Top jazz singer and the SNJO step out at the Queen's Hall

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The Grammy-winning American jazz singer Kurt Elling revisits one of his old student haunts when he appears at the Queen’s Hall with the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra on Sunday 29th September.

Chicago-born Elling spent a year of his divinity course on secondment to Edinburgh University in the late 1980s. It was here that the former chorister experienced some his first jazz concerts and heard for the first time a musician who has become a close collaborator, saxophonist Tommy Smith.

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“I had a couple of friends at university who introduced me to recordings by the saxophonists Dexter Gordon and John Coltrane and then over here, on Fridays, a few of us would go to the Queen’s Hall,” says Elling.

The singer remembers a “really good programme” of mostly international touring jazz musicians at the Queen’s Hall back then.

Kurt Elling sings with the SNJOKurt Elling sings with the SNJO
Kurt Elling sings with the SNJO

“I saw some great gigs there,” he says. “There was Don Cherry, with his pocket trumpet and a marvellous band, and I remember seeing the alto saxophonist Bobby Watson and of course this young local musician who had already toured the world, saxophonist Tommy Smith.”

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Little did Elling think at the time that he would be performing on the Queen’s Hall stage with Smith years later. The first time they appeared together there, in 2011 with the SNJO, was a special feeling.

“But then, every time I meet up with Tommy and this superb orchestra that he has developed it’s special,” says Elling, who took up jazz singing shortly after returning to Chicago and went on to sign for the legendary Blue Note label.

“I thought when I saw him the first time that he was a kind of prince, a really exceptional talent, and it’s been wonderful to get a chance to work with him on different projects, from a Frank Sinatra tribute to concerts with quite profound philosophical themes.”

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The programme that Elling and the SNJO will be bringing to the Queen’s Hall features popular items from the Great American Songbook and pieces for which Elling himself has provided lyrics. There are also 1980s pop songs by The Police and Joe Jackson, whose international hit Steppin’ Out gives the concert its name.

“Working with Kurt is a really exciting way to open our 2024/25 season,” says Tommy Smith, the SNJO’s founder and artistic director. “He’s always inspiring and his choice of material for these concerts is sure to stimulate our audiences and musicians alike. We’re steppin’ out in more ways than one.”

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