It's his second for the venerable Blue Note jazz label, and his first since his 1995 Grammy-nominated debut, Close Your Eyes. His baritone voice is strong, his cadences those of a street-tough hipster. Take a track from his new album. Over dinner with a group of U of C students at Brent House, the Episcopal student center on campus, Elling speaks passionately about the need for art that can enrich human life. The new album is called The Messenger and everyone keeps asking me if I'm the messenger.
Jazz is the messenger-just like all sorts of other media can deliver messages.
Wearing black pants and a black jacket over a T-shirt, Elling paces the floor as the students eat. I don't know, but I don't think people are being uplifted by what they watch. In my work, I know I have to entertain, but I don't forget to give people something else to think about. B orn in Chicago in 1967, Elling started singing in church, where his father was the organist, but didn't discover jazz until he was a student at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota. There he majored in history, minored in religion, and encountered the music of Dave Brubeck, Dexter Gordon, Herbie Hancock, and Ella Fitzgerald.