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Oslo, Norway – 2015

Oslo, Norway – 2015

So all of a sudden there I was in the middle of the set talking about getting lost while jogging in Oslo in 1977, my first time in Norway. We played Club 7. It came up just a suddenly as this mention here and now. The rest of the story is that it was snowing, I got lost, and I was out for more than an hour and a half until I got a cab ride back and lived to tell the tale last night.

Our promoter, Peter, has done it again. Just like he did in Copenhagen, he found another great place in Norway. It was a big club-like arrangement but with seating this time coming right up to the stage.

Everybody appreciates this cooler weather that we’ve come into up north here in Europe, including Lubeck and Kiel. I still sweated like LeBron, though.

Friends of Larry come to sound check and hang out and talk about a project of theirs on which Larry did some soloing…on tenor sax as well as keyboard. Yea, Larry plays tenor sax real good! And flute! There were three of them and they all play keyboards. One of these guys is a schoolteacher and we immediately start talking about my coming to do some sort of residency for a couple of days. That would be great!

It’s an early start so I get to my dressing room and start warming it up and gearing it up and revving it up. The band has been so good during this summer’s string of dates that the new “worry” is how to sustain that and keep the fire with everybody on point. So we all visualize and picture it and remind ourselves as we go to stage…and it happened again last night. We try to construct some built in pacing to the show that risings and falls in energy and quietness. And here we go…they’re singing along in the chorus.

I don’t believe it! Directly in front of me, center of the audience, are four men. I don’t remember this ever happening in my life. Guys looking like football players! Those seats are almost always occupied by couples or women…girls’ night out. So it made me sing with some different nuances. Cool! A little more intensity is a good thing. Real early on they were placing photographs and album covers on the deck in front of me to sign. Old friends! Who knew?! Pretty soon the whole front of the stage was covered with items to sign. This was wonderful! What a great different kind of perspective to influence and inspire what we did on stage. I know the band sees this and reacts to it just like I do.

We’re affected by them being so close. We’re affected by each other. When the music is slow and funky like the chorus in “My Old Friend” their heads move and accentuate the beat just like they do in that bar on the south side of Chicago. There’s a lady moving her blonde head just like a sista. And our new song, “The Great City”, is kickin’ ass—Bassie style.

Silje is here tonight and I yelled for her. She’s a wonderful, young Norwegian Jazz singer who invited me to sing on her record in 2001, a song called “We should be happier by now” (well we are). Her daughter, who was a baby then, for years has called me “Al Zshashow”. All of sudden there’s Silje with flowers at the front of the stage and pointing to the balcony and I can actually see someone frantically waving their arms at me and squealing.

You must make and take a moment for times like this. It changes everything as an experience for you and your audience. They all heard a million singers with a million songs but they’ll never forget that night when Silje and her daughter were there. They even tolerated me and Sijle struggling our way through an impromptu version of “Teach Me Tonight”.

Mark was explosive again, finding those new moments to really solo. When Larry and Joe stop playing keyboards and pick up their flute or tenor sax it’s really an astonishing and eye-opening moment.

Well things go on and on like this and pretty soon we’ve done almost a half hour more than we should have but the audience is ok. It’s a big satisfying feeling. I should have done a bunch of autographs but we had guests waiting backstage so I’ll say “so long” for now.

See you in Montreux!

Love,

Al

Copenhagen, Denmark – 2015

Copenhagen, Denmark – 2015

Copenhagen! Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen! Definitely international and cosmopolitan. It’s bustling and busy with shoppers and stores and people on the go, including tourists who are easily recognizable. BUT. There is no sense of hurried crowded nervousness, and things are as “cool” as their winter snows.

Wow! What an amazing rock club venue that our promoter, Peter found. You know it immediately. It shouts at you, “We’re here to have fun. Let’s sing and dance and let’s rock.” It’s industrial looking with silver air duct decorations. These people will come here with their chests pressed against the stage, shoulder to shoulder, and back to belly immediately absorbing the energy from stage and quick mixing it with their own electric excitement.

That was the story all night long from the time me and Larry walked on and started our quiet “Your Song” duo. They sure sang along. The guys played a fan fare, which announces that pretty soon it’s going to get busy. Hands inside the car and hold on to your hats! And away we go with them almost leading the way and screaming, “I need somebody”.

The main floor holds about 1,000 standing people and there’s a balcony that holds about 400 more. It’s loose and fun and you can tell the band loves it. Internal phrases and solos and subtle snap endings are appreciated and they get it. Mark is killin’ them. This situation is so conducive to loving and appreciating some great drumming. Hot licks and explosive kicks! At the end of one of our fiery songs, Mark stands up at his set up and yells, “I’m Mark!” They go crazy!

Once again, this is the kind of interaction with the audience that was permeated the entire night. When that happens musicians on stage end up playing at a new and heightened level of their abilities and virtuosities. The audience brings that out of them. This exchange is touchable to the sense, and sure enough we rise to a new level. A common reaction is, “God, you guys really played with inspiration.” Well, the audience did too.

The whole story about “Moonlighting” and Cybill Shepherd and the UNKNOWN actor, Bruce Willis, is surprising and interesting. It’s so easy to sit here today and think Bruce Willis was always a huge star J.

Pretty soon after we’ve mixed a few more tempos, including a very serious ballad, we go charging home. They’re singing real loud, “And all I need is to get my Boogie Down!” Well, this audience isn’t even thinking about going home. They’re on their feet and screaming and we know that we’re going to be here awhile. I probably should not have even taken the walk.

So here we go with “Day-O” and “Roof Garden” back to back. “Day-O”! We’re singing Harry Belafonte’s banana boat song and, boy, are their eyes wide open and lit up. This is truly unheard of. Then we party hard with everyone dancing to “Roof Garden”. Hands up in the air and hips bumping and swaying. We leave but immediately realize that we can’t. We ignored some other possibilites and went with “Mas Que Nada”. Yay!!! That was a real win for the audience and us.

And we really are trying hard to leave now so I do one more big bow on the far left side of the stage balancing on Mark’s shoulder and pretty soon Mark and I are trading vocal percussion solos. He’s wonderful at this! Everyone is screaming and caught by surprise and now we really are through and they are satisfied.

We say thanks to Peter, and I take a short walk to the bus and head for another midnight sun destination.

Oslo, we’re coming for ya, baby!

Love,

Al

 

Lubeck/Kiel (Germany) – 2015

Lubeck, Germany – 2015

Arrivederci, Roma! (That’s a song). We got on a flight to Munich and then connected to Hamburg. How truly interesting! I had just spoken to some press person and promoter about first timing in Rome and singing a little improv jingle Christmas Greeting over the radio. That song is on my first and only Christmas record (2008) titled “My Christmas Tree”. And so now, going to Hamburg, the birth of my career on the continent, just after being in Rome really does trigger some flashbacks and visions of yesterday. And I start daydreaming and starring out the window again.

We operated from Hamburg as home base for concerts in two cities that are conveniently close. I came here just after the release of “We Got By” (my first record) and played a little club called Uncle Po for about a week. That booking was a really big success with great local reviews and within 6 months I was at the Berlin Jazz festival…then Paris and Rome and the rest of Europe. And so it was wonderfully trippy to talk with lots of people after the Lubeck show who had been at Uncle Po in 1976. What’s really amazing is when they show up with their kids who are 18 or 19 years old (just about the age that the mom or dad was when they heard me first).

I searched back through my memory and concluded, and I think I’m right, that I had never played in Lubeck before. So I’m really glad to be meeting a new audience with new faces. Toddy from our promoter’s office assured me that we did not go there with the NDR Big Band and Joe Sample three years ago. This date is part of a concert series called Schleswig-Holstein that includes a show in Copenhagen. All of this has been going on for 20 or so years and I never knew. Well never mind! I’m glad I know now and we’ll make some new friends at perhaps what is the most wonderful and possible time in my life, when I’ll meet some jazzers/pop/R&B people for the first time and will seriously broaden my audience.

We arrive at a serious concert venue which is real classical symphony-ish. No wings so to speak. Just a great broad stage that would hold a one hundred piece orchestra with a back wall that very often has a pipe organ (exposed pipes—but not today). My manager sets us up so that we’re really close to the first row, and if there had been an orchestra conductor, he would have been standing where I was at center stage close to the front row. I can reach out and touch ‘em. There’s a double wrap-around balcony and we’re sold out, and I think to myself, “twenty years of jazz festivals with a lot of serious music being played.” I HOPE THEY’RE NOT TOO SERIOUS TO HAVE FUN!!!

A short introduction from Christian, and I make the walk from the side doors of the stage with Larry. The two of us are conspicuously alone as Larry starts the piano introduction for “Your Song”. No smash ‘em bash ‘em beginning here. Just stark and simple and inviting!?!

A good choice for tonight. They even sing some improvised loo’s and lah’s with me and Larry during the intro. The finish of this opening song goes seamlessly into a fan fare, which kind of announces the arrival of something important and pretty soon we’re bouncing along to the beat and melody of “Mornin”. And they’re recognizing it and into it.

And there she is, center seat of the first row with a black and white pattern dress, and she’s with her friend. Her name is Silvie and they are going to have fun tonight come hell or high water. They truly were wonderful. Their openness and energy was infectious—not only for the rest of the audience but for the band, and me too. At home they might be quietly listening to Train or Bird, but tonight they’re gonna rock in their seat and stomp their feet.

It’s really popping and sparking on all eight when we start improvising new little pieces of music that start with me stating a rhythmic pattern and an improvised bass line, and pretty soon everybody in the band finds their niche and we cook for a minute. When we abruptly stop in the middle of a phrase, it becomes apparent that what we just did was made up on the spot.

Early on Mark Simmons gets right in their face with some serious drumming that you got to react to if you love Billy Cobham or Ringo Starr. As we move along in our program, they got to hear Larry Williams stop playing keyboards and pick up his silver flute then go back to the keyboards and play a solo just after John Calderon had lifted them up with an acoustic guitar solo flashing between Julian Breeme and John McLaughlin.

You could see their heads nod up and down as I talked about the importance of George Duke and my tribute record to him, “My Old Friend”. The lyric is so appropriate. “Great City”….A new song in our repertoire and never recorded yet. It’s poppin’, blues-y and Bassie-ish and immediately gets them clapping their hands. We go quick and slow with samba and a ballad and into an old standby closer, “Boogie Down”, and triple encores. They’re all standing up and applauding and some are yelling and screaming. How satisfying!

Backstage, the band and I were laughing and grinning with each other. High 5’s implied. There’s a big smile on Christian’s face which itself implies that we got to do this again next year.

Man I was tired! …But happy. I get to do this again tomorrow.

Kiel, Germany – 2015

And before you know it, with too little sleep, it’s tomorrow and we’re driving to sound check. I’m so glad Sam brought some good strong coffee! I’m actually feeling pretty good.

Now I have played Kiel before, but please don’t ask me when. Lubeck and Kiel and Hamburg are in Northern Germany up by the North Sea. And thank God it’s cooler and a little cloudy. I’m ready for this. France and Italy were boiling!

We arrive, and my manager is telling me about this matron of the festival named Birgit who is friendly and infectiously happy and joyful. He was right! Here she comes and she took over with one delightful quip and remembrance after another and I pretty soon realize that she was one of the festival’s founders along with her friend (a classical pianist) who had this vision of a music festival.

I sat on a stool at center stage and told some familiar stories about those early beginnings. I even remembered to introduce Birgit to the audience (she was around ten rows back in the middle). “She’s an originator of the festival”. If you were observing and watching closely you’d have felt the whole evening take off on a tangent angle that made things different now. Well, I’ve never pointed to a festival organizer and asked them to stand. Deep intake of breath…refreshing.

In the front row, there’s a pretty 16-year-old girl named Judith who is waving her pen and a piece of paper, and before I knew it she was up on stage laughing and smiling, almost tugging at my shirt sleeve, just delighting the audience with her youthful exuberance and innocent fearlessness. I find myself singing the song to her while doing an autograph and encouraging her to sing little parts of the song too. All of this gets cheers and applause and even the band is grinning and shaking their heads. She slips back off of the stage and into the audience but should have collected a check from me as a band member J.

We partied hard with Roof Garden and look up to the second tier balcony on the right and wave (I’m looking on out and past them to the heavens saying thank you). This has been at least as good as Lubeck.

Amazing! Birgit and her friends come to hug me, meet me, and greet me in my dressing room after the show. I’m smiling and grinning now as I think about this night. I’d love to come back next year!

Thanks, Germany! I’ll see you soon and off to Denmark!

Love,

Al

Rome – 2015

Rome, Italy – 2015

I haven’t mentioned the heat yet but it’s been a monster.   We’ve managed to escape that beast by indoors on some of these dates. Even the hotels have been hot and uncomfortable at times for sleeping. So here we are at a shopping plaza but it’s also a genuine outdoor venue…and it’s steaming.

From the start it is obvious that a lot of these people are old, traditional Roman friends of Al Jarreau. “Maestro”! They’re talking to me…I’m very flattered. But they mean it and it’s sincere and, in fact, it’s how they would address Pavarotti or Mick Jagger or Herbie. It’s really quite touching. Italians are deeply sentimental and warm of heart.

You should’ve heard the one or two little improvised lines I asked them to sing during Larry’s introduction to “Your Song” by Elton John. It’s a nice surprise for everybody to start the evening in that quiet way.

Pretty soon they’re singing “and touch the face of God” and then “I need somebody”. New venue or not, these are old friends—enthusiastic and unashamed. It’s like a pep rally. They’re really young, too. I’d say under 30 years old. When you really think about it that’s pretty amazing, and it is so often the case here in Italy and on the continent. They didn’t get the message that this music is irrelevant for them and their friends and their generation.

And I’m starting to get really comfortable and quite active from a stool at center stage. I can lean in a certain way and almost do dance step kicks in the air like Fred Astaire. Back in Venice, Joe Turano played one of the most beautiful tenor sax solos in a ballad that’s ever been played anytime anywhere, and tonight he stayed on it again.

I’m really amazed that we keep finding ways to reinvent old goodies like “Roof Garden” and “Take Five”. You’ll see…we’re coming to your neighborhood soon. Let me close by just saying we’re playing like a refreshed, new family unit. We’re seeing it, aware of it, and enjoying it.

Thank you, Rome. Thank you, Italy. Here we come, Germany!

Love,

Al

Venice/Marghera – 2015

Venice/Marghera – Nave di Vero – 2015

Oh wow! We were in this hotel last year. I remember it. Not many places with manicured spacious gardens and beautiful views outside. Nice! We just took an 8-hour drive and this sure is one of the times where everyone is glad about late-ish concert starts in Italy. As we approached the new mall I find myself saying what I said last time. “Where are the gondola’s? Where are the boats?” Well it turns out that we’re almost a half hour car ride from that part of Venice. I find myself going, “Aww damn,” again. Can you imagine how many years I’ve known about gondolas and museums and treasures and haven’t been there yet? You can’t tell anybody.

Now I remember the mall once we were properly inside. It’s a big long walk or ride on a cart to your dressing room. You’ve guessed by now…walking distances impress me. One day you’ll understand! We’re gonna get to that though…

We did a sound check and talked about some little fixes that we need to make in our new program and tried to adjust for the bounce back of sound from the 100 ft. high atrium ceiling. But I really think you would be impressed with this new kind of performing venue. It’s so relaxed and casual and comfortable. There’s no special dressing up and driving downtown, etc, etc. Just grab your kids and your wife, buy a t-shirt and some swim shorts, grab a hot dog and a drink, and listen to who??? Oh that’s Al Jarreau! And pretty soon there’s been 90 minutes of missing time. You were just abducted!

And something about this energizes the band in a new and special way. It sure does that to me. The promoters get it too. They’re seriously aware of this new find and how the people like it. Amazingly we can do the quietest ballad and it works….Encores, too. It’s amazing.

We could have played on and on, and as I left the stage I was immediately in the courtyard of the mall with 200 hundred screaming people waving CDs and LPs to sign. And I stayed for a little while to do that.

I still hope that someday we’ll play in that fabled part of Venice with gondolas and museums and medieval treasures, but for the moment, I’m thrilled. Stanley Clarke and the Yellow Jackets will come in a few weeks…how great!

Thank you, Venice. Let’s go to Rome!

Love,

Al

Caserta, Italy – 2015

Caserta, Italy – 2015

We took a 22-hour bus ride through the beautiful French and Italian countryside, including the Mont Blanc tunnel (Alps). This was our first long bus ride and I loved it. Hanging out on the bus with the band is totally fun and uproariously entertaining. John and Chris and Mark do some details about their music studies in Houston as high school kids and young college students. Wow, they had some great teachers and intense study routines! My mouth and eyes are wide open in envy. That’s the sh**! Texas??? Of course lots of know about the great music program at North Texas State where they do great work in jazz studies. But when these guys talk about how broad the arts programs are in Texas to include across the board arts I find myself in shock. Conservative Texas?? And it’s still happening today. That’s wonderful!

At a truck stop, I buy some comfort goodies: potato chips, cookies, and a big ole cheese and bologna sandwich—all the stuff my doctor would be horrified to know about. And my response to him that the whole band can here is, “cool it doc, I’m on tour. This one’s for me.” Of course the highlight of things is everyone’s satisfaction with the night before in Paris. Smiles all around.

Italy’s been a friend of my music since the early days. And we very often find ourselves playing city-sponsored free concerts in the square. This has drawn a noticeably youthful audience that came with their own curiosity and went home to talk about this Jarreau guy and then went off to find my music. They are characteristically Italian in their enthusiasm and joyfulness almost bouncing up and down.

And so in the last few years we’ve decidedly played in some giant shopping malls throughout Italy and found ourselves with a brand new kind of listener. There’s a husband, wife, and kids shopping for clothes or a toaster and stopping at the food court for gelato and a sandwich. Now that’s a new kind of friend. There’s a fun casualness that I love and adore and often talk about. It’s called, “put up a stage with scaffolding and sound and invite people to come and party”. That’s different than the pristine concert hall with built in tension. We play in the center of the food court with browsing and shopping all around. It’s almost like a city square carnival but all the snacks are different.  And the place is packed like a nightclub…it’s fantastic.

It’s about eight steps up to the stage level and I struggle a bit in plain view of the audience with my team helping me. I sense and feel a bit of a hush and maybe it’s in my mind because I’m so self-conscious, but once I’m on stage and sing my opening lines, it’s run baby run! The band and I are set up really close to each other and we know it and feel it internally. Once again I’m seeing people sing the words right along with me and there are a lot of people who came to hear the music, not to go shopping. And that’s way cool!

I am happy… Let’s go eat some dinner…Long drive tomorrow again!

See you in Venice!

Love,

Al