Elvis Costello Comes to Jorgensen Tonight

Grammy-winning, British singer-songwriter Elvis Costello may have gotten his start on the '70s New Wave scene but he's been ever-changing, ever-challenging ever since. Named one of "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" by Rolling Stone, Costello will make a Jorgensen debut on his new East Coast tour tonight, Nov. 21, 2013, at 7:30 p.m. The November tour is his first set of headlining solo dates in a decade.

Costello is a restless talent who has collaborated with McCartney, Bacharach, mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter and T Bone Burnett. He has produced two dozen albums, a full orchestral work (Il Sogno based on Shakespeare's A Midsummer's Night's Dream), an opera (The Secret Songs based on Hans Christian Andersen and Jenny Lind) and is at work on a musical with Burt Bacharach. He calls himself "incredibly stubborn" about keeping to his own creative agenda.

Costello won his Grammy Award with Bacharach in 1998 for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for the song "I Still Have That Other Girl." He and his band the Attractions were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003.

"He is certainly one of the most important and influential serious singer/songwriters of our time, and I am thrilled that after numerous attempts to bring him to the University of Connecticut, we finally have the opportunity to present him," says Jorgensen Director Rodney Rock.

Costello just this fall released Wise Up Ghosts with Hip Hop's the Roots on Blue Note Records, and is reconfiguring his 1998 Painted From Memory album collaboration with Bacharach into a Broadway-targeted musical, for which the composers have written 12 new songs and teamed up with Chuck Lorre (Two and a Half Men, Big Bang Theory) to do the book.

Besides the Attractions, Costello is best known for performances with the Imposters, pianist Steve Nieve and Allen Toussaint. He will tour with The Imposters in Japan in December and appear at the Bluesfest in New South Wales, Australia, in April 2014.

His songs have been recorded by George Jones, Chet Baker, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Dusty Springfield, Robert Wyatt, CharLes Brown, No Doubt, the gospel group the Fairfield Four and the viol consort Fretwork with countertenor Michael Chance. In 2003, he began a songwriting partnership with his wife, the jazz pianist and singer Diana Krall, resulting in six songs on her album The Girl In The Other Room.

Costello was nominated for a "Best Song" Oscar for "The Scarlet Tide," co-written with T Bone Burnett and sung by Alison Krauss in the filmCold Mountain. He received Grammy nominations for his When I Was Cruel and The Delivery Man albums. His North album of original piano ballads was No. 1 on Billboard's traditional jazz chart for weeks.

In the Rolling Stone piece about Costello's inclusion on the "100 Greatest Artists" list, Liz Phair wrote about his insatiable musical curiosity, "All of his music tells you: You could come along for the ride - but I'm not stopping."

Jorgensen was named Best College/University Performing Arts Center in the Hartford Advocate Best of Hartford Readers' Poll for both 2012 and 2013.

Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts is located at 2132 Hillside Road on the UConn campus in Storrs. Ticket prices are $60, $50 and $40, with some discounts, and $25-15 for youth 18 and under and non-UConn college students. For tickets and information, call the Box Office at 860.486.4226, Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., or order online at jorgensen.uconn.edu. Convenient, free parking is available across the street in the North Garage.