When asked if they’d looked to great albums of the past to inspire their vocals-piano duets tour, Kurt Elling and Joey Calderazzo answered quickly and definitively: “No.”
This KNKX Studio Session was a meeting of two great improvising minds. Their music is the result of pure collaboration, bringing more than 60 years of combined jazz experience together with no expectations.
The Chicago-native Elling has been at the top of the jazz vocal world from his earliest records, a modern musician with a mastery of standards and daring vocalese.
A New Yorker, Calderazzo is best known for playing with saxophone icons Michael Brecker and Branford Marsalis. His several albums as a band leader have made him one of the most respected pianists in jazz, though not as well-known as Elling.
The connection between the two marks a bright moment in both of their impressive careers. These talented improvisors pushed and challenged each other through three great jazz standards in their performance at KNKX's Seattle studios.
Starting with “It’s Only a Paper Moon,” Elling and Calderazzo kept the melody close while finding numerous opportunities to embellish and rearrange the Nat Cole classic.
Billy Strayhorn’s beautiful ballad “Day Dream” received a similar treatment. Elling joked the 1939 composition was a “more modern” song, but the hip factor hit a crescendo with their set closer.
Calderazzo and Elling played Thelonious Monk’s bebop favorite “Straight, No Chaser” with dramatic flair, leaving out or moving notes of the familiar but angular melody nearly into abstraction.
It was a thrilling sight for the audience as Elling leaned over the piano mere inches from Calderazzo’s smiling face. The pair shared their joyful, intimate performance with a grateful audience in the KNKX studios. Now it’s your turn.
Musicians:
- Kurt Elling - vocals
- Joey Calderazzo - piano
Songs:
- It's Only a Paper Moon (Arlen/Harburg/Rose)
- Day Dream (Strayhorn/Latouche)
- Straight, No Chaser (Monk)
