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San Ramon and Campbell, CA

San Ramon

A good way to get to San Ramon is to fly into the San Jose, CA airport. Wow, I’ve been in San Jose and around San Jose since the early 60s, and I just realized that I had never been to that airport. It’s beautiful. Modern and comfortable, progressive state of the art architecture, and UN-crowded! We spent the night at a nearby airport hotel, and traveled to San Ramon and to Campbell, CA by car.

It was about an hour and a half drive to San Ramon, directly opposite and inland of San Francisco in the East Bay. It’s so important to remember that there is an audience of people who individually decided years ago that the big city is too much for them, and they live in small communities outside the city. And so, as artists and performers, it’s a good thing to make a reach for them by going to them. And they appreciate that effort so very very much…. You can feel it in their response.

It turns out that the San Ramon city council has a heart that beats just like mine. And I told Mayor Abram Wilson from the stage to take credit for it, even if it didn’t happen on his watch, because it’s brilliant. The Windemere community and Dougherty Valley built a brand new performing arts facility into the local high school, so that it’s near the kids. The high school has music and arts and dance.

We did an intermission evening and I said, “I sure am glad because I have to go to the bathroom right now.” It was a wonderful first half, and they really got the report on the State of the Rainbow Address… All that music from the early We Got By and Look to the Rainbow period of my life.

In the second half, a married couple on my left very freely chimed in, “Al, we got married in 1981, and you couldn’t come to the wedding, but our first dance was to one of your songs.” They had seen me many times at the Greek in Berkeley. I’ve been especially touched here recently with Larry William’s unexpected excursion into some solo piano work, which reminds everybody that I’m not doing this alone. (“Al Jarreau Got People!”) And in moments, Larry begins playing the very recognizable opening bars to We Got By.

All in all, it was a great night, a great first meeting for me and the people of San Ramon/Dougherty Valley.

I met with the mayor and friends afterward, and they gave me a gift bag with a note from the city council, and a medal, and some goodies.

Thank you, San Ramon!
Love, Al

Campbell

I said “Campbell! MM, MM GOOD!”…. All night long. They got it. That was fun. San Ramon and Campbell are models for the country in how the city has made new facilities in high schools and used old facilities in high schools for performing arts. This has the effect of focusing attention on the local high school and the kids who attend.

I sang Fire and Rain from the far right side of the stage during soundcheck, as I normally never do. And then during the performance, I spotted a young girl 13 years old who sat in the front row on that same far right hand side of the stage, and I walked right back over there and sang to her 9 feet away. I sang a little three-note melody asking “What’s your name?” She replied right in tune—“Madison”—- I told her how happy I was to see her. Moments later I sang Fire and Rain directly to her. For me, this set the tone for the whole evening, warm and personal with the audience relaxed and responsive. They sang!

Joe played masterfully the Soprano sax. He sent Coltrane home early. It was really wonderful and again, John Calderon in his moments just sparkled like sunshine off the water, and even when we were powering along, unlike the really quiet moments, John really sparkled great.

Midge from The Blah Blah Café (1972-3) sent a note and came backstage with Michaela. We didn’t, but it felt like we were holding hands and jumping up and down with laughter.

What a great weekend in the East Bay area. Thank you, Louis, our promoter, and everyone who came that night.
Love
Al

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Cerritos and Pepperdine University

I call it home! Anyplace within 30 or 40 minutes of Los Angeles, I call home. In fact, Patrick and I drove there from my house.

“I’m refueling and recharging the batteries and all systems,” is what I told them. I’m here to report on the “State of Rainbow.” My State of the Rainbow Address. You guys were there before the beginning. My cousin Melanie said, “Yes, I’m here, Al.” She knew me from Milwaukee days. She lived in Buffalo then.

So just generally speaking, and specifically, too, these folks saw me in local restaurants and clubs before I signed my first record deal with WEA, Warner Electra Atlantic in Burbank, on Olive. They heard “We Got By” just moments after it was written. They encouraged me to go on out there and do it.

So I’m back home 35 years later, and giving my report on The State of The Rainbow…. In short, my hundred meter times are not the same, but my marathon is kickin’. We got some of the best music performance reviews I’ve ever had in my life. Susan and I get on the phone and celebrate and rejoice and give thanks every night for this continuing rainbow ride. She was there before the WEA contract, too. And worked in those little clubs and restaurants where I sang on stage. Every day is Thanksgiving.

So maybe you can imagine how wonderful it felt to see my new agents Rick, Zach, and Michelle from ICM… My grin still hurts. At the Pepperdine performance, Jerry Levin, my first tour manager, and his wife Diana, came backstage surprising me after the show. No words can express what pictures flew through our minds as we hugged and said wow to each other. The audience stood and gave a serious standing ovation at least twice on each night during the performance… and at the end as well. During the performance is unusual… I like it.

Dear Cerritos Center—I love your house! Let’s do it again, soon.

Dear Pepperdine University—I love your Smothers Brothers Theater. In fact, I love the Smothers Brothers, too. I love the feeling of your campus and neighborhood. So open and refreshing. Can we do it again tomorrow?

Great back-to-back home games. Thank you!

Love,
Al

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Texas Weekend

Longview

Here we are in Texas again after only one short year. That’s wonderful to be able to return to any neighborhood and have the local promoter expecting a full house. And once again, we began the Texas run with a visit to the ever-fabulous laughing and fun Tom Joyner program in Dallas. At 7:45am. Well…. I was in the gym at 6am. I must be taking crazy pills.

The Red Velvet Cake Studio, Tom’s place, is like a trip to Disneyland for grown-ups—Everything but a roller coaster. Puffy stuffed multi-colored walls, and over-sized dolls and furniture, and toys that make you feel like a five-year-old. And there’s Tom on the other side of the console, smiling and laughing and bobbing his head to the music with this expression on his face that still says, “I can’t believe this is happening to me!” And all of his audience and listeners get that. We talked about everything and had a good time.

Then off we went to rehearse in Longview at LeTourneau University, where we would play the following night. I truly wish we were doing more colleges and universities. As we walk across the stage, right there center stage, commanding everybody’s attention was a baker’s dozen red roses in a beautiful vase. (Last time, she brought a dozen and reminded me that we laughed about the “Baker’s Dozen.”) Just to her right was a lady with a sign two feet tall and five feet long with wonderful gazette-type script with the title of a song. This set a wonderful tone for the entire evening… Warm and friendly with a Longview audience hanging out with me for the first time.

Once again, this new program that is a kind of ‘rainbow ride’ through the very first music that I recorded and sang for any audience anywhere was a big hit. We Got By, You Don’t See Me, Sweet Potato Pie, and Look to the Rainbow. Felt new again. The band just sparkles and flashes doing this music… Audible gasps when Larry plays flute and John solos on acoustic guitar, and Joe makes them forget about Sanborn and Coltrane when he plays soprano.

We signed a bunch of CDs afterwards in the lobby, and I kissed some hands and shook some babies. ☺

Richardson

Very unusual day in that we drove passenger vehicles from the last engagement. Very unusual! Normally when there is a drive, we make that drive on a touring bus. So there we all were in a passenger van, rolling along on the road by noon and having a fun time—the whole band. That was great, even though we lost our way for a few minutes.

I had never been to Richardson, Texas, and both I and the audience really enjoyed this first meeting and hand-shake, so to speak. I hope you don’t get bored with my continuously speaking about new situations and new audiences that we’re meeting for the first time. New faces, new venues, new situations equal new inspirations for me and the band. And if it’s new for us, it’ll be new for the audience.

We did an intermission evening that was casual and un-hurried and had that “long evening with Al Jarreau” effect. The audience was wonderful, and we all had a great night. We signed CDs in the lobby after the performance. There was a very helpful usher making sure everyone was in order (Thank you!) and someone even proposed, down on one knee with a ring and all, to his sweetheart—right there in front of me! NED and BJ PIERRON, classmates of mine from Rippon College, were there. We hugged and cried and hugged and cried, and did a lot of smiling, too. And dear sweet Valerie Strong was there, showing me pictures of her baby. We worked on the literacy program just a few years ago—Verizon—A million books to a million kids. And probably more in dollars to literacy programs around the country.

Thank you, Richardson, TX—Let’s do this again!

Austin

We had another wonderful van drive, me and the band, with me enjoying my exercises/vocal warm-up program. I have always felt something missing in my touring with never having a date in Austin, TX. If you don’t know, boys and girls, let me tell you that this is a music center and music capital of the world that rivals Los Angeles, New York, Memphis, and MoTown in its very own special way. Flattering to be invited.

So a real big thank you to Hartt Stearns, our promoter, who did a short, classy introduction of me and the group. (I love that first name Hartt.) Riverbend Center is an amazing venue. It feels like the Berlin Philharmonic but instead of a pipe organ behind the performers, there were windows looking right outside.

The audience was warm and friendly and musically smart. They caught all the nuances spoken and played. Feeling loved and appreciated by this audience was truly thrilling for me. I told Hartt I’d like to come back tomorrow.

Marion Jones, the Olympic Track star, was there and hung out after the show for 15 minutes to offer me her own special hello… She said she’d been listening to me for a very long time… Hello! My old assistant Chris Floyd’s mom was there and brought 15 guests and bought CDs for all of them, and hugged me like I was her big brother. Thank you, Marilyn. Thank you, Hartt. Thank you, Austin.

What a wonderful weekend!
Love,
Al

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