Kurt Elling
From Chicago
Popularity
Kurt Elling has 4 upcoming shows in the Netherlands. The next one is on December 15, 2026 at Het Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. All 4 tour dates
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About
Kurt Elling has spent decades staking out a singular place in jazz vocals, blending scat, vocalese, and his own invented technique he calls the "rant", where he improvises words on the spot over instrumental music. His voice is a deep baritone that can be both sonorous and surprisingly nimble, and his approach to jazz standards tends to reshape them rather than simply deliver them. His version of "Nature Boy" on his 1997 Blue Note album The Messenger is a good example: poetic, improvisational, and unmistakably his own. Signed to Blue Note in 1995, Elling built a long creative partnership with pianist Laurence Hobgood, leading a quartet that toured the world. He has picked up seventeen Grammy nominations over his career, winning Best Vocal Jazz Album twice: for Dedicated to You in 2009, a tribute to the classic Coltrane and Hartman record, and again for Secrets Are the Best Stories in 2021. He is a consistent favourite in the Down Beat magazine Critics' Poll, which says a lot about the respect he commands among serious jazz listeners.
