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Hannover

It’s raining again, again, again. And we have a pick up time at 3:30pm where we walk outside of the hotel, take a deep breath, and talk about how much this is like home. For me and Joe, Milwaukee. For my assistant Brian, Ohio. This is fall. This is autumn. Oops did I say that yesterday? We arrive at the concert hall, walk into the theatre and past the venue staff, and I whisper in my mind that, “I will see you in 10 hours, and I’ll be almost on my way home. Over the past 4 weeks, I and the NDR band have come together in a wonderful, brand new fashion. Especially because we are now doing this with Joe Sample. Children of the Sun… of the children of the children of the children of the sun. Who in fact are Porgy and Bess. Thank you George and Ira for your sensitivity. I’ve been coming Hannover for years. And people forget what time it is. These people come with photos and signatures. And it’s me. Yes it’s me.

Tomorrow will be my last day with NDR and Joe Sample. And all afternoon since sound check we’re doing photos, pictures, signatures, hello to Mom. Hello to Uncle Harry.

Tonight we figured out a way for me to be in the wings and not visible, but really, really close to the band as they play the Joe Sample segment of the evening. Even when I’m farther away than tonight, I’m blown away by these compositions, and how NDR owns it and jumps all over it… this is new stuff folks. And they are wearing it out at high level.

Hi Frank tonight you are 8 feet from me as you play your big baritone sax. Dan walks close and past me on his way to the front of the stage just like many times before on this tour. But it’s almost as though the Gods of music have forced us together in a cluster tonight… and we look at each other, straight into the eyes. And declare, “Wow, this has been some wonderful, cool stuff.”

Ask me about the new front of, “Summertime.” Ask me about the second verse of, “Oh Bess…” And the out-choruses of, “Oh Lord, I’m On My Way.” Definitely new territory for me vocally.

Someone will sit across from you, and say, “Wow I never knew.”

Hello my singer friend. You must be still and quiet and breathe deeply. And carry on. Thanks!

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Luxembourg

Luxembourg

Wow I’m sitting here in Luxembourg having coffee. Today is a show day, and I’m doing vocal warm-ups, but Brian just walked in and read me my comments at the Wisconsin Travel Blog… just some memories of years past in Wisconsin for me. It took me away, and way back, and conjured up sights and sounds from years and years ago. For a moment, it was Christmas time. Have a look.

Cloudy, drizzly. Joe Turano, Brian, and I step out of the hotel at 3pm, and breathe in the misty cold and look at each other and smile and say, “this really feels good.” All 3 of us are Midwesterners who came to like ice skating… yes black folks like ice skating too.

Well, here we are in Luxembourg and before the day is finished, we have found ourselves saying, “How lucky and blessed we are to be able to bring this music across the face of the globe to people living in a way different country than us. This is the dream that any other artist, musician, juggler, painter, writer, preacher, priests has. It is to be able to take its heart to any place on the globe, and discover that people understand who he is, and realize this time together. And so it happened again.

We looked at each other and said that this is a powerful program that we’re doing! Do you know what? I haven’t been here for years. Have you. All of us silently admit, “No I haven’t.” And then we all conclude how great it is to have a program like this. That it’s opening doors for places that we haven’t been in years. Thanks!

Love, Al

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Frankfurt

You pray that when you go to the Olympia in Paris, the Berlin symphony, or when you end up at the Frankfurt symphony, that you’re in good shape. The band is in good shape, because these are capital centers of music and this is not where you want things to break down.

They are very responsive crowds, and knowledgeable.

I’ve been here so many times that it’s impossible to distinguish differences… really. What I mostly remember is that one of the biggest American military bases, has been here, and the brigade, company, and generals always came to hear an American perform

Here I am again at a great concert hall in Deutschland, Frankfurt. And we’re sold out. The front row is so close that I can touch their hands, smell their perfume, and see their blue suede shoes.

I wish you could see the Alte Oper, which means Old Opera, which we are playing once again. Pavarotti, Placido, Jose Carreras, Cecilia Bartoli, and Joan Sutherland walked here and prayed here.

Do you remember that I said there are some places that are holy ground? And where you want to be your purest and cleanest and your most Godly self. When I am in Rome at Cappella Sistina… when I am in Paris at the Olympia… when I am in Chicago at the Chicago theatre… when I am in Virginia at Wolf Trap… when I am in Berlin at the Philharmonic you can be sure I did not sleep the night before. It’s called praying.

Anyway, Joe Sample hits the stage at 8 o’clock playing, “Buttermilk Sky.” His new composition from the “Children Of The Sun” album. It bubbles and bounces along, and announces a new method for Joe to express his creative output via the struggle of slaves on the island of St. Croix.

For 15 nights now, I’ve entered onto the stage talking about the Gershwin’s who understood the children of the children of the sun and called them Porgy and Bess. What a wonderful connection between musical themes. Hello?! I’m going to sing music they’ve never heard me sing before. I’m going to sing Porgy and Bess. Children of the children of the children of the sun.

And so I sing, “Summertime,” and, “It Ain’t Necessarily So,” and “I Got Plenty Of Nothing,” and I sing 2 songs to Bess in the character of Porgy. One of them is, “Bess You Is My Woman,” and the other one is, “Bess, Oh Where’s My Bess.” Inside of these songs I’ve become a new Al Jarreau. I don’t know what critics will say about this Al Jarreau… Porgy and Bess. But I will tell you that this is some of the best Al Jarreau that I know.

What a night in Frankfurt, Germany I am so proud of this coming together with Joe Sample and the NDR in one of the most important centers of art in the world. If you didn’t like it, that’s OK.

Joe and I signed and autographed tickets and CD’s for an hour. We laughed the whole time.

Love, Al

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Dresden

It’s a rainy, sunny afternoon in Dresden where Bach did his thing. Brian (singer-songwriter Brian) and I, take a look at Silje Nergaard’s new CD. Hello Silje! I love you. You did it again. Your opening statement, “All I Had,” is magnificent. It is a precious and important opening comment.

Yes, yes, yes. We singers, with words in our pockets, have a special commitment! We can always sing, “La dee da dee da.. Scopo Gee Be Ya.” With ears and minds, it demands that you need words in the opening song. To choose this one as your opening statement changes everyone who listens to you, and loves you. Right then, and here, and now we can all see you.

Love, Al

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Essen

I’m confessin’ what a lesson and a blessin’ in Essen. Who knew? Go figure. I take their reaction as a standard across the board for this new music that Joe and I are doing. Well… Joe’s music is absolutely new. New compositions, children of the sun. And I’m doing new music for me and my audience. The children of the children of the children of the sun. The Gershwin’s called them Porgy and Bess. Children of the sun. Son’s and daughters of slaves. And to be sure, I am one. And Joe is one. And everyone in the world might have an ancestor who is a child and a children of the sun.

Engaged audience, rapt attention, a lot of smiles. They got the setups. Reacted to my take and versions on the normal in this music. Something that is really special is that men don’t like to react to this. And don’t challenge them with your eyes. Let them breathe and hear it and think it’s a voice out of the mist. Then they’ll relax and go and ride with Miles. I sing to some distant figure in the mist somewhere between the balcony and the audience.

When the song is over, I’m sure that they all went with me… new approach. I’ve always sung some personal music to the heart stuff. With writing that I write, and the songs that I choose, which I hope are as sensitive and poignant as Gershwin and Joni Mitchell. And there aren’t many. “Well I came upon this child of God, he was walking on down the road, and I asked him where are you going, and this he told me… We are stardust, we are golden, and we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden.” Please see stars and supernovas, and planet creation and accretion.

New way to end the evening that gives the audience a chance to react and show their appreciation for Jorg Keller, the NDR orchestra, and Joe Sample all at once we stand there and thank them. And then me and Joe leave the stage. Well, with the orchestra still standing there it’s obvious that we will do encores. And so Joe Sample and I rejoin NDR for encores.

How do you follow, “Take 5?” Well, only with the quietest ballad in the world, “Midnight Sun.” Come along, sit forward on the edge of your seat. As big as it could be made, they got it. Here in Essen. Essen, sweet Essen.

I’m going to stop now. I could go on and on and on. But I’ll just point to my opening remarks about Essen being a high standard of response from my old friends in Germany. Gawd I love you. You sent me forth.

Hi Siggi. Hi Fritz.

Love, Al

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Dortmund

Dortmund

We’re riding home from the concert, and what a wonderful night it was again in Deutschland. But Joe Sample continues the story in the car about what he saw in West Texas, and what he experienced as a child of the children of the children of the sun. He explains on stage every night the inspiration for this new music that he has written what happened because he was in St. Croix and realizing that slaves on this island had no escape, no underground railroad of sympathetic people who open their houses, hallways, basements, and churches to slaves trying to escape the darkness and servitude. That particular chapter happened only in America during the Civil War when Union soldiers exclaimed to the South, “a new day is coming.” And slaves ran on foot to Ohio and Chicago. Joe looked at the stones that were huge and mammoth and they must have been important at some time, he thought. And the locals said, “well of course, Mr. Sample, this is where the slaves made rum, made sugar cane, they picked cotton, and there was no escape. And Joe looked out and saw they made rum, sugar cane, they made the wealth of a new nation. They made the bankers rich in New York. And Joe looked out and said, “All this wonderful blue water. No escape.” That began, “Children of the Sun.”

And here’s the amazing thing, this audience in Dortmund understood, and got the importance and poignant and significance of these stories and applauded Joe’s discussion of things so many times unheard and unrealized. They understood Joe’s description about the depths of slavery, and so much American wealth made by slaves. Oops not a pleasant story.

And now I walk out with my straw hat in imitation of Sportin’ Life.. Gershwin’s.. George and Ira.. who in fact did write about the Children of the Children of the slaves. See Porgy and Bess. One of the grandest operas and musicals ever created for the heart! Amazing!

What a sensitive and heartfelt Afro-American jazz story written by the Gershwin’s and Dubose Heyward. And they got it. And applauded every chapter of Joe’s new material.

Oh my God I would like to think that an American audience would be so sensitive and smart and inclined.

Anyways boys and girls, the NDR orchestra plays at a level above all of this social description of things. They don’t funk around.

Working with a music stand between you and an audience that blocks your vision of some faces in the nearby front rows has always seemed a probable disturbance until I’ve really found myself in the situation. Even though the Gershwin music covers such a serious tone it is written with such a sense of humor that you can easily find yourself in moments of hide and seek behind a music stand. Now that’s covered some scope. Joe and I consistently now are doing, “Take 5” as an encore, “Midnight Sun,” “Mas Que Nada,” and, “C.C. Rider.” It stretches out the evening another 20 minutes, but wow they’re ready for it, and definitely don’t want to go home. By that point we’ve been out there 3 hours since intermission time, and from their arrival time to this point it’s 4 hours in a theatre. This is really getting to the borderline of intelligent absorption. Oh yes to be sure there is another one. But I’ve never been near an audience that “gothic bezerk” and jumping in place. Thank you Dortmund for being so receptive. You paid attention to quite a long evening. Including an intermission, and still you ask for 3 more encores.

We have to keep meeting like this. And more often.

Love, Al

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