Kurt elling biography

Download full EPK

Kurt Elling is a two-time GRAMMY Award winner who is renowned for a signature, rich sound and an inventive and individualized body of work. With a one-of-a kind brand of contemporary beat lyricism and vocalese-writing ingenuity, the Chicago-based musician has extended the parameters of vocal jazz and enlarged its vocabulary.

The NewYorkTimes called Kurt Elling “the standout male jazz vocalist of our time.” TheGuardian (UK) pronounced him “a kind of Sinatra with superpowers.”Over a twenty-five year career of touring and recording, Elling has won three Prix du Jazz Vocal (France), two German Echo Awards, two Dutch Edison Awards, and has been nominated for a GRAMMY Award sixteen times.

He has had a 14-year run atop the DownBeat Critics and Readers polls, and has won twelve Jazz Journalists Awards for “Male Vocalist of the Year”.

Elling’s work with other leading figures in the jazz world has included important collaborations with Branford Marsa