Kurt Elling & SuperBlue: A Good Time Every Night

The jazz quartet to take the stage at The Alluvion

By Ross Boissoneau | Aug. 24, 2024

Kurt Elling and his band SuperBlue just returned from a tour of Asia, including dates in China and Japan. So his upcoming shows on Aug. 31 at The Alluvion in Traverse City could be just another night, another show.

But Elling doesn’t see it that way, and he doesn’t take any of his shows for granted. “It’s different every night,” Elling says. “What’s in the news, the room, the age of the audience.”

And no matter the setting, from large outdoor festivals to jazz clubs to spacious auditoriums, Elling prides himself on always delivering. “I give it my best. I love to sing, so I better get to it.”

Divine Calling

Elling was born in Chicago and raised in nearby Rockford, Illinois. His father was Kapellmeister (music director) at a Lutheran church. So it’s no surprise that growing up, Elling sang in choirs and played various instruments, from violin and French horn to piano and drums.

What was a surprise was his ultimate career direction. After graduating from the small liberal arts school Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota, he decided to pursue a different career, enrolling in the University of Chicago’s Divinity School. But he left school one credit short of a degree when the call of jazz became too much. He began to perform in and around Chicago, scat singing and improvising lyrics.

The church’s loss was music’s gain. To date, the 56-year-old Elling has recorded some 20 albums, mixing originals with jazz classics he’s written lyrics to, alongside tunes by pop and rock artists from Stevie Wonder to King Crimson to Tom Waits.

He’s won numerous awards, including two Grammys among 16 nominations, three Prix du Jazz Vocal in France, two German Echo Awards, and two Dutch Edison Awards. The New York Times has proclaimed Elling “the standout male vocalist of our time.”

Over the years, Elling has performed in a variety of contexts, with symphony orchestras, jazz big bands, and small ensembles. For years he toured with a piano trio, which made fans look twice at his latest band: SuperBlue.

SuperBlue

SuperBlue features drummer Corey Fonville and electric keyboardist DJ Harrison from the jazz-funk band Butcher Brown and guitarist/producer Charlie Hunter, whose unique approach enables him to play bass along with rhythm or lead at the same time.

Elling says the band came about as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in a number of musicians recording at home and exchanging files over the web. Elling took it a step further, creating an entirely new approach with what became a new band.

“Charlie gave me a call. He said we’ve got some time [to record]. We’d talked about it for years,” says Elling. Elling saw an opportunity to try something different, “because it wasn’t going to be straight jazz, where you have to be together.”

Elling and Hunter had met when they were both recording for Blue Note Records in the late 1990s. Elling did a guest spot on Hunter’s album Songs from the Analog Playground, and during the shutdown, they worked together on some videos for Elling’s weekly webcast.

The two enjoyed making the videos so much they decided to go all in. “When Kurt decided he wanted to make a whole record like that, he asked me to produce it. We shot some ideas back and forth, and then I brought up Butcher Brown, because these guys have a great community and a great collective sound,” says Hunter in press materials. Elling insisted that Hunter play on the album as well as produce.

Fonville and Harrison collaborated with Hunter in their Virginia studio to create an assortment of grooves, colors, and textures. “Then it was on me to write melodies,” says Elling. He took the tracks and either created brand-new melodies or turned to existing compositions. Once the groundwork was complete, Elling and Hunter got together at a converted horse barn in Urbana, Illinois, where they recorded the vocal and solo guitar tracks and mixed it.

The result was SuperBlue, which won critics’ praise and another Grammy nomination. For the band’s second record—this time after they’d all toured together—Elling included music by Joni Mitchell, Ornette Coleman, and Ron Sexsmith (some with new lyrics by Elling), alongside originals by the band. He even called on Bob Dorough’s “Naughty Number Nine” from the beloved Schoolhouse Rock! (remember “I’m Just A Bill” and “Conjunction Junction”?).

All About Jazz called SuperBlue: The Iridescent Spree “another sublime blend of jazz and groove,” concluding “The album is magic.”

Improvising & Composing

“It’s been very rewarding,” says Elling of the response to the two recordings. “It was good to have something out of the box when COVID was over, have something to tour with. We’ve gotten to play a lot of different venues. In London, I played the Jazz Café. I’d usually play Ronnie Scott’s. That’s more traditional. Now I can play for a standing audience who want to dance.”

Elling has performed in a number of venues across the state, including Great Lakes Center for the Arts, Corson Auditorium at Interlochen Center for the Arts, and the intimate confines of the Acorn Theater in Three Oaks, just over an hour from his hometown of Chicago. Told that The Alluvion is even smaller, Elling is enthused, saying he loves to be close to the audience.

When asked whether the set list or the music changes depending on the setting, Elling notes that the different circumstances nightly invariably affect the music. “We might get bored with something and play something else, but there’s no need to reinvent the wheel when we figure it out. Even playing the same set every night for a year, it always changes. It’s improvisation-based music. The players are always improvising and experimenting.”

In that way, he feels all music is a form of improvisation. “Composing isn’t that different from improvising. What is the melody, what is the harmony, what is the key, is it loud or soft? Mozart, Bach, Brahms—they were always improvising. They just wrote it down.”

What’s left to do on his career wish list? Elling says he would like to write lyrics to and record music by Argentinian tango master Astor Piazzolla, something by Ravel, and others. “I’d like to discover something by Bernstein as gorgeous as ‘Somewhere.’ More Wayne Shorter—one of my next projects is a Weather Report show with music by Wayne Shorter and Joe Zawinul.”

Being able to transform instrumental music by some of jazz’s most lauded composers into songs has “been a remarkable gift,” he says. “Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock have allowed me to write [words]. It’s opened so many doors to have the trust of the composers and their families when they’re deceased. It’s so implausible.”

Elling doesn’t take any of his success lightly. He sees his role in life as a performer to connect with the audience, no matter whether it’s China, New York City, or Traverse City. “We have a good time every night. We’re out here to frolic, dance, and be joyful. I’m thrilled.”

Learn more and get tickets for the upcoming TC show at thealluvion.org/tickets. SuperBlue will play two sets on Aug. 31; one at 7pm (sold out) and one at 9pm.