Those of you who've been following my Music 101 class's exploration of this song will be interested in this version. My brother The Gtra1n turned me on to the wonderful young jazz singer Kurt Elling. I would argue that his version of this iconic song is even more moving than Sinatra's.
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4 comments:
Cat can sing . . .
Too bad the clip doesn't have his intro, adapted from Keith Jarrett Live at the Blue Note, with Kurt's own lyrics. It's breath-stopping.
Yes, it is. But the "Wee Small Hours" part is thrilling too.
Cool! Glad you got the record.
When Keif and I saw him at Yoshi's was when I first heard a lot of that material. That arrangement of "Change Partners and Dance" is really extraordinary, and there was something about him make the phone gesture with his hand to his ear while singing:
I'll get the waiter to tell him
He's wanted on the telephone
That was beautiful and moving. It captured a sensation of the romance of the imagination for times that never quite where, like the world of nightclubs that Fred Astaire dined and danced in in his movies. Elling is a great artist of American culture.
My students are going to talk about these two interpretations of "Wee Small Hours" in class today. I'm sure they'll have some interesting insights.
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