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Krakow, Poland

Polish people pronounce it: “KRAH-koov.” I never would have guessed that. On the other hand, they don’t say Poland. They say “Polska.” In the middle of the concert, I exclaimed, “You know, I know your cousins and aunts and uncles who live in Milwaukee. I do. I really do. They call me Jarreau-ski!” They laughed.

We had some rest time here, and everybody on the tour bus is quite refreshed. On the day before our concert at the opera house, we met with the festival organizer Witold, and my friend Vladi, and some friends from Germany who are part of the NDR organization, the Norddeutscher Rundfunk Big Band. Vladistav Sendecki is highly ranked among the great pianists of the last 100 years, with Herbie and Chick and Duke and Jarrett.  At the afternoon gathering in the hotel, Vladi and I decide that he should make a really special guest appearance at the opera house during the
concert.

What a surprise, their all being here at the same time. We met in the lobby lounge, and had a wonderful afternoon party. What a surprise. Witold, a native to Krakow, is really someone special. He can tell you about the history of the country and its famous people. Chopin. Copernicus (Earth rotates around the sun). Roman Pulanski. Lech Wałęsa (Organizer of the Polish Worker’s Union, first behind the iron curtain, who later became Poland’s president from 1990-1995). And of course, all of the important historical sites in the city. I won’t try to describe the “Cellar Under The Rams” jazz club. It’s as significant as Birdland and The Vanguard.

A once-in-my-lifetime… Never before and probably not again: The lights dim in the opera house, and the festival producer Witold is speaking in Polish.  I hear my name and out I go. We hug in the middle of the stage, and I surprise him and myself, too, by forcing him to sing a little call-and-response.  I hold him close, and put the mic in front of his mouth, and don’t let him run away off stage. And he does a good job. He taught cello at the conservatory. As far as putting on a good show, you can’t go wrong with that kind of start. “We’re gonna have some fun tonight, you guys!” is what it says. And we did. The band played brilliantly. And I could go on and on about that. But the important thing in all of this is this, and I’ll try to be brief: Krakow, Poland; Warsaw, Poland; Wrocław, Poland; Leipzig, Germany; Moscow, itself… And Kiev! And Lithuania! And Latvia! And Estonia! were places where my music and other Western European music was banned! People searched it out through underground and bootleg resources. Jazz is huge in Poland, but it all happened quietly underground. So, this is a really big deal, my being able to come here and be part of a festival with a hundred other artists. It’s an amazing thing. We all bowed our heads and thanked God for all of this backstage, just moments before we went on.

At the end, they stood up and cheered, and Vladi and I closed the night with an extended version of Summertime. Vladi was brilliant. We hugged, and promised the audience there would be more of this.

And there will be.

Was I brief?

Off we go to St. Moritz!

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Neckarsülm, Germany

It is a gorgeous morning here in Neckarsülm, Germany. The sun broke clear and beautiful over the streetcar tracks. I’ll always love the sun reflecting off of the tree leaves. Bright and silvery on one side and almost black on the other side.

Just about 35 minutes from Stuttgart is an Audi factory. We played at their beautiful modern showroom called the Audi Forum. It’s like a museum. This is a new venue for the world… I’ve written about this many times… it’s so fantastic when someone takes a space that is normally committed to other activities, and brings in some chairs and a stage, to let people have a good time. Carnegie Hall is wonderful. And so is the Berlin Symphony Hall.  I say, find a parking lot, throw up a scaffold stage, and let the people come in and stand there with their chests pressed against the edge of the stage.  I guarantee you a good time.

So they took a showroom space, that’s ordinarily displaying all the newest Audis and the older museum piece Audis, and cleared a space for the stage. They brought in six or seven hundred chairs, and invited me and the band to come perform in this wonderful unusual kind of venue. Anyone who has seen me in places other than this, and there are lots of them, has never felt or seen the kind of performance that we had last night. It’s just simply a new and different atmosphere. Akin to that, I had a wonderful chat with our promoter Gaby about doing a performance in a churchyard, or maybe right in a church. Different!

So the band really responded to this venue, and the closeness of the people, and the new kind of intimacy of the performance.

One of the wonderful luxuries that this kind of situation allows for is to plan in an intermission, and give the audience a little pause after an hour. They can go and have a glass of wine or a beer, and mingle and chat with each other… And, you can be 90% sure they’ll be chatting about this novel situation among other times “Seeing Al” since 1977. Wow! The set has lots of new music, including the Jarreau/Deodato duet “Double Face” and an a cappella version of “Puddit (Where You Want It),” a Crusaders tune. It was a great night in the new
environment.

Thanks, Neckarsülm!
Al

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Alicante, Spain

Our promoter Amparo greeted us with such open and real enthusiasm that it makes everybody forget about the hot summer weather that we’d stepped into. Amparo and I look at each other, hold hands, and laugh. “So good to see you again!”

Alicante is a beautiful seaport city with big transport ships, and tourists on the beaches visiting from everywhere from Holland to Scandinavia. We’re accustomed to, and spoiled by, fabulous summer weather with sunshine, anywhere and everywhere in America and the Americas. How lucky!  All of Northern Europe including England and Germany can be very cool and cloudy, and not very ‘summery’ in the summer. And those guys really depend on and count on a little summer “getaway.” Wow! The band was primed and in the “Get ready, Get set!” mode. Just, smacking their lips, it seemed. Here we were inside in an auditorium, with good control of all the elements… Rarely have we performed in a venue like this in Spain… it’s almost always outside, and sometimes even in a bull-fighting arena. This theatre was real compact and intimate, making it a certainty that for me and the audience, this feels like a first time meeting in more than the above respects. That is, even if we played exactly the same program that we did last time outside, the feeling of things here in this little auditorium would be and is different than the bullring outdoors. I’m being real literal about playing the bullrings. It’s normal here.

Thank you, Amparo, Alicante, and Auditorio de la Diputación!

See you next time from Krakow, Poland!
Al

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Wiesen, Austria

I’m just so deeply digging this Zawinul connection. Erich Zawinul, our promoter of many years, is the late great Joe Zawinul’s son. OK, at the risk of being over-elementary, Joe founded the group Weather Report with Wayne Shorter and Jaco Pastorius. Joe was born in Vienna and studied classical piano and the classical approach. But he was a jazzer at heart and went to Berklee School of Music in Boston, and soon after joined Cannonball Adderley and wrote the jazz standard “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy,” and of course later he wrote “Birdland.” Wow, I’m just realizing that some of you guys may not know “Birdland.” Easily as important as “Five” or “Spain.” Joe and Erich.

Anyway, here we are again with Erich at Nova Jazz & Blues Festival, with thousands of people in the afternoon sunshine and moonlit evening. “Supermoon” these months!

Last time Erica Badu was in the next door trailer. This time we shared the day with Cody Chesnutt, Marla Glen, and Jamie Cullum. A mini-fest. Just set up and hit it. No sound check. We get a few songs into the set, and out comes Diodato to join me in our hit song, “Double Face.” This is when you really miss the opportunity to soundcheck. We’d never played this song together at the same time. But it works because we both played the song in our own separate contexts, so that it’s almost just a question of who solos where. And the audience really likes this mixing of artists, right there in front of them.

Everybody comes early to say hello and hear each other and play and cheer from the side lines. In festivals in Europe, it’s standing room only. Shoulder to shoulder and back to belly to back to belly with the electricity and emotions moving at light speed from person to person.
We all do our shorter jazz fest sets, making the chance for the audience to hear lots of artists. Although the time on stage was a little rushed, this time we arrived unusually early at the site, and actually chatter with Marla Glen and Cody, and Jamie. Back stage is buzzing and great catering, too!

Oh how lucky and blessed and given to have an audience for this music like we have today and still be getting calls from promoters to come and do this special music. This is the kind of communication that passes through every artist when they come and play a festival like this or when they continue to tour on their own. Erich is a serious member of our team. At the end of the night, we do hugs all around, and promise to keep on meeting like this.

See you in Neckarsülm, Germany, at the Audi factory!

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Batumi, Georgia

It rained all day.

It was raining when I woke up before breakfast. And it was raining when we went to sound check. I used to pray that the rain would stop. Now I just pray that it all “gets to happen.” Because when the show does get to happen and it’s raining, something magical happens that just cannot and will not happen when the weather is perfect and clear. People never forget that.

Last night was another unforgettable memory. Four Thousand People could have stayed home. But when they walked out of their front doors, it was rainin’ hard, and they decided to come. They stood there singin’ in the rain, just as though they were members in the band, and for sure as though they were members of the congregation… “Church.”

The band sensed all of this, and just wore it out. And the people screamed, and the band wore it out some more.

From the first note, when I sang, “It’s a little bit funny…” That’s the opening line of Elton’s “Your Song”, and it was as though I had written it and sung it first. It was raining sideways, and we continued non-stop through the first three songs. They even sang in Swahili: “Nitakungodea Milele,” then we finally took a deep breath and took the whole vibe in a different direction with Chris’s ballad from “Zone,” his new solo album.

Since the beginning, when they came through the gates, they were standing, front row with their chests pressed against the barrier railing, arms outstretched and leaning over, teenagers. No kidding. Lots of kids. Under 21.   Here we were in Batumi, Georgia, nowhere near Atlanta, about 6500 miles away, and there are some kids down front wigglin’ with a Chicago or New Orleans or Houston attitude… It’s universal.

We had a beautiful night, and felt the wonderful spirit of these people. I would go back tomorrow if they invited me.

Thank you, Batum!

Al

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