Paul Wertico is an American drummer. He gained recognition as a member of the Pat Metheny Group from 1983 until 2001, leaving the group to spend more time with his family and to pursue other musical interests.
Patrick Bruce Metheny is an American jazz guitarist and composer.
Charles Edward Haden was an American jazz double bass player, bandleader, composer and educator whose career spanned more than 50 years. Building on the work of his predecessor bassists Jimmy Blanton and Charles Mingus, Haden revolutionized the harmonic concept of bass playing in jazz, evolving a way of playing that sometimes complemented the soloist, and sometimes moved independently, to help liberate bass players from a strictly accompanying role, to becoming more direct participants in group improvisation.
Robert Pinsky is an American poet, essayist, literary critic, and translator. His first two terms as United States Poet Laureate were marked by such visible dynamism—and such national enthusiasm in response—that the Library of Congress appointed him to an unprecedented third term. Throughout his career, Pinsky has been dedicated to identifying and invigorating poetry’s place in the world. Known worldwide, Pinsky’s work has earned him the PEN/Voelcker Award, the William Carlos Williams Prize, the Lenore Marshall Prize, Italy’s Premio Capri, the Korean Manhae Award, and the Harold Washington Award from the City of Chicago, among other accolades. Pinsky is a professor of English and creative writing in the graduate writing program at Boston University. In 2015 the university named him a William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor, the highest honor bestowed on senior faculty members who are actively involved in teaching, research, scholarship, and university civic life.
Ernest James Watts is an American jazz and rhythm and blues saxophonist who plays soprano, alto, and tenor saxophone. He has worked with Charlie Haden's Quartet West and toured with the Rolling Stones. On Frank Zappa's album The Grand Wazoo he played the "Mystery Horn", a straight-necked C melody saxophone. He played the notable saxophone riff on "The One You Love" by Glenn Frey.
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.
Brian Q. Torff is an American jazz double-bassist, songwriter and composer.
William Randall Henderson was an American television and film actor, and jazz singer.
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.
Flirting with Twilight is a 2001 studio album by Kurt Elling.
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.
PoemJazz is an album by poet, essayist, literary critic, translator and America's 39th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress Robert Pinsky, and Grammy-Award-winning pianist, composer, and arranger Laurence Hobgood.
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.
Jim Gailloreto is an American saxophonist, composer, and group leader from Chicago whose string arrangements were heard on Kurt Elling's Grammy Award–winning CD Dedicated To You.
