The only vocalist in history ever to win Grammy Awards in jazz, pop and R&B, the legendary Al Jarreau hit another unique milestone in 2007 when he extended his Grammy streak to four different decades (‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s, 2000s) by winning in the Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance category for his recording of “God Bless The Child” with Jill Scott. Never one to rest on his considerable laurels, the multi-talented 68-year-old dynamo is following 2006’s Givin’ It Up, his first ever dual collaboration album with fellow multi-genre superstar George Benson, with three exciting album projects on catalog giant Rhino Records this year - including a new Best Of collection featuring several new tracks and his first ever Christmas project. The first of these was released in January, the romantic-themed collection, Love Songs.
A 14-track collection featuring songs he personally handpicked from his vast recording catalog, Love Songs includes his most enduring adult contemporary hits “We’re In This Love Together” and “After All,” in addition to his popular early ‘80s take on “Teach Me Tonight,” smooth jazz era gems “So Good” and “Heaven And Earth,” a little heard version of Elton John’s “Your Song” (from his 1976 album, Glow) and “Let It Rain,” a highlight from Givin’ It Up that also features vocals by Patti Austin.
With his inimitable vocal mix of silky romance and innovative jazz scatting abilities, Jarreau is so identified as one-of-a-kind interpreter that it’s easy to forget the great songs he has written or co-written. These include some of his biggest hits: “After All” and “Mornin’” (with David Foster and Jay Graydon), “Roof Garden” and the “Theme From Moonlighting.” In addition to “After All,” Love Songs has three other tracks that Jarreau had a hand in composing, including “Goodhands Tonight,” “Let It Rain” and “Brite ‘N’ Sunny Babe,” a late ‘70s song he originally wrote for his wife Susan and which appeared on his album All Fly Home. Jarreau credits the “fresh young ears” at Rhino Records for convincing him to listen back to that tune and put it out for a new generation to hear.
“It’s completely appropriate that I include that tune on Love Songs, because it was eight years ago that Susan first told me that [a compilation] of my best romantic songs was long overdue,” says Jarreau. “She kept calling it ‘Al’s Valentine card,’ and we had many of the older songs already picked and were just waiting for the right opportunity. The good news about doing it now is that we were able to include a few extra songs that I really love, like the one with Patti, the Rex Rideout tune ‘Secrets of Love’ from All I Got and ‘My Foolish Heart’ from Accentuate the Positive. I’m sure some fans are going to wonder why songs like ‘Since I Fell For You’ are missing, but to me it takes those fresh ears to go beyond the obvious and create a collection that captures the spirit of my career, yet also feels very much like a recording of today.”
Jarreau has toured the world many times, and says he never gets tired of audiences screaming out for great ballads and romantic songs. It’s a love he shares with them that has been part of his own life since growing up in Milwaukee as a huge fan of legendary crooners Nat “King” Cole and Johnny Mathis. One of the first songs he remembers singing around the house was “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.” He says the qualities that attract him to a great love song - and may inspire him to record it - are the same as those that make a compelling song in general. “It catches your ear and draws you in,” he says. “I love melodies that are set inside rich interesting chords that just tug at my heartstrings. Sometimes beautiful instrumental pieces can even hit me this way. For the past 12 years, I’ve been doing symphony programs and singing a lyric I wrote to Bach’s Aire on a G String.
The cover of Al Jarreau's album, Love Songs.
“The late Joe Zawinul from Weather Report wrote one of my all-time favorite romantic songs ‘A Remark You Made,’” the singer adds, “and it has such intelligence and heart. Those are the things that attract me to a good love song. There are just certain sensibilities that we as human creatures with a soul respond to, certain vibrations in the music. The task of any great singer is to either write new songs that tap into those or to find them out there so you can pass them along to people whose hearts are in the same place.”
It’s ironic to note that for Jarreau, music was always his top passion, but was actually a second career choice. He earned a Master’s in Vocational Rehabilitation from the University of Iowa - specializing in work with everyone from ex-cons to amputees - before relocating to San Francisco to work as a counselor. Hanging on to that day job for five years in the 1960s, he hooked up with keyboardist George Duke (a future jazz/R&B legend himself) and from 1966-69 he performed locally with Duke’s trio. Some of the gigs were in the center of the flower-power universe, the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, and Jarreau would often encounter kids on the street who he would later be helping in his job as a rehab counselor.
In a recent interview with Duke for the latter’s XM radio show, Jarreau told his old compatriot of some of his experiences at the tail end of the ‘60s in New York, when he sang at Rodney Dangerfield’s club and met up with future stars like Bette Midler, John Belushi and Jimmie Walker. The singer finally settled in Los Angeles, where he performed regularly at hotspots like Dino’s, The Troubadour and Bitter End West. He was also one of the few singers ever to perform on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson without benefit of a major record deal. That all changed quickly when in 1975, after an extended stint at Bla Bla Café, he signed with Warner Bros and released his debut We Got By to universal acclaim. He subsequently won his first Grammy award in 1978, for Best Jazz Vocal Performance for “Look To The Rainbow.”
Jarreau, who performed almost 40 concerts with George Benson last year (including the U.S. and Russia), is currently planning his live performance itinerary for the rest of 2008. He recently changed booking agencies and is hoping he will be able to include concerts in some of his favorite provinces in France over the summer.
“Even back in the club days in the Bay Area, I was fairly confident that if I stuck with my singing, I could make a few friends who would tell their friends and maybe the crowds would grow,” says Jarreau. “I was willing to wait for the right big break and was happy to work in small rooms to build my audience. The huge success that came in the mid-‘70s was surprising at first, but I had a great deal of confidence that I would be able to sustain it because I was finally doing what I love to do and making a living at it. Every time I walk onstage these days, I feel the same kind of exuberance about the music as I did back in the beginning. I have this renewed appreciation for the art form that keeps growing, as I continue to experience this joy that stems from my profound love for the music.”
No comments:
Post a Comment