The Questions, Kurt Elling's newest studio recording, is his
musical response to this moment in history and the widespread anxiety of our
times. It touches artfully on challenges -- personal, political, global,
spiritual, and existential -- and on hopes and aspirations for the future.
Elling offers a vibrant and surprising choice of songs, from Bob Dylan and Paul
Simon classics to jazz, Broadway, and the Great American Songbook, plus two new
originals. The Questions, Elling's second recording for OKeh Records/Sony Music
Masterworks, will be released on March 23, 2018.
The Questions unfolds into a rich and irresistible musical
conversation, encouraging listeners to join Elling in living with big questions
and finding courage to face our fears in difficult and uncertain times.
Of the ten songs on The Questions, Elling says, "At
first I didn't understand how they were going to relate to each other."
The title finally came to him as the album was being mixed. NEA Jazz Master and
celebrated saxophonist Branford Marsalis co-produced The Questions with Elling
and performs on three tracks. As Elling and Marsalis worked together on the mix
and sequence of songs, Elling realized that they all lined up on various sides
of some big, deep questions:
What is this life?
Does meaning have being?
Why is there such suffering and pain?
Where is the wellspring of wisdom?
The Questions opens with the powerful, insistent questions
and stark, disturbing answers of Bob Dylan's "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna
Fall." What follows is the surprising assurance of "A Happy
Thought," a poem by the American poet Franz Wright, set to music by Elling's
collaborator, pianist and arranger Stu Mindeman. This establishes a kind of
back-and-forth on The Questions -- searching inquiries and thoughtful responses
that both challenge and inspire us to find our own answers.
The world-weary resignation of Paul Simon's "An
American Tune" is followed by falling, loss, and redemption in Peter
Gabriel's "Washing of the Water." The Jaco Pastorius instrumental,
"Three Views of a Secret," becomes the celebratory "A Secret in
Three Views" with Elling's lyric inspired by a poem by the 13th century
mystic Rumi. Elling's lyric concedes that quests to find meaning and purpose
may all be for naught, but it also encourages us to take heart and awaken to
the transforming power of love. In contrast, "Lonely Town," from the
Broadway musical On the Town, by Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden and Adolph
Green, reflects the empty inner landscape when there is no love to come home
to.
Carla Bley's "Lawns" becomes "Endless
Lawns," with Elling's new lyric interposed with a poem by Sara Teasdale,
bearing the weight of emotional suffering and then finding an uplifting
freedom. Rodgers and Hammerstein's "I Have Dreamed," from the musical
The King and I, is followed by "The Enchantress," a new song by
pianist Joey Calderazzo with Elling's lyric adapting parts of a Wallace Stevens
poem. This pair touches on the fluid, shifting boundaries between dreams,
imagination, and reality. The Questions closes with the gentle, wistful wonder
of Hoagy Carmichael/Johnny Mercer's "Skylark."
Elling notes, "I began experimenting with 'A Hard
Rain's A-Gonna Fall' in November of 2016, just after the U.S. election. Today I
wonder what I can possibly say that's relevant now." He adds,
"Branford brought in 'Washing of the Water' and 'Lonely Town.' I was doing
some Sinatra shows during his 100th birthday year, and I love his rendition of
'I Have Dreamed.' Guitarist John McLean came up with the gorgeous arrangement,
and Branford has his big solo moment there. I like to surround myself with
people who are smarter than I am who can fill in the blanks. John also arranged
'Skylark.'"
"'The Enchantress' began as a song called 'The Lonely
Swan,'" he recalls, "but what brought the new title to mind was a
poem by Wallace Stevens ('The Idea of Order at Key West') that I draw on. It's
dedicated to Branford's mother, who died last year, and to my aging mother. The
lyric becomes clear once you have that in mind."
Elling collaborated with Marsalis on their 2016 GRAMMY
Award-nominated recording, Upward Spiral (OKeh Records), and now Marsalis has
collaborated on The Questions. Elling speaks of their musical partnership,
"We're two musicians who have dedicated ourselves to a similar task -- to
be jazz musicians to the greatest extent of our abilities. We pay attention to
the real heroes of the music, we play in the style and spirit of the greatest
jazz musicians who ever lived, and we don't cut corners. We're here to play
great melodies and express authentic emotion -- to be the real deal as much as
we can."
Kurt Elling - The Questions Tracklist:
1. A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall (feat. Branford Marsalis &
Jeff "Tain" Watts)
2. A Happy Thought (feat. Stu Mindeman)
3. American Tune
4. Washing of the Water
5. A Secret in Three Views (feat. John McLean & Stu
Mindeman)
6. Lonely Town (feat. Joey Calderazzo & Marquis Hill)
7. Endless Lawns (feat. Marquis Hill)
8. I Have Dreamed (feat. Branford Marsalis)
9. The Enchantress (feat. Joey Calderazzo)
10. Skylark (feat. Stu Mindeman)
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