GRAMMY award winning jazz vocalist, composer, and recording
star Kurt Elling will headline the Reno Jazz Orchestra's Labor Day Weekend
Shows in Reno, NV on August 30 and Incline Village, NV on Lake Tahoe’s North
Shore August 31st.
Renowned for his singular combination of robust swing and
poetic insight, Elling has secured his place among the world’s foremost jazz
vocalists. His list of awards throughout his career to date include: "Male
Vocalist of the Year" (Jazz Times - ten years); "International Jazz
Artist of the Year" (Jazz Journalist Association - ten years); "Best
Jazz Album of the Year" (GRAMMY Award); "Best Jazz Album” (nine
GRAMMY Nominations); "Best Vocal Performance"(three GRAMMY Nominations);
and "Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying a Vocalist" (two
GRAMMY Nominations).
In addition, with a fourteen-year run atop the DownBeat
Critics Poll, vocalist Elling promises a standout performance accompanied by
the 17-piece Reno Jazz Orchestra.
“His
music and wit appeal to the full range of music lovers, from the novice jazz
fan to the most jaded jazz hipster,” said Chuck Reider, Music Director for the
Reno Jazz Orchestra. “Elling does not regularly perform with big bands so this
will be a real treat for all to experience an electrifying performance with
this virtuoso vocalist and compelling storyteller featured with our
contemporary 17-piece big band.”
The Reno Jazz Orchestra has been based in Northern Nevada
for over 20 years and includes musicians who have performed and traveled the
world with acts such as Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Elvis Presley, Natalie
Cole, Luciano Pavarotti and other legendary performers.
“Thanks
to our private donors and corporate sponsors, we are able to bring one of the
most respected jazz voices to Northern Nevada for all to enjoy,” said Reider.
“Elling
combines authenticity with stunning originality,” is how The Wall Street
Journal describes his talents, while The Guardian has called him “a kind of
Sinatra with superpowers.” The Toronto Star has gone so far as to say that
“Kurt Elling is the closest jazz will ever get to having its own saint,"
while The Guardian makes up one voice in a chorus that has called him “one of
jazz's all-time great vocalists."
Elling has not only thrilled audiences around the world in
jazz clubs, symphony halls and festival stages, but at the White House, where
he gave a command performance for President Obama’s first state dinner.
He has collaborated with jazz legends and classical
orchestras; created multi-disciplinary theatrical works for the Steppenwolf
Theatre and the City of Chicago; served as Artist-in-Residence for the
Singapore and Monterey Jazz Festivals; and explored the fertile common ground
between jazz and poetry, working with the words of Allen Ginsberg, Rainer Maria
Rilke, Pablo Neruda and others.
Over the ensuing years, Elling has become one of the music’s
most renowned practitioners of vocalese, the writing and performing of words
over improvised jazz solos.
Taking the long view of Elling’s audacious and richly varied
career, the Washington Post lauded, “Since the mid-1990s, no singer in jazz has
been as daring, dynamic or interesting as Kurt Elling. With his soaring vocal
flights, his edgy lyrics and sense of being on a musical mission, he has come
to embody the creative spirit in jazz.”
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