Hipster Doofus Part II
Allaboutjazz review
Kurt Elling's latest album came out last week -- it's his first in four years. After a quick glance at the track list the snob in me wanted to put this down as yet another of his misguided attempts at jazz balladry. That he had enlisted the services of a string quartet on a couple of tracks only furthered my anticipation of cheese.
But, as with the majority of his recordings, when I got around to listening to the whole album on a lazy Saturday afternoon, I couldn't bring myself to bash it. Elling plays his part with such sincerity and lack of pretense, laughing at his frequent pratfalls or pointing out his (many) technical shortcomings just doesn't feel right. Overall I think it is a fun album and worth a listen.
posted by Crp @ 12:25 AM
7 comments
7 Comments:
So many years in Chicago, and I never heard him play.
I am strongly predisposed to like him, just because so many of his pieces have a literary provenance.
Well, at least you tried. Too bad KE cancelled both times.
His vocalese is best enjoyed live, preferably when one is all liquored up in a smoke filled jazz joint. At the Green Mill he'll even throw in a couple of hip gangster stories (the jazz scene especially in Chicago and NYC used to be controlled by the mob).
This kind of thing just doesn't work in recorded form or even in the concert hall.
Yeah. I bought all of Neruda works after I listened to a few KE songs. I heard this one -I feel smoochie - (with strings) recently and my itunes has been in a loop for sometime now.
Yup, that's a nice swinging tune and a good illustration of the Kurt Elling shtick - kind of cheesy (in a non-obvious way) but a lot of fun. That reminds me, the violinist on that tune is Chicago legend Johnny Frigo. I remember a long time ago about 11 of us landed up at the Green Mill to hear him but most of the group thought he sucked and split within 5 minutes.
True. I remember someone finally said, "I'm splittin'!" and I suspected if he was doing the snuff.
Re snuff: Well, just being in a jazz club with all the cats... even the squares start talkin' hip.
Not sure if its the jazz cats or the Seinfeld episode they had watched the night before. That's a Kramer line btw.
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