Scottish National Jazz Orchestra (SNJO) will once again be joined by Grammy-winning singer Kurt Elling to deliver a fantastic night of jazz for Aberdeen audiences.
And the upcoming concert – taking place on Sunday November 21 at the Music Hall – promises to be a special one.
Reminiscing of the time when he went to the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh in the late 1980s, Kurt remembers seeing a young saxophonist everyone was talking about.
Fast forward some decades later, now saxophone master Tommy Smith and Kurt are friends and regular collaborators – and they are looking forward to performing with the SNJO in Aberdeen later this month.
Nominated for more than 15 Grammy awards
Kurt, who studied at the University of Chicago, failed his master’s degree by one credit. So instead of becoming a professor of divinity like he originally hoped, he started frequenting Chicago’s jazz clubs.
Nowadays he’s often considered to be one of the best jazz singers in the world. He has won two Grammy awards to date and had been nominated for many more. He even picked up the Grammy for the Best Jazz Vocal Album earlier this year for his album Secrets are the Best Stories.
“For me, singing jazz is as much about listening as it is actually singing,” said Kurt.
“I’ve tried to learn from every one of the great jazz singers, to understand what made them great and what their contribution to the development of jazz singing has been.”
Kurt Elling will perform works of Europe’s contemporary composers
For this all-new concert series — exclusive to Scotland — Kurt, Thomas and the SNJO team will perform freshly-conceived arrangements and recently composed lyrics to the works of Europe’s most exciting contemporary composers. These include Jan Garbarek, Anne Mette Iversen, Anna Pacéo, and the late Esbjörn Svennson.
The event – SNJO with Kurt Elling: The Apparition Bridge – promises to reconnect audience members through music as we “span the ethereal chasms between the ancient and the future, between sorrow and joy, and between time and timelessness”.
Locals will also have a unique chance to join Tommy Smith, who is also SNJO’s artistic director, and award-winner Kurt as they introduce and discuss the programme of Apparition Bridge during their pre-concert talk – which is free to all ticketholders – at 6:50pm. The concert starts at 7:30pm.
Tickets are still available and can be purchased here.
You might also like…