Kurt Elling has a new fan: me.

Last night I experienced the quickest two hours of my life. They occurred at Yoshi’s, my living room for jazz. Pie-shaped and purple-walled, there is no bad seat in the house of this Oakland jazz club. I’ve heard that Pat Metheny said onstage, “I thought this kind of place only existed in the movies.”

I just learned about Kurt Elling in December, so in no way am I an expert. I do know that my face bore an open jaw and a silly grin the whole set. You guys would love him. He is philosophical and poetic, but not pretentious. Serious and technically superior, but not stuffy.

He is an expert at vocalese, or the act of putting words to improvised solos of jazz artists (Keith Jarrett, Wayne Shorter, Dexter Gordon, and John Coltrane to name a few). This is not to say he doesn’t improvise himself. His scatting techniques are like nothing I’ve ever seen live. In the midst of this superior technicality, he retained silliness. In the middle of arpeggiating some colorful chord up and down his vast range, he “improvised” the theme from “The Munsters”. Just as I was able to place the tune, he looked at the audience and asked, “Where did that come from?”

His wife and small daughter were in the audience. The little one occasionally interacted with the music and he encouraged us to do the same. Interaction between he and his rhythm trio was breathtaking, and yet I was not afraid to move. During a piano solo, his daughter started crying. “Don’t worry, Honey,” he said, “it won’t stay minor forever”.

For you night owls, Kurt Elling is promoting his soon-to-be-released CD “Nightmoves”, carrying a “twilight through dawn” theme. Most songs were about a person and their story. Imagery was everywhere.

After tackling these jazz greats, what should he leave us with as an encore? Why, Steve Miller’s “The Joker”, of course.
So that I don’t sound like a girl jumping up and down for Elvis, I will admit that Elling’s tone quality is not my favorite. Nasal in quality, it does not in itself massage the soul. Some of the noises he made would be categorically “annoying” in any other context. Last night, however, they dazzled our ears. During a period of life when I feel like crawling into a cocoon, Elling reminded me that it is worth taking risks to connect with others.

His first lyric of the night was “The stage is set for dreaming.” He had me at “The”.

Basically, I had church.

If you are near Catalina’s in Hollywood, he’ll be there Thursday through Sunday. You’ll look cooler if you keep your mouth closed.

Updated, November 11th, 2007
He was in SF last night and INCREDIBLE as usual. Then, after the concert, he hounded me in the lobby for this picture. Or was it the other way around?… I can’t remember exactly ;) but we had a nice exchange.

Sharolyn with Kurt Elling