Kurt Elling Comes Back Home
WDCB’s Gary Zidek catches up with Grammy Award-winning vocalist Kurt Elling at the Green Mill to talk about moving back to Chicago, his new virtual concert tour and the inspiration for The Big Blind.
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“I just really love having a home base, I love having the Green Mill, this beautiful, glamorous old dame be a place that I get to identify with. I love the fact that it has so much history that it really embodies some of the most glamorous, and also street-level vibes of Chicago and what it means to be a Chicagoan.” - vocalist Kurt Elling talking about his love for the Green Mill.
WDCB’s Gary Zidek and Kurt Elling masked up at the Green Mill
Friday nights in October you could find Grammy Award-winning vocalist Kurt Elling back in a familiar spot … performing at the Green Mill Cocktail Lounge. Of course, the room was empty, in-person concerts aren’t happening in Illinois right now, but thousands of people were able to watch the performance online. The concerts were part of Elling’s virtual concert tour titled Cocktail Hour, that’s commemorating the 25th anniversary of his Blue Note debut CLOSE YOUR EYES. The series will culminate Saturday November 14 with a special adaptation of Elling’s jazz radio play, THE BIG BLIND. All the concerts are being filmed at the legendary Green Mill, Elling’s old stomping grounds as he was making a name for himself as one of the world’s premiere male jazz vocalists.
“We didn’t move because of COVID, we moved because it was the right time to come on home. I wanted to reconnect to my city, I wanted to reconnect with the audiences that I’ve loved for so many years here. And then when COVID hit, I realized I wanted to come back as Chicago was circling the wagons, I want to be on the inside shooting outside. I want to help stuff stay alive here, in the city I love.” - Kurt Elling talking about coming back to his native Chicago.
Vocalist Kurt Elling
