Oncoming ’Trane

The dance halls, speakeasies and back alleys of New Orleans birthed the soul of jazz in the early 20th century. Soon, though, riverboats ferried those indigenous sounds north, and our region’s jazz barreled into everything from big band to bebop. In Chicago, jazz cats of a more wintry culture added an edgy, citified blues sound to Louisiana’s joyful noise.

“There’s a beat and a groove to New Orleans jazz that comes from fresh air and from society, people dancing and funeral marches,” says Kurt Elling, one of the country’s preeminent young jazz vocalists and a native of the Windy City. “With Chicago jazz you hear more of the 20th century, more automobiles and technology. Trumpets screech like trains and blow like taxi horns.”

On Oct. 8, Elling and his band will bring a dose of that great Chicago sound to Manship Theatre for two concerts hosted by the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge’s River City Jazz Masters Series.

In June, the 41-year-old jazz singer released Dedicated to You: Kurt Elling Sings the Music of Coltrane and Hartman, a live record produced last January in Manhattan as part of the Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series. Rearranging John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman compositions in the unique “vocalese” style that has made Elling famous is a bold move, but a challenge he enjoyed. “There’s a voice in your head that can creep in and be detrimental on any project, so with these songs I tried not to second-guess myself,” Elling says. “I certainly hope that Coltrane and Hartman would like it, but I have to just play it the way I hear it.”

Coltrane’s music may be permeated through the ether for most jazz players and fans, but Elling can remember when a hip friend first turned him on to the legend. It was Coltrane’s 1965 free jazz purity quest A Love Supreme that opened Elling’s ears to the beautiful places jazz can go.

“’Trane’s sound is so intense,” Elling says. “His dedication and his search to transcend through music is evident in every single song. And that’s the way I want to be.”

Like Coltrane’s, Elling’s bio is steeped in spirituality. Elling studied for three years at the University of Chicago’s Divinity School before mailing a demo to storied Blue Note Records, which quickly signed him to the label. After seven albums for Blue Note, Elling signed with Concord Music in 2007 to release Nightmoves, a Grammy-nominated offering for Best Jazz Vocal Album. Nightmoves launched Elling to national prominence, but it is Dedicated to You and Elling’s innovative readings of Coltrane classics that have jazz fans buzzing right now.

“I’m not real interested in just reiterating songs,” Elling promises. “That’s not a very jazzy thing to do.”

For more information on Kurt Elling and his ?Oct. 8 concerts at Manship Theatre, visit kurtelling.com and manshiptheatre.org.