Kurt Elling spent his days at the University of Chicago Divinity School and his nights improvising in a basement club, until January 1992, when he left his master's program one credit short to choose 'Saturday night' over 'Sunday morning.' This episode traces the four-octave baritone from a Lutheran Kapellmeister's household in Rockford, Illinois, through Bach counterpoint, a 70-voice a cappella choir at Gustavus Adolphus College, and jazz records by Dexter Gordon, Herbie Hancock, and Ella Fitzgerald.

We look at the years bartending, moving furniture, and singing weddings while he developed the art of vocalese, drawing on Chet Baker, Mark Murphy, and Jack Kerouac's spontaneous prose. Then comes the partnership with pianist Laurence Hobgood at the Green Mill, the demo tape that reached Bruce Lundvall at Blue Note, the 1995 debut Close Your E ...