Eye on Chicago: Grammy winner Kurt Elling on the city's historic jazz culture

Chicago is known for a lot of things: architecture, food, and, of course, great music.

Two-time Grammy winner Kurt Elling, a man who the New York Times called "the standout male jazz vocalist of our time," gave CBS News Chicago a tour through the city's jazz culture, past and present.

"Jazz has given me my vocation, my livelihood, my friendships, my family," Elling said. "It's given me a way to meet people in the world and to advance what I believe to be the real purpose of the music, which is to lift up the heart, and to inspire, and to remind us of our common harmony between each other."

Elling said jazz does it differently.

"When I sing, when the band plays, if our intention is pure and the notes are right, and I sing in tune, then the sound waves travel from the vibration of my body through the air to you, to you specifically, to the audience, to your ears," he said. "It's a physical manifestation of what I'm trying to communicate."

In a city known for its jazz, Elling's voice has lifted him to the top of the music world. He has won two Grammy Awards, cementing his name among the best from Chicago.

"Chicago jazz has a very distinct part of history in the world of jazz," Elling said.

It's a musical chapter that was born in the South, but traveled north with the Great Migration, where the sound flourished in cities like Chicago.

"When Louis Armstrong arrived in Chicago, the music transformed from much more of a group-oriented experience to something that featured the soloist distinctly," Elling said. "The first time anybody in New York ever heard of Louis Armstrong, he was broadcasting from the South Side of Chicago. The first time anyone heard Nat King Cole, he was broadcasting live from the South Side of Chicago."

"For me it's about the resonance of the streets, it's about the survival energy Chicago has, the way we are going to overcome whatever it is that is going to stand in the way of our city, and we are going to band together, and we are going to take on every other city in the world. That's what Chicago jazz means to me," he added.

Donlon: "It's impressive to me that you could go to 'The Stroll' today, you could go to the Green Mill today, and close your eyes, and it would theoretically take you back 75 to 100 years." 

Elling: "I was just down in Bronzeville last night. I hit five different spots, and it was a thing of beauty."

"You could go to any number of clubs in this town and get the feeling and the experience and the joy and the energy of the greatest swinging jazz parties that have ever happened," Elling added. "If Lester Young were to walk into any of these rooms, or Charlie Parker, or Dizzy [Gillespie], I could see Dizzy dancing through all these rooms in town and just being joyful as ever."

Elling said the city's jazz culture is still "100% alive."

Elling's love of Chicago is deep and profound, like his love of jazz; a calling that came to him in grad school, when he was studying religion and realized the spirit was moving him in another direction.

"I am a minister in the church of the living swing. Saturday night won out over Sunday morning, but the message is the same." he said. "We all need to embrace each other. We all need to manifest as much beauty as we can while we're here, in order to save each other."

Elling said jazz does that.

"It's done it for me. It's done it for generations of musicians and audiences, and inshallah it will continue," Elling said.