Blue Note Chicago jazzman Elling has it all: an interesting baritone voice, a bizarre sense of humor, as well as a suave demeanor and good looks. His shows (often with pianist Laurence Hobgood and drummer Paul Wertico), include standards, crooning ballads, and up-tempo scat numbers, as well as some way-out avant-garde stuff. His Grammy-nominated (Lena Horne edged him out) debut Blue Note disc Close Your Eyes is as close to ensemble perfection as you can come. He's now up to three Grammy nominations, though -- despite critical appreciation -- his records haven't been big sellers outside of Chicago... 
The Gen-X crooner first performed at Joe Segal's Jazz Showcase with the JazzMasters in January 1994, and since then, Elling has become the most talked-about jazz singer in America. Six months later, he was signed by Blue Note, probably jazz's most prestigious label. CBS Sunday Morning filmed him singing at the Green Mill, Down Beat's well-regarding readers polls called Elling the 7th-best male jazz singer, and named Elling's record 9th-best record of the year.
In 1992, Elling dropped out of the University of Chicago's divinity school (he enrolled as a masters student in 1989, after attending Gustavus Adoplhus College, a small Minnesota liberals arts school). While still a student at U. of C., Elling had begun to perform at Milt Trenier's (in a former life the mob-run Chez Paree where Elling's hero Frank Sinatra used to play).
After leaving school, Elling began to perform at South Side jazz joints. Says Chicago Reader jazz critic Neil Tesser, "Elling's maturation as an artist has been both rapid and remarkable, like one of those time-lapse photography segments of a flowering plant."
His third full-length, This Time It's Love (Blue Note), released in August 1998, is an iconoclastic "ballads" album, which gives interesting treatment to traditionally romantic love songs -- though probably the weakest of his recordings -- Blue Note seemed to be trying to make him into a Harry Connick, Jr.-style crooner -- it still holds some gems. His second Blue Note CD, The Messenger was released in April of 1997. A new live album was recorded during the Summer of '99, including several gigs at the Green Mill.
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