Standard Time: Kurt Elling and Bill Charlap

Here’s a jazz concert that takes place live in New York but is also available for you to view from the comfort of your own home. Vocalist Kurt Ellington is joining pianist Bill Charlap for a concert at the 92nd Street Y on Tuesday, July 20th at 7:30 PM ET/4:30 PM PT. This concert is part of their annual Jazz in July programming.

Their concert is being live-streamed for those who are unable to attend in person. If you’re a fan of great vocals and swinging jazz, this should be a thoroughly entertaining program.

Elling was recently named in the DownBeat International Critics Poll the Best Jazz Vocalist Male. In October he will release a new album called SuperBlue. The first single, Sassy, has already been released.

Elling has been awarded two Grammy Awards and has 14 nominations to his credit – so far. His most recent Grammy came for his 2020 album Secrets Are the Best Stories.

Charlap, whose most recent album was 2017’s Uptown, Downtown, will be joined for this concert by Carl Allen on drums; Steve Wilson on alto sax and David Wong on bass. He’s been nominated for four Grammy Awards and won for the 2015 album he did with Tony Bennett called The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern.

I spoke to Charlap in 2018 about a Leonard Bernstein concert he was doing. He told me this about how he and his fellow musicians approach the music they play:

“We are always playing the music every night in a new way. We try to approach it like it’s the first time we’ve ever played it.  The ability to really have a conversation all the time and reassess what we are doing, to renegotiate a line or rhythmic phrase, before you get to the end of it, is one of the great joys of jazz.”

Fans of Charlap’s music will also be interested in another 92nd Street Y concert on July 27th. He and his trio (Kenny Washington and Peter Washington) will be joined by vocalist Dianne Reeves. This is a first-time collaboration. This concert will be both a live event and a streaming event. You can find details here.

For in-person tickets (whether in person or streaming) to see Elling and Charlap, please go here.

Kurt Elling will join John Beasley’s Monk’estra for four sets at Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood beginning on July 30th. For his full schedule, go here.

Photo: Kurt Elling (Photo by Anna Webber/Courtesy 92nd Street Y)