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SUBJECT: | OT AAJ Review: Kurt Elling, The Gate Back to Subjects |
djbinder Jul 13 2011 at 5:32 AM |
A review of vocalist Kurt Elling’s The Gate, today at All About Jazz. While jazz vocals are not usually my thing, I have to admit to being bowled over when I saw Elling at the recent Ottawa Jazz Festival (review here: http://tinyurl.com/642df3u). Elling has been on tour with usual cohort, pianist/arranger Laurence Hobgood, and a new name to me, the tremendous John McLean on guitar, focusing largely on the singer’s latest, The Gate. An album that draws from the music that mattered in Elling’s youth, The Gate not only includes some of the more usual suspects, like Stevie Wonder and The Beatles, done in less than usual ways ("Norwegian Wood" is particularly strong), but also brings songs by Joe Jackson, Earth, Wind & Fire, KING CRIMSON (!) and others to the jazz pantheon. Add to that a great, quirky reinvention of renowned bassist Marc Johnson’s "Samurai Hee Haw" (here, "Samurai Cowboy"). All delivered with the epitome of taste and acute expression, never overstated, always as close to perfect as us mortals can get. Review here: http://j.mp/ra9vVZ |
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