Two Voices for Our Time: Kurt Elling and Lizz Wright

Tuesday February 14, 2012

From Jazz Police

Two Voices for Our Time: Kurt Elling and Lizz Wright at Orchestra Hall, February 18th
By: Andrea Canter

Orchestra Hall in downtown Minneapolis hosts a double Valentine musical gala on Saturday, February 18th, with two of the hottest headliners in vocal music, Kurt Elling and Lizz Wright. They perform back- to-back sets beginning at 8 pm, part of the 2011-2012 Piper-Jaffray Jazz Season.

Kurt Elling, one of the most acclaimed jazz singers of his generation, has appeared in the Twin Cities on a number of occasions in the past five years (at the Dakota and Ted Mann), and his return visits are always eagerly anticipated. His use of scat and vocalese, his original lyrics for such masterpieces as Coltrane’s “Resolution,” and his interpretations of such great instrumental works as Dexter Gordon’s sax solo on “Body and Soul” have put him at the creative apogee of modern jazz artists. His six Blue Note albums garnered seven Grammy nominations over ten years before he moved to Concord with 2007’s acclaimed Night Moves, 2009’s Dedicated to You, and his 2011 release, The Gate—all Grammy nominees (Dedicated to You won the award). And for much of the past decade, Elling topped the Readers and Critics polls as Jazz Times, Downbeat and Jazz Journalists Association’s Male Vocalist of the Year…

…Following up her 2011 Orchestra Hall debut, singer/songwriter Lizz Wright also has been heard locally at the Dakota Jazz Club. One of the fast-rising stars across genres, Wright melds blues and gospel to folk, soul and R&B. She launched her career with the Georgia-based In the Spirit ensemble and rose to prominence touring in celebration of the music of Billie Holiday. She released her own debut, Salt, on Verve in 2003, followed by Dreaming Wide Awake (2005). Her next CD, The Orchard (2008), featured 8 songs that she co-wrote, inspired by her rural Georgia hometown of Hahira. But it was her fourth effort, Fellowship (2010) filled with both gospel and secular inspirations (including Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and Gladys Knight), that really sparked fireworks, garnering “Beyond Album of the Year” in the 2011 Downbeat Critics Poll.

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