Featured Artist
Christian Sands
GRAMMY Award-winner Kurt Elling is without question today's preeminent male jazz vocalist, 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.
Over a twenty-five year career of touring and recording, Elling has won three Prix du Jazz Vocal Awards (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 is joined here by five-time GRAMMY-nominated pianist Christian Sands, hailed for his “skilled, soulful and melodic” style (VICE). Performing since the age of 10, Sands has collaborated withsuch jazz legends as Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Christian McBride, while developing a stylistic range that includes stride piano, swing, bebop, progressive, fusion, Brazilian, and Afro-Cuban, bringing a fresh perspective on the art form.
In addition to his work as a lyricist and composer for his own ensembles, Kurt Elling has co-created multi-disciplinary performances for Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater and the city of Chicago. Jazz at Lincoln Center saw the world premiere of The Big Blind, an entirely new jazz musical Elling is co-wrote with collaborator Phil Galdston. National Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky declared that, "In Kurt Elling's art, the voice of jazz gives new spiritual presence to the anciety, sweet and powerful bond between poetry and music."
Jazz Series Packages
This show is part of our 2025-26 Jazz Series. Save when you choose two or more shows from our exciting jazz season!
