Kurt Elling Celebrates Brill Songwriters

Friday October 12, 2012

From American Jewish World

Jazz singer Kurt Elling celebrates Brill Building songwriters in album, Oct. 23 Dakota show
By: AJW Staff

In the 1960s, American pop music had an address: the Brill Building, 1619 Broadway, New York City. The office building, which started housing music publishers in the 1930s, became a nexus of the music business, with record labels, publishers, management firms, demo studios and songwriters populating the warren of offices.

The latter category included such music luminaries as Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Howie Greenfield and Neal Sedaka, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, Gerry Goffin and Carole King, Doc Pomus (né Jerome Felder) and Mort Shuman, Paul Simon, et al.

As the preceding list indicates, Jews were disproportionately represented among the ranks of the tunesmiths. In fact, without the contributions of Jews, the Great American Songbook, along with the later rock ’n’ roll canon, would be seriously depleted.

In a loving homage to these songwriters, acclaimed jazz vocalist Kurt Elling has created a new album, 1619 Broadway: The Brill Building Project (Concord Jazz). Jewish songwriters had a hand in writing nine of the 11 songs on the album.

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On Broadway	1:30	Kurt Elling
You Send Me	1:30	Kurt Elling
American Tune	1:30	Kurt Elling

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1619 Broadway - The Brill Building Project (EPK)

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