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NOMINEE FEATURED IN CAPILANO JAZZ SERIES P H O T O :T I F FP E M B E B T O N THREE-TIME GRAMMY Take Flight with Kurt Elling music | by A m a l i a Townsend This is something that's dignified, that human beings do. It's like a track star running a brand new three-minute mile. Woh! That knocks everybody out. Look what human beings can do. Look at what we're capable of. That's stirring. That's inspiring. That's what I get from jazz and that's what I want to give back. -- K u r t Elling Elling was born in Chicago in 1967. He began singing in church, where his father was the organist. He studied history and the philosophy of religion but it was the music of Herbie Hancock and Dexter Gordon, among others, that sculpted his destiny. Already a member of the Gustavas Choir in Kurt Elling is one hip, cool scat cat whose appeal is timeless. As a jazz singer, he takes quantum leaps to explore soulful ballads and lyrical babbling. Elling says that "it is out of pure desperation" that he conjures poetry amongst sprinkles of piano, drums, and bass. Always searching for new ideas, improvising lyrics as well as music, he expands his scatting from mere notes to words. Elling embarks on a journey that calls to mind the likes of Allen Ginsberg and Ella Fitzgerald. His voice crackles and swings. He can morph from a baritone saxophone into a stringed instrument. His ideas remind us of an era when beat poets grew on trees and jazz musicians, lost in the haze of cigarette smoke, intoxicated audiences with their spontaneous melodies. In the jazz world, he is both a throwback and a projection of what the future holds. Kurt Elling is one of a kind. 1989, he was soon singing in the college jazz orchestra. He went on to the University of Chicago's Divinity School and realized that he didn't want to be a professor but, rather, a "well-read philosophical poet." While at Divinity School, he sang at local jazz clubs such as the Green Mill, the venue where he just recently recorded his latest album, horn solo, or whatever it be, and then writing a lyric over that melody." This Elling did on Esperancs, a pre-existing song he cosmically wrote words for under the influence of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. The rest, as they say, is history. Elling's first demo landed him a record deal with the prestigious Blue Note label. He's played Carnegie Hall and all major festivals. He's gigged from Tel Aviv to Manhattan and recorded four albums. Elling has catapulted so fast in jazz, he is indeed a supernova just waiting to explode. Kurt Elling will appear in concert, with twotime Juno Award-winner Brad Turner directing the 18 piece "A" Band and Rejean Marois' NiteCap vocal ensemble for one night only, February 9, at the Capilano College Performing Arts Theatre. Phone 990.7810 now for tickets--the show is sure to be a sell-out. live in Chicago. Here he would jam with saxophonists Von Freeman and Ed Petersen, pianist Laurence Hobgood, and drummer Paul Wertico (of Pat Metheny's group). Only one requirement short of a master's degree, Elling left school in January 1992, spending the next two years working day jobs. He performed where he could, combining traditional jazz singing with wordless, improvisational scat singing. It wasn't until Elling discovered vocalese and what he calls "ranting" that he made his musical mark in Chicago." Vocalese is the art of transcribing a 6 January | February