “the standout male vocalist of our time”, Elling – a master of vocalese – is widely accepted as the natural heir to jazz pioneers Eddie Jefferson, King Pleasure and Jon Hendricks, modernizing the jazz vocal tradition and breathing new life into old favorites for today’s audiences.
Celebrating his strong relationship with the Australian audience, Kurt Elling returns in June, surrounded by an all-star band, featuring Gary Versace (piano/ Organ), Clark Sommers (Bass), John McLean (Guitar) and Ulysses Owens (Drums).
