Kurt Elling

Elling was born in Chicago, Illinois on November 2, 1967, the son of Henry and Martha Elling. His interest in music started with his father, who was Kapellmeister at a Lutheran church. Elling attended elementary school at St. Paul Lutheran School in Rockford, and throughout his early years, he sang in choirs and played violin, French horn, piano, and drums. During his middle school years, Elling remembers watching Tony Bennett and the Woody Herman band on television and imagining what it would be like to sing with a band. Growing up, Elling sang in the classical style, learning counterpoint from the motets of Johann Sebastian Bach.

At Rockford Lutheran High School, in Rockford, Illinois, Elling continued to sing in the choir: "When it was undeniably uncool and geeky and all that, to be in the choir, I did it anyway, because it was reliably beautiful, and it was rewarding, and it gave me gifts of experience and friendships." One of these experiences was that of singing the National Anthem with the high school madrigal choir, "Joyful Sounds" under the direction of Joyce Kortze in front of his first large crowd of over 40,000 people.

Elling attended Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, where he majored in history and minored in religion. In college, Elling sang in the 70-voice Gustavus Choir, an a cappella choir that performed works from a variety of different composers, allowing him to hone his technical skills. Elling also toured Europe with his college choir. He became interested in jazz at Gustavus Adolphus while listening to Dave Brubeck, Dexter Gordon, Herbie Hancock, and Ella Fitzgerald.

After graduating from Gustavus Adolphus in 1989, Elling enrolled in graduate school at the University of Chicago Divinity School where he studied for his master's degree in philosophy of religion. He thought about continuing work in academia or working for the World Council of Churches when he graduated. He began playing jazz gigs once a week during graduate school, with one of his first shows at Milt Trenier's, a basement club in Chicago (now defunct). He earned little money at these gigs, but Karl Johnson, the house pianist, was his mentor and teacher. Elling recalls, "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." He remained a graduate student until January 1992, when he left school one credit short of graduation.

In Chicago, Elling worked as a bartender and as a mover. He sang at weddings in addition to clubs. At this time, he began singing in a scat style and improvising his own lyrics. Elling began listening to the vocalese of jazz singer Mark Murphy, who exposed him to the poetry of Jack Kerouac. The minimalism and emotion of Chet Baker's music was also influential.

While living in Chicago in 1995, Elling decided he was ready to record. He had met pianist Laurence Hobgood through Ed Petersen, who played the Green Mill on Monday nights. Elling convinced Hobgood that he was ready to go into the studio, and they came out with nine solid songs. Following the advice of pianist Fred Simon, the cassette recording was sent to Bill Traut, a manager in Los Angeles, who eventually gave it to Bruce Lundvall of Blue Note.

In 1995, Elling signed with Blue Note, and the songs on the demo became the Grammy nominated label debut, Close Your Eyes (1995). The album features Edward Petersen and Von Freeman on tenor saxophone, Dave Onderdonk on guitar, Laurence Hobgood on piano, Eric Hochberg and Rob Amster on double bass, and Paul Wertico on drums. Close Your Eyes was followed by The Messenger (1997).

In 1999, Elling became a National Trustee for the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, and in 2003 he was elected vice-chair and served two terms.

In 2006, Elling performed on the television program Legends of Jazz, in the episode "The Jazz Singers". Elling sang "She's Funny That Way" and performed a duet with Al Jarreau on "Take Five". The recording was released on CD and DVD. In August of the same year, Elling signed a contract with Concord Jazz, and his first album with the label, Nightmoves, was released in 2007.

The follow-up, Dedicated to You: Kurt Elling Sings the Music of Coltrane and Hartman (2009), is a tribute to the 1963 recording John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, widely recognized as one of the all-time finest jazz vocal albums. The album arose out of a 2005 concert commissioned by the Chicago Jazz Festival, showcasing the Coltrane-Hartman material. Later, Elling and pianist Laurence Hobgood rearranged the music, culminating in a performance in the Allen Room at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York. The concert was recorded in January 2009 and the album was released in June.

Elling is a baritone with a four-octave range, and a writer and performer of vocalese, writing and performing words over improvised jazz solos. In 2007, 2012 and 2020, Circumstantial Productions published three editions of Lyrics: Kurt Elling, collections of Elling's vocalese lyrics edited by Richard Connolly.

• Coming of Age (Self Adhesive Records, 1991)
• Close Your Eyes (Blue Note, 1995)
• The Messenger (Blue Note, 1997)
• This Time It's Love (Blue Note, 1998)
• Live in Chicago (Blue Note, 2000)
• Flirting with Twilight (Blue Note, 2001)
• Man in the Air (Blue Note, 2003)
• Nightmoves (Concord Jazz, 2007)
• Dedicated to You: Kurt Elling Sings the Music of Coltrane and Hartman (Concord, 2009)
• The Gate (Concord, 2011)
• 1619 Broadway – The Brill Building Project (Concord, 2012)
• Passion World (Concord, 2015)
• The Beautiful Day: Kurt Elling Sings Christmas (Okeh, 2016)
• The Questions (Okeh, 2018)
• Secrets Are the Best Stories (Edition, 2020)

With SuperBlue (with Charlie Hunter)

• "SuperBlue" (Edition Records 2021)
• "SuperBlue: The London Sessions (Live)" (EP) (Edition Records 2022)
• "SuperBlue: Guilty Pleasures (feat. Nate Smith)" (Edition Records 2023)
• "SuperBlue: The Iridescent Spree" (Edition Records 2023)

With Laurence Hobgood

• Left to My Own Devices (2000)
• Crazy World (Naim, 2005)
• When the Heart Dances (Naim, 2009)
• Christmas (Circumstantial Productions, 2013)

With Bob Mintzer

• Live at MCG (2004)
• Old School, New Lessons (2006)
• Swing Out (2008)

With others

• Bob Belden – Shades of Blue (Blue Note, 1996)
• The Manhattan Transfer – Swing (Atlantic, 1997)
• Yellowjackets – Club Nocturne (1998)
• Joanne Brackeen – Pink Elephant Magic (Arkadia Jazz, 1999)
• Charlie Hunter – Songs from the Analog Playground (2001)
• George Freeman – At Long Last George (2001)
• Jackie Allen – The Men in My Life (2003)
• Jon Weber – Simple Complex (2004)
• Fred Hersch – Leaves of Grass (2005)
• Till Brönner – Rio (2008)
• John Pizzarelli – Rockin' in Rhythm: A Tribute to Duke Ellington (2010)
• The Claudia Quintet – What Is the Beautiful? (Cuneiform, 2011)
• Lee Ritenour – Rhythm Sessions (Concord, 2012)
• Kate McGarry – Girl Talk (2012)
• Aki Yashiro – Live in New York (2013)
• Renee Fleming – Christmas in New York (2014)
• Harold Mabern – Afro Blue (Smoke Sessions, 2015)
• Branford Marsalis – Upward Spiral (Marsalis Music/Okeh, 2016)
• Brad Mehldau – Finding Gabriel (Nonesuch, 2019)