[Cover photo credit to Dave Stapleton]
Multi-Grammy award-winning vocalist Kurt Elling and guitarist/Producer Charlie Hunter released their new rendition of Joni Mitchell’s “Black Crow.” The song is off their upcoming album SuperBlue: The Iridescent Spree, a new full-length featuring drummer Corey Fonville and bassist-keyboardist DJ Harrison.
Releasing September 15th, 2023 via Edition Records, the album is a continuation of Elling’s SuperBlue collaboration with Charlie Hunter, which includes their 2021 Grammy-nominated debut full-length and their 2023 covers EP Guilty Pleasures.
SuperBlue: The Iridescent Spree sees Elling and Hunter reunited with drummer Corey Fonville and multi-instrumentalist DJ Harrison (both of Jazz-Funk fusion quintet Butcher Brown) for a collection of new songs, reinventions, and covers (Joni Mitchell’s “Black Crow,” Bob Dorough’s Schoolhouse Rock standard “Naughty Number Nine,” Ron Sexsmith’s “Right About Now”).
Additional contributions are provided by flutist Elena Pinderhughes (Carlos Santana, Taylor McFerrin, Josh Groban) and Brooklyn’s Huntertones Horns (Jon Lampley: Trumpet, Dan White: Saxophone & Horn Arrangements, Chris Ott: Trombone).
Elling shares:
We’re trying to take…history and transform it into something that speaks to a present generation without leaving that history behind.
Though it was born as an experimental project during the pandemic, SuperBlue has now expanded as a way for the artists to “celebrate their boundless, all-embracing approach to music, art, and indeed, life itself.”
Hunter says of the project:
It’s going to go where it’s going to go. Presumably, it’ll change and grow again.
Kurt Elling & Charlie Hunter Tour Dates:
Aug 5: Newport Jazz Festival – Newport, RI
Sep 21: City Winery – Boston, MA
Sep 22: LPR – New York, NY
Sep 23: World Cafe Live – Philadelphia, PA
Sep 24: The Hamilton – Washington, D.C.
Sep 27: Cleveland Museum of Art – Cleveland, OH
Sep 28: The Cabaret – Indianapolis, IN
Sep 29: The Acorn – Three Oaks, MI
Sep 30: Englert Theatre – Iowa City, IA
Oct 1: Parkway Theater – Minneapolis, MN
Oct 3: Jazz Alley – Seattle, WA
Oct 4: Jazz Alley – Seattle, WA
Oct 5: Mississippi Studios – Portland, OR
Oct 6: Yoshis – Oakland, CA
Oct 7: Teragram Ballroom – Los Angeles, CA
Oct 8: Boulder Theater – Boulder, CO
Dec 2: SPACE – Evanston, IL
