Global Jazz Forum: Kurt Elling with Danilo Pérez and John Patitucci
Grammy-winning jazz vocalist Kurt Elling will speak with Berklee Global Jazz Institute students at an upcoming forum.
Image by Anna Webber
Danilo Pérez B.M. ’88, a revolutionary Grammy Award–winning pianist and composer, leads Children of the Light, a trio with John Patitucci and Brian Blade.
Image by John Abbott
Virtuosic Grammy Award–winning bassist and composer John Patitucci, a visiting scholar at Berklee, will deliver a forum with Kurt Elling and Danilo Pérez.
Image by Kelly Davidson
Kurt Elling, a Grammy Award–winning jazz vocalist renowned for his vocalese (writing and singing words over improvised jazz solos), will share experiences and advice with students at this Berklee Global Jazz Institute forum.
With a smooth baritone voice and a range that spans four octaves, Elling—who won DownBeat’s Critics Poll for Male Vocalist of the Year an amazing 14 times in a row—gracefully balances depth of emotion with incredible vocal mastery. In his original songs and his fresh presentations of jazz standards, Elling draws upon inspired improvisation and scatting, whether he is singing or delivering spoken word poetry.
Elling has toured and delighted audiences all over the world as a bandleader and in collaboration with ensembles and orchestras such as the Branford Marsalis Quartet, the WDR Big Band & Orchestra, and the Metropole Orkest, to name a few.
Elling recently performed at Berklee’s benefit concert for the Fred Taylor Endowed Scholarship Fund, sharing the stage and drawing standing ovations with Monty Alexander, Danilo Pérez B.M. ’88, Terri Lyne Carrington B.M. ’83 ’03H, Grace Kelly B.M. ’11, Catherine Russell, Kat Edmonson, John Patitucci, Jason Palmer, James Montgomery, Bo Winiker, and Pat Metheny ’96H.
At this forum, Elling will be joined by Pérez, an incomparable pianist, composer, social activist, and educator who is the artistic director of the Berklee Global Jazz Institute (BGJI). Widely considered one of the most inspired—and inspiring—musicians today, Pérez has received hearty acclaim from DownBeat, Billboard, NPR, and many of the legendary musicians with whom he has collaborated, including fellow pianist and composer Herbie Hancock ’86H, who has called Pérez “amazing” and noted that “he is not afraid of anything.”
Rounding out the trio will be Patitucci, a Grammy-winning virtuosic bassist and BGJI visiting scholar who has worked extensively with Chick Corea ’97H, Wayne Shorter ’99H, Hancock, Stan Getz, and Metheny. An 11-time Grammy nominee, Patitucci recently released Irmãos de Fé, a vinyl-only, subscription-based album on Newvelle Records that features his takes on works by revered Brazilian composers such as Antônio Carlos Jobim and Milton Nascimento. Pérez and Patitucci perform together with Brian Blade in Children of the Light.