Mar 2, 2026 9:58 PM
In Memoriam: John Hammond Jr., 1942–2026
John P. Hammond (aka John Hammond Jr.), a blues guitarist and singer who was one of the first white American…
On June 23, Kurt Elling will release Dedicated To You: Kurt Elling Sings The Music Of Coltrane And Hartman, his second release on Concord Jazz. The live collection was recorded in January in Manhattan as part of Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series. The 12-track release features saxophonist Ernie Watts, the Laurence Hobgood Trio and the string quartet, ETHEL.
Elling’s new project began in his home town “as an idea suggested by my friends at the Chicago Jazz Festival,” he said. “They gave me a call and asked me essentially to reiterate the John Coltrane/Johnny Hartman material for a bill they were planning. I’m always happy to have an idea like that. But it didn’t interest me quite as much to simply reiterate the material. So I asked if I could do it my own way.”
As the program morphed through various phases, one aspect was consistent: Elling’s desire to place the music in the setting of a string quartet, first with acoustic bass, and later with a complete jazz trio led by Hobgood, his long-time musical companion, pianist, who also provided most of the arrangements. Elling recruited Watts on saxophone and ETHEL, and the group began touring with the project. The response to the program was wonderful and Kurt decided to record the set live in New York at the Allen Room in Lincoln Center.
The album opens with an introductory interpretation of “All Or Nothing At All,” in which the interconnectedness between Elling’s vocal and Watt’s tenor saxophone calls up immediate references to the Coltrane/Hartman source. While the transformative interpretations of songs such as “Autumn Serenade,” “Nancy With the Laughing Face” and “You Are Too Beautiful” are definitive examples of how to remain true to the inner essence of a song.
“When you hear any of those great masters, like Coltrane, and realize the incredible gift from God that is given to those people, you can’t overstate their importance to the jazz world, to the world in general. And we were very much aware of that fact as we put all this together,” Elling said.
Hammond came to the blues through the folk boom of the late 1950s and early 1960s, which he experienced firsthand in New York’s Greenwich Village.
Mar 2, 2026 9:58 PM
John P. Hammond (aka John Hammond Jr.), a blues guitarist and singer who was one of the first white American…
“Cerebral and academic thought is a different way to approach music,” Flea says of his continuing dive into jazz. “I’ve always relied on emotion and intuition and physicality.”
Mar 30, 2026 10:30 PM
In the relatively small pantheon of certifiable rock stars venturing into the intersection of pop music and jazz, the…
Vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater will be among the headliners at this year’s DC JazzFest.
Mar 2, 2026 9:48 PM
The first wave of artists scheduled to perform at the 2026 DC JazzFest have been announced. This year’s headliners…
Blindfold Test proctor Ted Panken, left, with the Grammy-winning Nicole Zuraitis.
Feb 24, 2026 12:00 PM
After earning the 2024 Best Jazz Vocal Album Grammy for her seventh album, How Love Begins (La Reserve), comprising 12…
“These days, with curated news, where people only get half the story, people can’t even speak to family members anymore,” Schneider laments.
Mar 10, 2026 1:43 PM
Maria Schneider is doing her part to try to fix what ails America. Which got her thinking about crows, specifically,…
