An amuse-bouche before his new SuperBlue album drops later in 2023, Kurt Elling continues his exploration of the funkier side of the tracks with this six-track EP of covers featuring guitarist Charlie Hunter and special guest drummer Nate Smith.

‘Baby Hold On’, Brooklyn native Eddie Money's classic rock hit from his 1977 self-titled debut album, sees the full textures of the original tellingly retooled to something infinitely more sinuous and minimalistic, courtesy of Smith's hand-played percussion and Hunter's stripping back to the barest harmonic outline. It creates all the space needed for Elling's powerful, layered vocals and an adroit intensification of the groove in the song's final third. ‘Wrap It Up’, a classic cut from the David Porter and Isaac Hayes songbook first released by the hugely influential soul and R&B duo, Sam & Dave, similarly metamorphoses into stripped back funk, while ‘Boogie Down’ presents a heartfelt homage to the irrepressibly joyous music of Al Jarreau, with Elling slipping in a quote from Jarreau's ‘Roof Garden’ for good measure. From his 2017 album Kinfolk: Postcards from Everywhere, Smith's own ‘Bounce’ serves as an instrumental interlude before the final brace of songs, a full-blooded take on PJ Morton's ‘Sticking To My Guns’ and – guiltiest pleasure of all – a supercharged reworking of AC/DC's ‘Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap’.