Kurt Elling & WDR Big Band, In the Brass Palace Review

by Constance Tucker

Kurt Elling & WDR Big Band have teamed up for an enjoyable project, In the Brass Palace, that vocalists will want to hear. Elling’s voice on In the Brass Palace arrives as a storyteller and a part of the big band. His singing arrives calibrated, responsive, and structurally aware, operating with the same functional intent as any horn inside the WDR Big Band. Across these six performances, the focus is on the narrative and operational aspects of how the voice enters, aligns, articulates, sustains, and releases within a big band orchestral environment.

From the opening moments of “Steppin’ Out,” Elling establishes a precise relationship between breath and swing architecture. His phrasing sits fractionally behind the beat during the melody statement. This creates a grounded pocket that interlocks cleanly with Hans Dekker’s ride pattern and John Goldsby’s walking line. When he transitions into scatting, articulation sharpens immediately. Consonants become percussive attacks, vowels extend into legato lines mirroring horn phrasing, and intervallic leaps are executed with a clear pitch center. He avoids smeared approximation. Even at increased velocity, each note is placed with clarity. His dynamic tapering at phrase endings mirrors sectional releases in the brass. This is full assimilation into ensemble logic.

On “Desire,” register management becomes the central technical concern. Elling navigates a wide vertical span, moving from grounded low tones into upper-register expansions without a perceptible break in tonal continuity. The upper notes do not strain; instead, they bloom, supported by steady breath and minimal tension. Vibrato narrows as he ascends, maintaining pitch focus while allowing the ensemble to thicken around him. In denser passages, he reduces amplitude rather than competing for projection, preserving clarity of line while maintaining blend—a functional decision that avoids the common failure of vocal overextension in large ensemble contexts.

“My Very Own Ride” shifts the rhythmic emphasis to a groove-based framework. Elling aligns with the funk-inflected pocket but introduces micro-variations in placement, with slight anticipations and delayed resolutions that reflect the angular phrasing of the source material. The vocalese passages demonstrate precise instrumental-aligned articulation: accents land where a guitarist’s attack would fall, and syncopations retain their internal tension rather than flattening into even subdivision. As the arrangement builds toward the shout chorus, his phrasing compresses rhythmically, increasing density without sacrificing articulation, functioning as an embedded voice within the ensemble rather than a surface-level feature.

The ballad setting of “I Like the Sunrise” foregrounds sustained tone and breath control. Elling’s upper-register climactic note is held with remarkable stability; his pitch center remains fixed while dynamic intensity expands gradually beneath it. Vibrato is introduced late, as an extension rather than an assumption, allowing the tone to establish itself before widening. In the lower register, his sound carries a rounded, resonant depth, supported without breath noise or collapse. The rubato closing section reveals a different dimension of control: entrances and releases are coordinated with ensemble gesture rather than internal pulse alone, demonstrating responsiveness at the level of phrasing rather than meter.

The most technically exposed performance arrives with “They Speak No Evil.” Elling delivers a full vocalese adaptation of Wayne Shorter’s original Blue Note solo. He preserves its angular intervallic structure and asymmetrical rhythmic phrasing. Wide leaps are executed cleanly at tempo and require a quick recalibration of pitch center without using glide or compensatory smoothing. His articulation captures Shorter’s forward-moving swing. Accents land with precision, embellishments retain their directional intent, and the line maintains propulsion without settling into regular meter.

Breath control is particularly evident throughout “They Speak No Evil” as extended phrases unfold without interruption, sustaining continuity across complex contours. The addition of text introduces further coordination demands; Elling’s diction remains fully integrated within rhythmic placement and pitch accuracy. This is a passage where instability, loss of center, rhythmic distortion, or over-articulation is a constant risk, especially given the familiarity of the source material. Elling avoids these failure points entirely, delivering the line with clarity, control, and complete functional integration.

On “Current Affairs,” attention returns to tone shaping and low-register operation. Elling’s sustained lower tones carry full resonance without diffusion, supported by efficient airflow and relaxed placement. As the ensemble gradually expands, his phrasing adapts as lines lengthen, vibrato widens slightly, and tonal density increases in proportion to the surrounding texture. The transition into the trumpet feature is handled through a sustained vocal tone that functions as a pivot, demonstrating structural awareness without overt signaling. His role here is not to dominate the transition, but to facilitate it.

Across the album, Elling’s technical profile reveals itself through consistent application. His range is not presented as an exhibition but as a continuum. Low-register tones carry the same supported resonance as his upper-register climaxes, with no audible break in timbral identity. When he ascends, the sound does not thin or strain; it opens, sounding supported, centered, and allowed to expand without excess pressure. Vibrato is often delayed, introduced as a controlled extension rather than a default condition. This preserves pitch integrity before widening into expressive space. Descending lines retain clarity and density, indicating not a shift in mechanism but a recalibration of airflow and internal shaping.

His phrasing reflects a high degree of positional accuracy, often aligning with the ensemble’s sectional logic. Each line enters with intent, develops through clearly articulated internal shapes, and resolves with controlled release. Elling frequently synchronizes with the ensemble figures even when rhythmically independent. Consonants act as percussive tools rather than linguistic markers, giving attacks a defined edge that allows the voice to sit alongside brass and reeds without softening articulation. At the same time, he extends phrases across barlines with uninterrupted breath flow, avoiding the fragmentation that can occur when vocal lines reset instead of sustaining.

Rhythmically, Elling demonstrates adaptive placement that shifts according to context. In swing settings, he settles slightly behind the beat, creating a grounded pocket that interlocks with the rhythm section; in groove-oriented passages, his placement aligns more directly with the rhythm section’s subdivisions while still introducing micro-displacements of subtle anticipations and delayed resolutions that preserve forward motion. In rubato contexts, his timing becomes gesture-based, coordinating entrances and releases with ensemble movement rather than relying on a fixed pulse.

Elling’s technique is consistently deployed with awareness of ensemble structure. He does not rely on projection to assert presence; instead, he adjusts amplitude, articulation, and tonal weight to occupy a precise position within the orchestral texture. In denser passages, the sound narrows, allowing the ensemble to expand without competition. These choices avoid the common failure of vocal overcompensation in big band settings. In more open spaces, his tone broadens, filling the available spectrum while maintaining clarity of line. The result is not a voice imposed on the ensemble, but one fully assimilated inside its moving architecture.

Elling’s achievement in In the Brass Palace is rooted in sustained technical reliability across shifting demands. His voice remains centered and operational, whether navigating wide intervallic lines, maintaining pitch stability in extended upper-register passages, or aligning precisely within complex ensemble textures. The result is a performance in which the vocal instrument functions continuously with a big band. Elling matches the precision, flexibility, and responsiveness required of any instrument inside the WDR Big Band.