Trailblazer Kurt Elling excited to be back in Cork as part of the Cork Jazz Festival

Kurt Elling is a jazz vocalist. This might seem like a simple phrase; to those who are familiar with him it might seem like a patently obvious phrase, up there with “water is wet” and “grass is green”, but aficionados of the Chicagoean will know that that description does not quite do him justice. Yes. He sings. He improvises. He entertains. But for those whose idea of a jazz vocalist doesn’t stretch beyond a Michael Bublé Christmas album, Kurt Elling has a hell of a lot to show you.

A multi-award-winning male vocalist, with a quarter of a century of achievement in the medium, who better to ask what it means to be a jazz vocalist? It’s a big and possibly dumb question to ask, but Elling is clearly someone who thinks deeply about what he does.

“Well,” he considers, barely pausing, “it means that I’ve fallen in love with a particular lineage of singers who have worked in a specific arena of exploration. An arena that puts a on improvisation, or at least on the spirit of improvisation, on a certain rhythmic sensibility that’s pretty specific, but that is flexible and expansive and expanding.

“And that involves really particular artists in a particular milieu or a particular demi-monde; and to reference those musicians and that family of music, to pay homage to it by working as hard as I can. To understand what they did and to develop those notions, however small and however smallbore my tiny brain is. And to sing in their honour and to try to connect to that lineage in a way that is organic and hard won.”

For Elling, the standard bearers of the lineage include vocalese innovator Jon Hendricks and vocal improvisers Betty Carter and Mark Murphy.

All the great singers who have come before me contributed something that was sui generis; that means there is a giant palette of possibilities out there

“All the great singers who have come before me accomplished things that was unique. They, each of them, found a new way through. They, each of them, contributed something that was sui generis. And that means there’s a whole giant palette of possibilities out there. So from Jon Hendricks you’ve got the perfection of his writing skills. And when I say perfection I mean he sured any jazz lyricist that you can name. And obviously maybe there weren’t that many of them, specifically jazz lyricists. But what Jon brought to the table, and what he accomplished, as a matter of individual works of art and as a matter of his life-long catalogue Is unparalleled.

“And that means it’s for current jazz singers to pick up on that, to learn from it, to learn that information. And then to see what we can do to keep moving forward.

“From Mark Murphy you got the extraordinary ability to sing ballads in such a way that they were so real, so profound, so achingly painful emotionally. So there’s that.

“And then also he reminded everybody that the spoken word is part of the singer’s art. At least for the jazz singer. There’s so many directions. From Betty Carter we learn what’s possible in an improvisational setting. We learn how far can you take a thing? How far you can take the notion of improvising so that even when you’re doing a jazz standard or standard material and you’re singing exactly the same words, the melody is entirely new and bespoke. And you’re telling a story in a way that even though hundreds and maybe thousands of singers have done a specific song it became Betty’s song. It became her moment, and her story to tell.

“These are all individual examples of particular greatness that set the table for singers who are alive now and point directions and say, alright, well you know we’ve taken the ball. We’ve expanded the artform in these specific ways, but they’re all available for you. So what are you going to do about it? And I guess I’m one of the guys who wants to at least try to continue out of respect for them and out of love for the genre to keep it moving.”

Elling’s avenues of exploration aren’t limited to a select few greats. The pursuit of beauty for its own sake should be the primary goal, he counsels, and he will devour any form, any sound, any rhythm and any melody in his quest to deliver that.

“You never know where beauty is going to come from,” he observes wisely.

“It could be from a completely random person whistling a tune going down the street that you see for 30-seconds and that person never appears in your life again and you never even make eye .”

Though he anoints his calling with the most honeyed words, Elling’s talent and abilities are irrefutable. Go and hear his honeyed voice. just don’t expect him to do “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)”.

“There’s no reason for me to do it,” he states bluntly.

“Mostly because I just don’t have an idea for it. There’s always something more in there, but the fact that hundreds and thousands of singers have done it and I don’t have a specific creative idea that would justify my touching it.”

He harks back to his adored Weather Report, the legendary jazz fusion outfit co-founded by saxophonist Wayne Shorter, who ed this year, and their influential bassist Jaco Pastorious. He is currently working on plans to do a lot of Weather Report material.

“The continuing exploration of Wayne Shorter’s material fascinates me,” he explains. “It’s an opportunity to write more lyrics. It’s an opportunity for me to work with some more people and to learn from them.”

Not just a singer, like his hero Hendricks, Elling is a keen lyricist, and he talks excitedly about a lyric he has to fit the dreamy, loungey Pastorious instrumental “Three Views of a Secret”.

“I’m thrilled to present that because I feel like it’s a good lyric. The lyric comes from me and it expresses a reality I’ve come to believe in and I can happily sing that night after night,” he enthuses.

Right now he is supremely focused on his collaboration with talented composer and band leader Charlie Hunter and their recent albums made with multi-instrumentalist duo drummer Corey Fonville and bassist-keyboardist DJ Harrison, Superblue and Superblue: The Iridescent Sphere.

Elling has been wowing Cork audiences over the last 20 years, and he’s delighted to be back among them again.

“It’s a thrill every time,” he declares. “The audience is marvellous and energetic and enthusiastic. I mean I imagine we’re going to have exponentially more fun than we ever had.”

•  Kurt Elling plays The Everyman on Friday, October 27, at 6.30pm, and Saturday, October 28, at 6pm