Artist Interview by: Ron Miller
Al Jarreau is synonymous with great vocal acrobatics and a velvety smooth tone that makes people of all listening experiences equally enjoy his music. His latest CD, “All I Got” (Verve 2002) proves Al has a lot to offer any music fan of the contemporary music scene. With Jarreau’s acute sense of understanding of what works, and the ability to just have fun with his craft, all music listeners are able to enjoy his vocal jazz exploits. His voice is not only instantly recognizable, but fluid, soulful, funky, romantic, and joyous.
Music in his soul and charity in his heart, Jarreau has always worked hard in spreading the gospel of vocal jazz improv through his performance, charitable works and also via his Smithsonian Radio program entitled “Jazz Singers” (jazzsingersradio.com). In his program, he educates listeners to the great lineage of jazz vocalist and their contribution to the American society.
Al Jarreau’s previous Verve recording, Tomorrow Today, (2000) held the #1 position on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Chart for eleven weeks. His latest outing, “All I Got,” reaffirms Jarreau’s commitment to great music, delivering some serious mirrored vocal reflections of life and politics. Engaging in romantic and fun times as well, Jarreau also offers a few surprises; vocal collaborations with Joe Cocker, Kirk Whalum on sax, and the hip production talents of Paul Brown.
Complete with an organic mix of humanly produced tones via body thumps, finger snaps, and contemporary percussion from the Urban scene, Jarreau delivers a superlative collection of love-drenched and human interest themes, cross-cultural, humanly reflective, and deep in nature. Co-writer on six cuts, Jarreau’s poignant political statements are tempered with brilliant musical arrangements and songwriting collaboration.
An explorer, Jarreau is the only vocal performer in history to win Grammy Awards in three different categories: Jazz, Pop and R&B! This five-time Grammy-winning success story stems from a body of work that spans a career of over 25 years.
After taking a six-year hiatus from recording in the 90’s, some were wondering if Jarreau had retired, heaven forbid, totally disappearing from the music scene. However, Al toured more than ever, premiered on stage with a symphony program, and performed in the Broadway musical play, “Grease.” He also appeared on television in New York Undercover, Touched By An Angel and did a commercial for McDonald’s in duet with R& B singer, Vesta Williams. One could hardly say Jarreau had retired.
Keeping pace with his previous humanitarian efforts such as ‘We Are The World’ and others in the past, Jarreau is also the champion and spokesperson for Verizon’s National Literacy Program. His goal is to encourage more people to read, fostering respect and growth for education in America. Having a Master’s Degree, Jarreau believes in the value of education.
In our interview with Al Jarreau, we find a renaissance man and happy artist, proud of his work and ready to perform the new gems to an audience right away. Let’s take a look at this world-class artist as he gives us all he’s got!
JazzReview: Hello Al, we are happy to speak with you about your new project and appreciate your time. I really like your new CD. ‘All I Got’ has a unique twist to some of your previous recordings, and some great collaboration as well.
Al Jarreau: Yes, I have a new CD out called ‘All I Go,’ just released September 17th. I hope it will be played in a lot of living rooms. It’s a new album with a lot of variety. I just opened the door up like I typically do and let what comes through the door get my ear and attention for a while. It really made a kind of eclectic of approach to an eclectic sounding album, with some things quite funky and urban popish in sound, you know, including some Al Jarreau ballads (none of which I wrote on this record). I didn’t write any of the ballads, but other things. Six pieces, or songs, of the eleven are mine. It’s very personal in a lot of ways…a lot of personal statements I was able to make and some nice surprises for people.
I think a song for South Africa is going to be so well received. It’s well written and a band song called “Jacaranda Bougainvillea.” Jacaranda is a tree and bougainvillea is a vine. I have one in my front and back yard. It is a tree and vine common to Southern California, as well as Africa, probably because of the warm climates we share. Anyway, I saw a Jacaranda tree (lavender flower)and a bougainvillea vine in South Africa, cuddled up together inside and around each other. I had never seen that before and it struck me as symbolic of what is going on in South Africa today. The symbolism I wanted to use for a metaphor about this new nation . There are all kinds of references in this song to this new nation of South Africa and to Mandela. Did you hear it?
JazzReview: Yes, the piece is very festive and uplifting. I really liked it. “Jacaranda Bougainvillea” is a song about a serious situation, but it is a joyous song.
Al Jarreau: I like that word you used - festive…and it’s a band song. I really love it. I walked in one afternoon, on one of the few days we picked for ourselves to write music together, to compose, and the band was playing this song. We’d been in South Africa at that point a couple of months before. I walked in and said, ‘Man, that’s a song about South Africa ,’ and that’s how it happened . The other song that the band and I got together on was ‘All I Got.’ It doesn’t happen very often that the touring band gets to write with the artist on the label and play the music, so I’m really tickled about that. It’s happened here on this album and, of course, the Joe Cocker moment is special, very special.
JazzReview: Yes, ‘Lost And Found’ has a lot of gospel and vocal intensity. That’s a really good song and the way your voices blend together is really nice. I also noticed you went lower in your vocal range and that has a great tone. It offers a nice contrast of style and sonority.
Al Jarreau: Yes, people are talking about that one already. The textures in our voices are really different. But yes, I did push the lower end of my range just to get the effect that it has on certain passages and certain words. We’ve been pleased and thrilled about how our two voices work together, especially down as the choruses really get pumping and moving. A song I wrote with Tom Canning, one of the first writers and musicians I’ve ever worked and toured with on the road, he’s all over the first four albums that I did. He was a songwriter and piano player on all of those things. This song has been on the back burner for a number of years. I only recently heard this new approach and heard Joe (Cocker) singing it in my mind. I called him 'Joe' and sent him a demonstration of it. Joe said, ‘Yeah, let’s go!’
JazzReview: You mentioned the title piece ‘All I Got’ was a band arrangement. I was really impressed by the intricate vocal arrangement and how the lead vocal is nicely intertwined with the background. That’s a smooth touch, not just a standard approach to the use of a voice lead with simple harmony. The two vocal sections react to one another like a horn solo section. The rhythm is nice throughout the piece…definitely your anthem.
Al Jarreau: Aha! Well, that’s great how you picked that up there. Sometimes stuff like that slips by people, but is great when someone can point out those little things. You work hard on things like that and it’s great when someone says -yeah, I like the way the background vocals interweave in and out there and the radio will be playing…(woo.. woo.. woo.. woo.. Al scats etc.). Then the song explodes into this new section about two-thirds of the way--the ‘All I Got’ section.
JazzReview: The vocal breakdown section?
Al Jarreau: Yeah, the vocal breakdown It just breaks down to this funky, funkier-then-thou feeling, you know. I just love that. ‘Go ahead band…thanks for helping me write great music, relevant music.’
JazzReview: Along with your fans, I always feel your music is relevant.
Al Jarreau: Well, I think so, but you can’t always prove that by the charts. There are a lot of important statements on this record, including what I get to say in Oasis, Jacaranda Bougainvillea, and Life Is. Just statements about life and what is important. A project like this satisfies a lot of things in me. To be able to make a statement like in Oasis, we’re talking about things of value. Hang on to some church and the Sequoia, and don’t let that stuff end up in a capsule underground to become a tapestry, a picture of forest, trees and animals.
JazzReview: I like the use of woodwinds and the spicy addition of Kirk Whalum on sax as well. He was very good, the woodwinds especially, and the use of flute by Larry Williams.
Al Jarreau: Hey, hey, hey! That’s Jerry Hey on the arrangements for horns and woodwind, and Kirk Whalum was brilliant! Yeah, a lot of satisfying moments on this record. I love it! Paul Brown called me the other day and mentioned, ‘people are stopping me and finding time to call me, especially about the record and how they really want to point out things that they enjoyed about the CD.’ I’m not as easy to reach as Paul is, but these people are musicians you know, friends of ours who call to say they really like it.
JazzReview: I thought the organic use of things like live handclaps and finger snaps really sounds nice, especially with the electronic sounds today that substitute real sounds. That was a nice touch on Secrets of Love.
Al Jarreau: Well, that’s Paul Brown, a contemporary producer who knows everyone from Busta Rhymes to Babyface. He can produce that music if he chooses to, but Paul is hip to what is contemporary music and what feels and sounds good. He mixes the stuff that works well with the artists that he’s producing, so that the artist's music has a real ‘today’ kind of feel. I mean, that finger snap could have just as easily been produced by cross stick (rim shot on snare). You know what I mean? But, to make the sound a finger snap, it just makes it much more accessible for everyone listening to contemporary music on the radio today.
JazzReview: That really stuck out with me. The whole idea of using different options, in this case ‘earthy’ tones, to augment the feel of the recording in general. That was a nice touch with great lyrics.
Al Jarreau: Oh yeah! Great Lyrics, Rex Rideout. There are two songs he contributed on this project, Secrets Of Love and Until You Love Me. Brilliant writer, Rex Rideout. These are the first two pieces of his I’ve ever used. God, I wish I was writing like that. Man, lyrics and music…it’s all his.
JazzReview: I like the way, in typical Jarreau fashion, you throw a nice curve on ‘Route 66,’ using earthy, human tones like body thumps and some agile scat and A capella singing which is a staple of your live sets.
Al Jarreau: Yeah, I’m singing the stand up bass line and a few finger snaps on there, just going for an organic sound…organic, like how I would do something in concert. I do a lot of acapella singing in concert and scatting as well for the live crowd. The ending is like how we ended my last CD Tomorrow Today with the Joe Sample and the Crusaders version of Put It Where You Want It, an A capella piece. There is a nice tradition I could start with the A capella pieces (on each CD) if I wanted to.
JazzReview: That really stands out because vocals used in the doo-wop fashion or A capella in general, are a lost art, especially in a live performance without the electronic safety net. I also want to commend you on your humanitarian efforts with what you are doing representing the Verizon Reading Literacy Program(www.verizonreads.net/champions). I know that you are a man who is very well read and has a Masters Degree in Vocational Rehabilitation. Your life seems to be dedicated artistically and educationally in really giving back to society. You stand out as a great role model.
Al Jarreau: My manager had Verizon contact me about a pet thing of mine for years and years, about the critical situation with schooling and education. They called me and asked if I would champion their cause…let people know we have a real critical literacy issue in this country. We need to get people back in school and reading. Many of these people are new citizens, immigrants and folks in the center city who need help. They are still having difficulty communicating in English and reading their prescriptions. Forget reading any kind of novel. We’re talking about just functioning by reading and communicating better with each other as a country.
JazzReview: I believe you’ve touched upon a situation where our pop culture has taken over our culture as a whole. The “quick fix” trap has really ensnared a lot of folks who buy into not reaching for higher goals or being led to believe that you can get around an education by being cool and going across the grain.
Al Jarreau: Pop culture makes icons that don’t have anything to do with church, government, and not much at all about school…very unpopular subject matters. You don’t hear anyone on MTV saying anything about it or offering solutions do you? These are things that are the foundation and survival of what keeps us alive and well. That is why I’ve enjoyed working with this program because it has a relevant , lasting worth for me as an artist and society. We all benefit from better readers and people who can write, just like what you are doing right now.
JazzReview: As an artist/musician you have to have discipline because you have to refine a craft and reach higher goals by progressing through the foundations or principles of an artistic discipline. Artists such as yourself inspire and benefit all of society.
Al Jarreau: It’s the short attention span. Now the kids think that they don’t need to sing in tune or arrange things for themselves. A lot of them believe in just sampling music or borrowing tracks. That doesn’t move music or art further. It just feeds off of what is already there, but we are kind of saved by the black church. The black church will continue singing and there’s nobody rappin’, but the preacher! Anyway, we are talking about the same things. We are at the point right now where there are two generations of music people who think this sampled way of creating music is ‘the’ way, so I hope we can change that. I’ve got a new CD and it is the opposite of all of that.
JazzReview: I really like the collection as a whole and enjoyed catching some twist and turns on the past, like on ‘Route 66’ and ‘Spain.’ You’ve delivered some fresh and positive music over the past 25 years and on ‘All I Got,” you deliver the goods again. When you were on your recording hiatus for 6 years you still stayed busy by touring. Could you elaborate on this period for your fans - just in case they might have missed some of your work and want to catch up on the activities they may be unaware of?
Al Jarreau: Yes! I was still touring, in fact, I toured more than I ever had in the past, so I kept in touch with my audience. I got my symphony program underway, which included my music and that of other people too, and I performed on the Broadway production of ‘Grease.’ I was busier than ever! For the most part, I was doing what I have always done…perform live. I was shopping for a record deal and was letting people know that there is a new album coming. I was just waiting for the right label (Verve), but I toured more than ever.
JazzReview: When will you be touring with the new CD - “All I Got?”
Al Jarreau: I will tour in the next 6 weeks (mid-November) and look forward to getting a chance to perform this music in front of an audience. I really look forward to performing on campus. I love going to campus. Going to campus is very important, letting kids on campus know there is life after MTV !
JazzReview: I have had the fortune of listening to you for the good side of twenty years and I can’t wait to see you perform again! I want to personally thank you for your time and artistic adventures as well.
Al Jarreau: Well, thank you for our chat and letting me talk to you and your audience too, letting them find out about the new CD. That’s really great for me and I hope to see you soon!
For more information: http://aljarreau.com
Photo by: © Morrice Blackwell
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