Kurt Elling - 1619 Broadway: The Brill Building Project

Elling Is In The Building

Kurt Elling’s latest release is a vocal, jazz and songwriting delight, celebrating as it does the songcraft that took place at the album title’s famous address, as well as others. I’ve been a firm fan of Elling ever since hearing his beautiful version of Carl Lundy’s Orange Blossoms in Summertime from Kurt’s 2001 album Flirting With Twilight, an instrumental original for which Elling composed lyrics.

1619 Broadway: Brill Building Project begins with an apt and upbeat On Broadway, prefaced with a sequence of verbal rejections where Kurt, as everymusician, tries to hawk his songs – it’s an ironic narrative preamble before launching into this classic selection. Both this opener and Come Fly With Me present familiar jazz standards but with Elling’s own stamp of crisp and rhythmically taut deliveries, always tonally perfect. It’s the arrangements too, with a sassy jazz guitar riff on that first song and some great percussion over the funky bass beat. CFWM has to dogfight with Sinatra’s vapour trail, and I think again that mix of Elling’s own perfect timings and the band arrangements – here some harmonising horn interjections – establishes its own distinct flight-path. Long-time collaborator/arranger Laurence Hobgood provides signature orchestration and a piano solo.

There is a great version of Sam Cook’s You Send Me which again has a funky rhythm where a staccato opening guitar platforms Elling’s emotive voice that is then accompanied by some silky smooth harmonising. When near the end Elling swoons to his falsetto with those echoing harmonies, it is truly gorgeous.

Elling takes the 1934 Warren/Dubin I Only Have Eyes For You, made syrupy sweet by Art Garfunkel in 1975, and slows it down from that engrained version to a pace and slightly syncopated rhythm that gives emotional credence to the romantic ruminations, holding out a deep resonating note on those two closing key words: for you. That ruminating pace is picked up and swung around on next I’m Satisfied with some sweet sax provided by Ernie Watts. A short but rousing rendition.

Two other stand-out numbers for me are again familiar but re-worked here to wonderful effect: the first, Goffin and King’s Pleasant Valley Sunday, gets a jaunty, vocal distorted outing that highlight’s the song’s satirical message which The Monkees’ much prettier version tends to conceal; the second, Paul Simon’s An American Tune, is powerfully faithful to its exquisite melody – as so many versions over time are, and have to be – and Elling sings gloriously with a simple piano accompaniment from Hobgood.

The huge appeal of this album has to be this significant song selection and then Kurt Elling’s genuinely engaging and fresh interpretations. That’s taking as read what an outstanding singer he is.