Rating:
Genre:
Vocal Music
Release Date: 04/03/2007
When
Kurt Elling issued
Man in the Air on the
Blue Note label in 2003, it showcased his expansive, dream-weaving stage persona, though the album was recorded in the studio.
Nightmoves arrives at a time when
Elling has left
Blue Note for the hopefully greener pastures of the
Concord kingdom, and has been both directing and hosting festivals while also performing like crazy. For a guy who is as busy as he is, there's no doubt he has also been working on expanding his particular gift with discipline and breathtaking adventure. For starters, there is a wider array of musicians on
Nightmoves. Along with longtime pianist
Laurence Hobgood (an underrated and underappreciated artist of high order), players like
Bob Mintzer,
Christian McBride,
Rob Mounsey,
Willie Jones III,
the Escher String Quartet,
Rob Amster,
Guilherme Monteiro, and
Grégoire Maret are here, assisting in this ambitious set of tunes in all manner of configurations, from duet to septet. The title cut, written by
Michael Franks, opens the set, with
Mintzer on tenor and a pair of pianists in
Hobgood on acoustic and arranger
Rob Mounsey on electric, with
Jones and
McBride serving as the rhythm section guides.
Elling keeps all the gorgeous mystery of the original and deepens it as he more assertively states the lyrics. He's got
soul,
blues, and the grain of the jazzman in his vocal.
Hobgood underscores every line while
Mounsey adds depth and dimension to the tune atmospherically, and
Mintzer's solo is brief but full of the deep
blues.
There is a weave at work here that
Elling follows in
Betty Carter's
"Tight." And it is. The notion of song gets stretched to the point of breakage here, and rhythmic interplay happens between
Elling and the band. While keeping
Carter's tune's integrity, he also pushes the lines to slip into the circular beat provided by
Jones.
McBride's arrangement is a swinging
hard bop delight. The sense of freedom in
Carter's original is captured in
Elling's solo. There is a gorgeous nocturnal smoke-and-fog medley of
Irving Berlin's
"Change Partners" and
Antonio Carlos Jobim's
"If You Never Come to Me." Howard Levy adds some painterly harmonica to the tune's frame, and the band -- courtesy of
Hobgood's subtle and moving arrangement -- plays to
Elling's strength. The sense of longing and heartache is evident from outside the lyric; it comes from the pit of the belly and speaks its need before
Monteiro's acoustic guitar introduces the
Jobim song.
Elling slips right into that rhythmic change, extending the story of the original, speaking under the gentle breeze and night sky. There is another medley here as well:
Keith Jarrett's
"Leaving Again" woven into the
Mann and
Hilliard tune (and
Frank Sinatra classic)
"In the Wee Small Hours." Elling extrapolated -- via transcription most likely --
Jarrett's original
improvisation (and his extra lines in the latter tune) and wrote a vocal and lyrics for it. The performance is full of surprise and delight. Listeners will have to discover that one for themselves.
One of the greatest surprises here is in
Elling's reading of
Randy Bachman's (of
Bachman-Turner Overdrive and
the Guess Who, the latter band having recorded the original)
pop hit
"Undun" (better known as "She's Come Undun"). The tune is transformed with help from
Mounsey's arrangement. It always had a
jazz backdrop, and
Elling and his pals pull it over the line. The man croons and startles with the raw emotion in his voice, as
Hobgood's fills offer support for the sense of drama in
Elling's voice.
Mintzer enters and plays between the lines and through them.
Elling just seems to climb with the intensity of the band and goes over the top.
Elling's composition of a song to
Theodore Roethke's poem is a deeply moving duet between his voice and
Amster's bass. His full range is at work here, but the feel is effortless, spiritual, dreamy, shimmering. This track offers the complete evidence of this vocalist's true gift. The set ends with a reading of
Duke Ellington's
"I Like the Sunrise." Backed by a trio of
Hobgood,
Amster, and
Jones, the reverence the singer feels for the tune is evident from the moment he opens his mouth. This is a
gospel song in
Elling's voice, with a
vocalese performance that is as moving and on the money as anyone has ever delivered. The lyric is adapted from
Rumi, and
Ellington's melody is in perfect balance with the lyric and rhythm. It's simply inspiring. After
Man in the Air it was difficult to imagine
Elling expanding further on his spirit of song. But on
Nightmoves, he has not only met but exceeded all expectations. This CD was nominated for a Grammy award in 2007 for Best Jazz Vocal Album.
~Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
;)
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