After 18 months of being shut down by the draconian COVID laws, the Catalina Jazz Club finally re-opened its doors, and the appreciative Angelenos packed the house to finally get a dose of live music again.
And what a way to open, with having one of the most important vocalists, Kurt Elling, team up with keyboard veteran John Beasley and his “Monkestra Trio” of Terrion Gully/dr and Joshua Crumley/b. Elling, visibly enthused and inspired, celebrated the evening by focusing on a new musical direction, joking that his daughter “finally likes one of my records”, one that emphasized more or a hip-hop and almost rap feel. Beasley delivered some clever keyboard soloing around the shuffle of “Dharma Jump” as Elling was part carney, part barker and part Tom Waits here and on the double timing “Steal From the Rich” with Gully and Crumley giving a Famous Flames pulse.
Things got a bit more mellow as Elling got reflective with Beasley when he recreated a song from his tender duet album “Secrets…” on a thoughtful aria of “Stage I” which displayed Elling’s mastery of tone, control and power. Crumley’s reflective bassline then introduced Wayne Shorter’s “Delphia” as Gully locked in for a dark and serpentine pattern which featured Elling in his most dreamy of an atmosphere.
Elling then tapped into his inner Bill Withers for an upbeat “Endless Lawns before closing with an upbeat gospel shout out. One has to admire Elling’s adventurous spirit, and he treated the new direction with conviction. The only question remains is if this is Elling’s new direction, or just one more color in his large palate.
Elling started things off focusing on songs from his recently released Superblue with a funky scat on “Sassy’ while sounding like a hip street preacher over the backbeat of “”Superblue”.
Upcoming shows at Catalina’s include Jane Monheit 08/07-8, Jeff Hamilton Trio 08/09, Elijah Rock 08/18, Dave Damiani/08/20, Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band 08/21 and John Pizzarelli 08/26-29