Kurt Elling Celebrates Weather Report

Two-time GRAMMY Award winning performer and Ravinia’s Audrey L. Weaver Jazz Advisor Kurt Elling brings his signature sound and inventive musicality to the historic Martin Theatre, celebrating the remarkable legacy of jazz legends Weather Report. With a one-of-a-kind brand of contemporary lyricism and ingenuity, the Chicago-based musician has extended the parameters of vocal jazz. Hailed by the New York Times as “the standout male jazz vocalist of our time” Elling has won three Prix du Jazz Vocal (France), two German Echo Awards, two Dutch Edison Awards, and has been nominated for a GRAMMY Award sixteen times. 

Elling is joined onstage by Grammy Award-winning drummer and Weather Report alumnus Peter Erskine, whose incredible career also includes performances with Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan, Diana Krall, Mary Chapin Carpenter, The Brecker Brothers, The Yellowjackets, Pat Metheny and many more. Erskine has appeared as a soloist with the London, Los Angeles, Chicago, Frankfurt Radio, Scottish Chamber, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Royal Opera House, BBC Symphony, Oslo and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras.

This celebration of Weather Report—one of jazz’s great supergroups, which was active in the 1970s and early ’80s—will reimagine the fusion band’s iconic songs in addition to new arrangements inspired by their constellation of musicians, traversing tracks like “A Remark You Made,” “Three Views of a Secret,” and “Continuum,” among other influential compositions from the Weather Report sphere. 

The Steans Institute Fellows will set the evening mood, warming up the stage with rich harmonies and swinging rhythms before Kurt and his band take over.