(Vocal Jazz, Post-Bop) Kurt Elling - Flirting With Twilight (2001) & Nightmoves (2007), FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

I still tell people that making this record may have been the experiential highlight of my career to date.
The experience started with the crafting of the arrangements. Kurt and I worked totally in tandem at first; as always, I wanted to sculpt the arrangements around what he wanted to do. The three-horn configuration was new territory for us, though, presenting extra challenges not just in terms of molding everything to Kurt, but also the desire to achieve a balance between a “classic” sound and modern rhythmic and harmonic shapes. The results demanded, among other things, that the horn players we would use had to be both highly skilled soloists and seasoned section players; the parts are very independent and, with only three, each had to be capable of being very strong and sensitive and yielding at the same time.
As we worked, we both seemed to trust the direction the arrangements were taking. By the time I was doing the last couple of arrangements Kurt was trusting enough to let me work on my own (by that time his hands were officially full with other things.)
Then came the recording itself. What can I say? We had one of the greatest engineers who ever lived in Al Schmitt, we were in Capitol Studio One where Sinatra, Nat Cole, Streisand and many others had laid down legendary tracks. I was not only getting to play with two of my rhythm section heroes, Peter Erskine and Marc Johnson, but, to a great extent--because of the arrangements--I was directing the proceedings. It was a bit dizzying, but on a little break the first day Peter said some very supportive things—he loved the arrangements, our plan of attack, everything was cool.
We tracked for two days with just Kurt and the trio. I may have had my hands full but it didn’t escape me how great Kurt sounded. This record definitely represented the most minimal involvement on his part of anything we’d done but his soaring, gorgeous voice brought light and meaning to everything we were playing.
And then, on the third day, the horns came in to lay down all of their parts in one day. We’d pre-tracked everything except the ballad medley, which had rubato sections and had to be tracked live with everybody.
Up to this point I’d only heard the horn parts in my head and you can’t know how nerve-racking it was to have to wait until that day, afraid that, even though the basic arrangements performed by the rhythm section sounded great, the added horn parts would be full of bad choices, clashing rhythms, downright mistakes and God knows what else.
As the day unfolded I think it’s fair to say that everyone was increasingly excited at what we were hearing. Peter and Marc graciously stayed around in case something in their parts needed attention but it never did. I’ll never forget standing out in the main room, conducting the horns on “Not While I’m Around”, and, looking into the control room, seeing Bill Traut with this huge grin on his face.
It was still a very long day; at about the ten hour point I went up to Bob Sheppard and said, “Hey man, I’m just checking in—I know it’s been a long one but we’ve still got a couple things to do.” He looked at me and said, “Are you kidding? Do you know how often I get to do this? Never! Man, I’m here as long as you want me!” That was cool.
That night we took the roughs back to the corporate housing we were staying in and, after listening for about 5 minutes, I called Kurt in his room and said, “Man, can you believe this?” and we were both just freaking over the phone.
It must also be noted that the experience of returning to L.A. a couple weeks later and mixing with Al was almost as mind-bending as the tracking days. Al’s a magician, that’s all there is to it. I probably learned more making this record than anything else I’ve ever done.

On Nightmoves, his brilliant debut for Concord Records and seventh outing overall, Elling artfully blends his rich baritone voice with signature scatting and virtuosic vocalese in a wide-ranging repertoire of tunes associated with such greats as Frank Sinatra, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Irving Berlin, Betty Carter, Duke Ellington, Dexter Gordon and Keith Jarrett. His most ambitious undertaking to date, it features his working trio of bassist Rob Amster, drummer Willie Jones III and longtime creative partner, pianist-arranger Laurence Hobgood, along with such special guests as The Escher String Quartet, bassist Christian McBride, Yellowjackets tenor saxophonist Bob Mintzer, guitarist Guilherme Monterio, keyboardist Rob Mounsey and harmonica virtuosos Howard Levy and Gregoire Maret.
Elling and company skillfully shift the mood throughout the program from seductive bossa novas (Michael Franks' "Nightmoves" and Alan Pasqua's "And We Will Fly") to unabashed swingers (Betty Carter's "Tight"), from gorgeous ballads ("Where Are You?") to highly personal takes on Sinatra ("In The Wee Small Hour") and Ellingtonia ("I Like The Sunrise") to a stirring vocalese interpretation of the jazz classic "Body And Soul" with new lyrics written by Kurt for this session.
Considered one of the foremost contemporary voices in the art of vocalese -- the act of putting words to improvised solos of jazz artists -- Elling has set words to solos by Wayne Shorter, Keith Jarrett, Dexter Gordon and Pat Metheny; often incorporating images and references from writers such as Rainer Maria Rilke, Jalal al-Din Rumi, Pablo Neruda and Beat poets Jack Kerouac and Kenneth Rexroth into his work. On Nightmoves, Elling once again relies on literary references for for a couple of tunes. "The Sleepers" is a musical setting written by pianist-arranger Fred Hersch for a Walt Whitman poem while “The Waking" is an intimate bass-voice duet set to a 1953 poem by Theodore Roethke.
Elsewhere on Nightmoves, Elling puts his distinctive stamp on a soulful version of The Guess Who's 1969 pop hit "Undun" while also tackling Betty Carter's "Tight" with requisite hipness. Hobgood's arrangement of "Change Partners/If You Never Come To Me" successfully mergers an Amercian classic onto a classic bossa nova.
Another creative medley, "Leaving Again/In The Wee Small Hours," makes an unlikely pairing of Keith Jarrett and Frank Sinatra. Says Elling, "'Leaving Again' is a Keith Jarrett improvisation that I transcribed and wrote a lyric for. It something from the live boxed set that he did with the trio (1994's Keith Jarrett At The Blue Note: The Complete Recordings on ECM). With his usual ingenuity and grace Keith essentially improvised a new verse for 'Wee Small Hours.' It gave me as a lyricist an opportunity to tell a different story with the piece so that instead of it being a lament about having lost someone, it's more about living through the pain of knowing and having love but not having that someone there to share it. That’s part of the jazz thing when you do a standard; you try to find a new shade of meaning or frame it in such a way that it sounds brand new. It definitely helps that I am so interested in writing.”
The alluring "And We Will Fly" is a soulful interpretation of a piece by West Coast pianist Alan Pasqua, who originally recorded it on his 2005 trio release My New Old Friend (Cryptogramophone) with drummer Peter Erskine and bassist Derek Oles. “This particular tune just jumped out at me right away but to add a lyric presented a real challenge. I had to figure out how to maintain the delicacy of the piece while also making it clearly a singer’s thing. I needed to soften my approach to delivery in order to maintain the spirit of the original while not getting too constricted by it."
The seductive “Nightmoves" is a Michael Franks tune that Elling remembered from his college years. "Some of his stuff always just stuck with me because it’s real hip and intelligent," he says. "He’s a good writer. He keeps everything pretty simple on the melodic front but, boy, he’s got some good lyrics in him.
“Where Are You" is a vocalese number written by Elling based on Dexter Gordon's recording of the piece for his 1962 Blue Note recording, Go. Hobgood’s string arrangement here adds a lush element to this gorgeous ballad. And "The Sleepers" is a new incarnation of the Fred Hersch piece that Elling previously sang on Hersch's 2005 Palmetto recording Leaves of Grass and subsequently performed live as part of 10-piece chamber ensemble at Carnegie's Zankel Hall in New York City.
The twilight-through-dawn theme that permeates Nightmoves -- from the opening title track to the closing "I Like The Sunrise -- is a leitmotif throughout much of Elling's work. "The night really fascinates me," he says. "The things that happen in the night and the comfort that one can have being shrouded in darkness, in stillness, listening to music and pondering and considering...that has always intrigued me.
The dusk-to-dawn theme climaxes with his noble rendition of "I Like The Sunrise," an Ellington composition that has rarely been covered. "I’m not sure why it hasn’t been played more because it’s just pure, dignified Duke spirit," says Kurt. "The natural exuberance that he displayed throughout his life for living and for being a musician really shines through Duke’s writing here.
Elling's vocalese version of this obscure Ellington piece is based on Von Freeman's improvised melody of the song from the tenor saxophonist's 2002 recording The Improvisor on Premonition Records, while the lyrics are adapted from a poem by the 13th century Persian poet Jelaluddin Balkhi (also known as Rumi). "Von did a duet with pianist Jason Moran on this tune a few years ago and it was the first time I had heard the piece. I fell in love with it right away, not only because of Duke’s writing but also because Von is just preaching the word in that solo. And the only person whose writing I could think of that approached that level of ecstatic singing was this 13th century mystic poet named Rumi. I did some adapting of Coleman Barks’ great translation of his poem 'Where Everything Is Music.' Some of the lines fit exactly with what Von was playing and some had to be moved around a bit to keep the meaning but fit what Von was saying. But that’s really the three rivers that sourced that piece -- 20th century Ellington, 13th century Rumi and 21st century Vonski. And it all comes together for me."
Regarding his inventive take on the jazz classic "Body and Soul," Elling says, "I had wanted to do a vocalese version of that for a decade or more but it's one of those things that I just waited on until the right inspiration and the right reason to write it came along. And when it finally came, it came like gangbusters. Basically, I’m singing a love song to my daughter Luiza. It’s something that I wrote out of respect for the original and shaded by the inspiration of having Luiza in my life. She has changed me – for the better."
It is ultimately this transition – from eros to agape, from a possessive desire to a less calculating and more self-giving kind of love – that forms the essence of Nightmoves. It is a personal story of healing told through music, and it resonates with anyone who has gone on a quest for true love.