Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Kurt Elling, OKeh Records/Sony Music Masterworks 2018.
Kurt Elling in an American singer who possesses a lovely baritone voice and who mostly sings jazz numbers.
The Questions is his latest album and a response to this moment in history and the widespread anxiety of our times.
The album touches on challenges that we face individually and spiritually, as well as politically and globally.
To explore these themes, Elling has selected an interesting collection of songs from writers as diverse as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon to jazz and Broadway classics and songs from the Great American Songbook.
Of the 10 songs on The Questions Elling says: “At first I didn’t understand how they were going to relate to each other.”
It wasn’t until the album was being mixed by celebrated saxophonist Branford Marsalis, who plays on three tracks on the disc, that the title finally became apparent.
All the songs line up on one side or the other around a series of big questions, “What is life?, Why is there so much suffering and pain?, Where is the wellspring of wisdom?”
Although these questions are universal, it’s in turbulent times like these that they become all the more relevant.
I really like Kurt Elling’s mostly sparsely-accompanied version of Bob Dylan’s A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.
The space that the music provides places more emphasis on Dylan’s sensational lyrics.
The track features Branford Marsalis on tenor sax and some outstanding percussion by Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts.
The Questions is gentle and easy to listen to. It lacks rancour and tension and yet still encourages us to look for connections to the big questions and broader themes of the album.
