Kurt Elling – Secrets Are the Best Stories (2020) [FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

“There’s a mystery,” Kurt Elling sings softly. “An enigma.” Then, gathering momentum: “There’s a memory oh so slight.”

His words come near the opening of “A Certain Continuum,” the first single from Secrets Are The Best Stories, which Edition Records will release on April 3. For this album, Elling partnered for the first time with Panamanian pianist Danilo Pérez, whose dark-hued chords sharpen the uncertainty of the lyric.

Joining this reverie, in a steady accumulation, are percussionists Román Díaz and Rocério Boccato, drummer Johnathan Blake, and bassist Clark Sommers. Their 12/8 Afro-Cuban polyrhythm creates a slow churn over which Elling continues his reflective musing. “Questions about love,” he sings, “Are as old as everything that’s ever been / Questions linger on until the end.”

Elling, whose previous album was titled The Questions, is clearly extending a line of inquiry with the track, which premieres here.

With Secrets Are the Best Stories, Kurt Elling has made an almost-flawless record. In 2015, with Passion World the Chicago singer revisited the lied Nicht Wandle, Mein Licht by Brahms; but also numbers by U2, Pat Metheny, and Björk – not forgetting La Vie en rose and even a poem by James Joyce! Three years later, The Questions, tackles Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Peter Gabriel, Leonard Bernstein, Johnny Mercer and a few others: in particular their social and political themes. This time around, his artistic ambition as well as his political engagement step up a notch in this album conceived with pianist Danilo Pérez around the questions of human rights, immigration and climate change. At the age of 52, Elling wrote powerful lyrics for music by Wayne Shorter, Jaco Pastorius, Vince Mendoza and Pérez himself. Along with his own tales, he has also adapted works by contemporary poets Franz Wright and Robert Bly, nineteenth-century abolitionist poetess Frances E. W. Harper and Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison. “How shall we survive? Danilo and I share many of the same concerns and anxieties about where the world is today. Secrets Are The Best Stories is our cri de coeur.” To help them amplify this musical outcry, Elling and Pérez have assembled bassist Clark Sommers, drummer Johnathan Blake and percussionist Rogerio Boccato. Some famous guests, such as alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón, guitarist Chico Pinheiro and percussionist Román Díaz, add a sober score, an impeccable setting for the voice and lyrics of Kurt Elling, who has authored a really strong work. – Max Dembo

Tracklist

1. Kurt Elling – The Fanfold Hawk (For Franz Wright)
2. Kurt Elling – A Certain Continuum
3. Kurt Elling – Stays
4. Kurt Elling – Gratitude (For Robert Bly)
5. Kurt Elling – Stage I
6. Kurt Elling – Beloved (For Toni Morrison)
7. Kurt Elling – Stages II, III
8. Kurt Elling – Song of the Rio Grande (For Oscar and Valeria Martinez-Ramirez)
9. Kurt Elling – Rabo de Nube
10. Kurt Elling – Esperanto
11. Kurt Elling – Epílogo

Download:

mqs.link_KurtEllingSecretsAretheBestSt0ries20202496.part1.rar
mqs.link_KurtEllingSecretsAretheBestSt0ries20202496.part2.rar

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