Jazz breaking news: Kurt Elling back on Broadway

The record finds Elling further exploring the rock and soul-edged territory that featured heavily on his 2011 studio album The Gate. On his new project the singer honours the legendary Manhattan song writing location that The Daily Telegraph once called "the most important generator of popular songs in the western world." Elling cites his reasons for switching his focus to New York as: “having done so many projects about my love for Chicago, I wanted to make something that spoke of my love for New York.”

Both cities have helped played a key role in his development as a singer – that began in Chicago, where he also recorded several of his early albums including his debut on Blue Note, Close Your Eyes – but has since blossomed in New York where he and his family have lived since 2008. Thus The Brill Building Project is his response to the album’s eponymous location – a honeycomb of offices and claustrophobic studios at 1619 Broadway, in the heart of midtown Manhattan – which at the Brill Building’s peak, served as the creative home for more than 160 tenants associated with the popular music industry.

Working once again with long time collaborator/arranger/pianist Laurence Hobgood, Elling creates unexpected harmonic and rhythmic twists on such classics as ‘On Broadway’ and ‘You Send Me’ and takes a jazz-edged approach to the likes of ‘I’m Satisfied’ and ‘A House Is Not A Home’, while Sam Cooke’s ‘You Send Me’, Carole King’s ‘So Far Away’ and Paul Simon’s ‘American Tune’ also feature on this dynamic set.

Elling will be performing material from the album at his appearance at the London Jazz Festival, when he plays the Queen Elizabeth Hall on 14 November.

– Mike Flynn