Flirting with Twilight | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | August 28, 2001 | |||
Recorded | January 29–February 1, 2001 | |||
Genre | Vocal jazz | |||
Length | 1:04:21 | |||
Label | Blue Note | |||
Producer | Bill Traut, Kurt Elling, Laurence Hobgood | |||
Kurt Elling chronology | ||||
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Flirting with Twilight is a 2001 studio album by Kurt Elling. [1] It continues in the direction of his previous studio album, This Time It's Love , focusing mostly on ballad material.
When asked about his motivation for the album, Elling said “I remember reading that Bill Evans once said that he wanted to [play] as simply as possible, because he wanted people to hear what he had to say. And when I read that, I said to myself, `Yeah. How about that.’ It’s the less-is-more approach, and it shows a little accessibility. If it has the happy side effect of bringing more people to the music, that’s great." [2]
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Allmusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Nate Chinen of the The New York Times would later call Elling "the standout male jazz vocalist of our time" while praising both Flirting with Twilight and This Time It's Love as his best Blue Note albums for their "strenuously reined-in focus." [4]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz praised the album, writing that it "confirms Elling as the finest singer of his generation. He opens on Glenn Miller's 'Moonlight Serenade' and turns it into a complex modernist epic, condensed into just four and a half minutes...Curtis Lundy's 'Orange Blossoms in Summertime' becomes a compelling jazz poem that honors the bassist's art and builds into something bigger and more ambitious. Jazz singers have rarely been drawn to Stephen Sondheim, but Kurt sees the merit in 'Not While I'm Around', from Sweeney Todd ." [3]
The Allmusic review by David R. Adler awarded the album four stars, and described it as "a worthy statement from Elling, who shows yet again that vocal jazz can be more than just easy listening" [1]
Flirting with Twilight received a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album, the fifth nomination in a row since Elling's debut. In addition, "Easy Living" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals. [5]
Kurt Elling is an American jazz singer and songwriter.
Man in the Air is the sixth album by jazz vocalist Kurt Elling, recorded and released in 2003 by Blue Note Records.
Easy Living is a 1986 studio album by Ella Fitzgerald, accompanied by guitarist Joe Pass. Fitzgerald was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female at the 30th Annual Grammy Awards for her performance on this album.
The Next Step is Kurt Rosenwinkel's fourth album as a band leader. It is his second release on Verve, and regarded as a major step in his creative evolution. Rosenwinkel says of the album: "It represents the culmination of many life phases for me. Some of these phases started ten years ago and have finally found resolution in this record. It represents the next step in my music and in my life". The album debuts a number of compositions which would become staples of his live performances, and would also be re-recorded on his albums Deep Song and Star of Jupiter. The material was developed by the band during their frequent gigs at Smalls Jazz Club in New York City. Mitch Borden, the club's owner recalled that, "Kurt Rosenwinkel's band played with such dramatic fire, that it would consume everyone present". The album features several songs with alternate guitar tunings, and also showcases Kurt Rosenwinkel's piano playing on the title track.
I'm Yours, You're Mine is a 1997 studio album by the American jazz singer Betty Carter. Recorded in January 1996, this was the last album that Carter recorded before her death in September 1998.
John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman is a studio album by John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman which was released by Impulse! Records in July or August 1963. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2013.
Nightmoves is a 2007 jazz album by vocalist Kurt Elling. It was the first Elling album to be released by Concord Records.
Live in Chicago is a 1999 live album by jazz vocalist Kurt Elling. It was Elling's first live album, recorded over two nights in 1999 at Chicago's Green Mill jazz club. Vocalist and composer Jon Hendricks appears on two tracks, "Don't Get Scared" and "Goin' to Chicago." "The Rent Party" features Elling's interplay with three tenor saxophonists, Von Freeman, Ed Petersen and Eddie Johnson. In addition, percussionist Kahil El'Zabar is featured on two tracks.
Dedicated to You: Kurt Elling Sings the Music of Coltrane and Hartman is a 2009 live album by Kurt Elling, recorded at the Lincoln Center's American Songbook series.
The Gate is a 2011 studio album by Kurt Elling, produced by Don Was. on November 30, 2011, the album received a Nomination in 54th Grammy Awards for Best Jazz Vocal Album.
This Time It's Love is a 1998 studio album by jazz vocalist Kurt Elling, accompanied as usual by Laurence Hobgood on piano, Rob Amster on bass, and on drums Michael Raynor, who replaces Paul Wertico for the most part. On five of the twelve tracks guest musicians were invited, like guitarist David Onderdonk or Chicagoan veteran jazz musicians, violinist Johnny Frigo and Eddie Johnson. Hobgood and Elling co-produced the recording with Wertigo as associate. Elling's third album was again released on the Blue Note label, which initially asked him "to do something more on the romantic side", as Elling writes in the liner notes. The album's repertoire is predominantly standard material with two songs added that were already played by the band, the lauded "Freddie's Yen for Jen" and McCoy Tyner's "My Love, Effendi" with lyrics by Elling, and "Where I Belong", another original. The bossa nova classic "Rosa Morena" by Dorival Caymmi is the first song Kurt Elling recorded in a foreign language, accompanied here just by acoustic guitar and bass.
The Messenger is the second studio album by Kurt Elling. Like Close Your Eyes the album was released by Blue Note, the production credits lie with pianist Laurence Hobgood, Elling himself and drummer Paul Wertico as co-producer. Hobgood, bassist Rob Amster and Wertico are co-billed on the album cover, establishing the piano trio –led by Hobgood up to 1619 Broadway from 2012– as the singers core backing. Amster and Wertico are nevertheless replaced on some tracks by Eric Hochberg and percussionist Jim Widlowski. A further voice is added on half of the tracks, trumpet player Orbert Davis, tenor saxophonists Edward Petersen or Eddie Johnson, and on one track literally, with Cassandra Wilson on "Time of the Season". On this song and part of the so-called 'Suite' one can also hear a guitarist, who unfortunately is not mentioned in the album credits. Besides The Zombies 1967 hit The Messenger introduces "Nature Boy" to Ellings' repertoire, two further jazz standards, an interpretation of Jimmy Heath' "Gingerbread Boy", played even more aggressive and faster as Miles Davis, and "Tanya" written by Donald Byrd, who recorded the tune only once in 1964 for Dexter Gordon's album One Flight Up. The song is informed by an ostinato of moody open chords played on piano resolved occasionally by a rather conventional hard bop theme. All other tracks are penned by the musicians themselves or even improvised like "It's Just a Thing" accompanying a story Elling declaims.
Close Your Eyes is the debut studio album by Kurt Elling, released in 1995.
The Mosaic Project is an album by jazz drummer Terri Lyne Carrington released in 2011 on Concord Jazz Records. The album reached No. 2 on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Albums chart and No. 4 on the Billboard Top Jazz Albums chart.
1619 Broadway: The Brill Building Project is a 2012 album by Kurt Elling, recorded as a tribute to the songwriters of the Brill Building in New York City.
Cyrille Aimée is a French jazz singer.
Laurence Hobgood is an American contemporary jazz pianist, composer, arranger, producer, lyricist and educator. Perhaps best known for his twenty-year collaboration with vocalist Kurt Elling, he is identified by many as a key player in the imaginative updating of the "American Songbook", particularly in his arranging for vocalists.
Gardenias for Lady Day is the eighth album by saxophonist James Carter featuring tracks associated with Billie Holiday which was released on the Columbia label in 2003.
Just Be Yourself is an album by double bassist Curtis Lundy. It was recorded during 1985 at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, and was released on vinyl in 1987 by New Note Records. In 1997, the album was reissued on CD by Evidence Music. On the album, Lundy is joined by saxophonist Bobby Watson, vibraphonist Steve Nelson, pianist Hank Jones, drummer Kenny Washington, and vocalist Carmen Lundy.
Against All Odds is an album by double bassist Curtis Lundy. It was recorded on April 1 and 2, 1999, at Sound on Sound Studios in New York City, and was released later that year by Justin Time Records. On the album, Lundy is joined by saxophonists Bobby Watson and Shelley Carrol, trumpeters Peven Everett and Roy Hargrove, pianists John Hicks and Anthony Wonsey, drummer Winard Harper, and vocalist Carmen Lundy.