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.
Hard bop is a subgenre of jazz that is an extension of bebop music. Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz that incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospel music, and blues, especially in saxophone and piano playing.
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.
My Point of View is the second album by pianist Herbie Hancock. It was released in 1963 on Blue Note Records as BLP 4126 and BST 84126. Musicians featured are trumpeter Donald Byrd, trombonist Grachan Moncur III, tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley, guitarist Grant Green, bassist Chuck Israels and drummer Tony Williams.
Nightmoves is a 2007 jazz album by vocalist Kurt Elling. It was the first Elling album to be released by Concord Records.
Originally is an album by drummer Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers recorded in 1956, but not released on the Columbia label until 1982. The album features unreleased tracks from the sessions that produced The Jazz Messengers and Hard Bop which have since been released as bonus tracks on those albums and Drum Suite.
Yasmina, a Black Woman is a jazz album by Archie Shepp, recorded in 1969 in Paris for BYG Actuel. It features musicians from the Art Ensemble of Chicago. The first track, giving its title to the album, is a long free jazz piece by an 11-piece orchestra; in it, the references to Africa that Shepp had experimented with only a few weeks earlier in Algiers are to be found in the use of African percussion instruments, or the African incantations sung by Shepp himself at the beginning of the track. The other two pieces, a homage to Sonny Rollins written by trombonist Grachan Moncur III and a standard, played by a more traditional quintet and quartet respectively, are more reminiscent of the hard bop genre, although the fiery playing of the musicians, notably Shepp himself, gives them a definite avant-garde edge. It was originally issued on CD by Affinity, mastered from an incredibly noisy vinyl source and later reissued by Charly from the original master tapes.
On This Night is an album by Archie Shepp released on Impulse! Records in 1965. The album contains tracks recorded by Shepp, bassist David Izenzon and drummer J. C. Moses in March 1965 and with a larger band in August of that year that included vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, bassist Henry Grimes and percussionists Ed Blackwell, Joe Chambers and Rashied Ali.
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. It continues in the direction of his previous studio album, This Time It's Love, focusing mostly on ballad material.
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.
Close Your Eyes is the debut studio album by Kurt Elling, released in 1995.
Jazz 'n' Samba is an album by American jazz vibraphonist Milt Jackson featuring performances recorded in 1964 for the Impulse! label.
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.
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.
Upward Spiral is an album by the Branford Marsalis Quartet with vocalist Kurt Elling. It was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album.
Afro Blue is an album by pianist Harold Mabern. It was released by Smoke Sessions Records.
