Skokie, IL – North Shore Center for Performing Arts March 10, 2016adminAs I realized the approaching of this date on the schedule, two things jumped out in my thinking. What and who. When I was a youngster in Milwaukee, we made occasional trips to Chicago and Indiana and Michigan and always passed through some little community called Skokie. We never stopped there, but somewhere in my vague memories was the name “Skokie.” Sure enough, we’ve played many dates in and around Chicago, but this one really surprised me. It’s a wonderful surprise however. This will be mostly a new audience, although there’ll be a large number of people who have seen me in other venues around Chicago. Sure enough, those who knew me greeted me and the band, like it was home coming time. Lots of personal yelps and hellos immediately. This is always a great kick off for a concert evening. It also identifies, in a special way, the specific occasion for the audience as they think back. As a matter a fact, it often happens, on some future occasion, when I see an audience member of a specific night, he’ll refer to that night, saying “Do you remember that time when that lady in the green dress and straw hat did so and so?” That’s fun! We had one of those nights. We had some late comers. One guy wearing all black, with glasses and very husky. He was a great sport and allowed me to point at him and laugh about his coming late. And then there was the young pre-teen, around 12 years old, in the second row, with his mom and dad, who I made a special point in welcoming because kids his age are a delightful and welcome rarity. He laughed and grinned in embarrassment and answered that his name was Joseph. Joseph gave me the opportunity to once again say to the audience how important it was for them to bring their kids. ALTERNATIVES! He came backstage with his parents and they were just beaming when they commented about how they could not believe it when I introduced my keyboard player-musical director as Joseph Anthony Turano. That was exactly his first and middle name. Joseph Anthony. There’s nothing, absolutely nothing, that’s quite like realizing in the middle of evening that “it’s working.” All this classic old stuff mixed in with some newer things, right there, in the ideal intimate setting, is a real big part of what you project for yourself and your music, as you approach every passing day, month, and year. It’s working! It’s late winter 2016, snowing earlier this morning, outside my window in the hotel, and right now, just after the concert, I’m saying to myself, “It’s working.” Thank you to Jack and Heather from Sensophonics for my new hearing equipment, for on stage and off. You guys are fantastic. Thank you everybody for this wonder concert day in my old neighborhood with new friends. -Al diary, newsShare : Tweet
New Albany, Ohio – at the McCoy Center for the Arts March 10, 2016adminHello!! A new venue for me… Thank you! How blessed and lucky I am. I’ve been coming to Ohio forever. Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus are core Al Jarreau Audiences that watched it all happen for me. They not only watched with interest, but they bought records and called the radio stations and came to concerts. Now we’re getting to suburban communities like New Albany. Many of the families in this community have been quite successful in business, and have then opened their hands to projects in this suburb. At this point in my life, I’ve become acutely aware of these settings, and I think it’s partly because they know about how I share that attitude of community spirit, and keep on inviting me to sing and even fund raise. One family in this town helped to build a performing arts center on a campus that serves junior and senior high schoolers, and they opened it’s doors to me and the band. The whole event was a huge success with the band rising to the occasion for this great audience- we loved performing in this beautiful, cozy little theater full of smiling faces and great energy. This was not an orchestra date like the past two, so the band was really anticipating getting back to our normal concert program. They were fired up and excited, and played with brilliant flashes and quiet subtleties, that are so obviously satisfying and refreshing. You should have heard Mark Simmons really letting go and letting it all hang out. He was even shouting and laughing out loud. Thank you, Mark, that’s the sh##! I encourage these sorts of responses from the band. Be natural! Don’t force it! But… If you feel it, let it out, and don’t hold it in. In fact, be talking to each other verbally as you respond to each other’s work and playing. I knew it was ON AND HAPPENIN’ all night long. All day long, I kept shaking my head and saying, “Amazing! Man, oh, man.” What a beautiful, wonderful night. Thank you! See you in Skokie. -Love Al diary, newsShare : Tweet
Kalamazoo, Michigan – with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra March 10, 2016adminHow totally satisfying and wonderful! I must be living right or praying real good! Another university town! We were just in Colombia, South Carolina, with a symphony orchestra, that played our symphony program as well as anyone, and now I got to find a way of saying that Kalamazoo peaked right up there with them. The University of Western Michigan is located in Kalamazoo, and it’s a real wonder that they’ve kept their “big secret” so well; big things come in small packages. This is basically a small university town- one which has high standards for itself, as well as a friendly and comfortable environment. Their football, basketball, or hockey team will make a splash from time to time, but usually they just roll along doing great stuff. There’s a college-to-town relationship that is really, really special. Business and homes themselves are extensions of the campus and the town’s people are cheerleaders, involved in every aspect of the school’s activity. I personally think that this general atmosphere has contributed to Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra’s notions of greatness for itself that began with Leta Snow, in 1921. she started by finding small private performance venues for little chamber groups. And that developed into this: a full symphony orchestra with lots of members who fly or drive in from nearby cities for the performances. Peter Gistelinck is their proud CEO President who spoke of all of the above, as he warmly greeted the Al Jarreau gang at a reception the night before, where we said hello to serious donors and friends. I praised these donors for their citizenship, because this is good for the whole community. My band and the KSO rehearsed the day before the performance day. This gave Larry Baird (my conductor), the orchestra and my trio a chance to get as coordinated as could be with the arrangements. The results of all the extra effort were tremendous, and it all sounded amazing. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I can assure you that all of the above contributed to a wonderful performance night. It’s amazingly unusual that the CEO of the symphony orchestra is also a serious jazzer. He was born in Belgium, has worked with Michel LeGrande, and countless jazzers on the continent, and grew up in a home that was often visited by American Jazz GREATS! He and the university have cooperated on not only putting together a jazz studies program, but have grown that into having a recording studio, where they can do anything and everything. I can assure you that all of the above contributed to a wonderful performance night. Evelyn trilled on the harp at the top of Summertime, and Brad the trombonist took us straight to New Orleans in “Bess you is…” We scrambled to find another encore for this audience that was on their feet, and did an unrehearsed Bach Air on a G String, and then threw in DAYO… Harry Belafonte… Banana Boat song. Thank you, Kalamazoo, for a wonderful visit. I know for certain we’ll do it again. -Al diary, newsShare : Tweet
Columbia, SC – workshops with Auntie Karen Foundation March 7, 2016adminA choir of 80 voices sang “Mornin’,” “We’re in this Love Together,” and “Boogie Down,” and accompanied by a trio, piano bass & drums, that was quite solid. I couldn’t stop grinning… All Al Jarreau music. Tre, who had done an introduction of me, with all of the basics and specifics, stood there with Karen, just smiling and laughing, knowing and anticipating correctly how I would react. I was rocking back and forth, laughing out loud. I could almost hear them going, “See??” They were right. I’m beginning to hear my music come back at me more and more these days. I suppose, if I were Stevie or Aretha or Herbie, I might be more accustomed to it, but for me, it’s quite new and it’s still thrilling. We had a Q&A period. I had asked Chris Walker to please come join me on this morning with the kids because he is so smart and always has something interesting to say. He speaks not only as an extraordinary singer, but also an extraordinary bass player, and as a producer too. There was a question or two that came from the student moderators, that needed at least a two or three part answer. One of those answers had to do with a love for the music and the craft that goes so deep that you can’t imagine your life without it. That’s when Chris talked about graduating from a high school of the arts and taking off for New York City, with forty dollars and a dream. Going to The New School. In short, he arrived at the school one afternoon, with his bass under his arm, with the idea of just investigating, as a new perspective student. He passed by some practice room, with some guys jamming, who didn’t have a bass player. They saw him with his bass and asked him to play with them. The new school president happened by and heard Chris playing that afternoon and gave him a full 4 year scholarship. Forty dollars and a dream. Well, the truth is Chris walked in with a million dollars of ability and faith. Because he dreamed that dream, and prepared himself for fulfilling that dream, doing it over and over and over and over, dreaming and walking toward that dream, it came to be. It came true. It all begins with a dream. Seeing it in your head as you get ready. Basketball players exemplify this phenomenon. He stands at the foul lane, bent at the waist, bouncing the ball, 15-20 times, and talking to himself. He looks up, gets poised and ready, and you see his eyes watching the ball go through the hoop. THAT’S CREATING YOUR FUTURE IMMEDIATELY! Right now. Happens all throughout athletics. The high jumper, the long jumper, standing there, at the end of the lane, rocking back and forth. That’s how we built the Empire State Building, and set a man on the moon. That describes the high tech aspect of what prayer is all about. It’s more than begging God for the result you want, it’s seeing the result, and then doing things that allow it to happen. Morning, noon, and night, and all in between time. I love talking to kids that way. One of the student moderators asked me if I could teach someone to scat, and I said, “well, ok!” I was a little unsure about that exercise, but I had thought about it before. I said something like, “Ok, let’s start with something like this piece of music,” and I sang Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb, his fleece was white as snow. I did it without a lyric, and I think many recognized it at that point. But then I sang it with out a lyric, and then with a lyric, I used the basic melody and improvised a new melody with no lyric. Obviously, the practice of improvising gets to be a more complex venture than the above, when it’s Coltrane, or Dizzy Gillespie, or when Wayne Shorter is the improvised soloist that you’re listening to, BUT the basics still hold true. That is the improvising of a new melody based on the original, with as much complexity as you like. A young lady named Jazzy knocked everybody’s wigs off, when she came up and helped demonstrate that above activity. This time, I asked her to sing some small part of a favorite song that she liked. She sang a few lines from an R&B song that just thrilled the whole audience. They yelled and shouted and clapped their approval at hearing her. I then asked her to sing all of that again but to not use lyrics now. Just ooo shoo be doo type syllables, that she could invent on her own. She nailed it, it was a great demonstration! I think she came across an approach for herself that was quite quite “jazzy” in its overall nature. Other questions gave me the opportunity to talk about how people doing arts develop sensitivities to our all important human emotions of joy, pain, happiness, sadness, etc. In so doing, we develop an individual who has keen, fine, and delicate sensitivities about other’s hurts and pains and joys and happiness, who then will make important choices and decisions that are good for the family and the community. I wish we had had more time for Q&A with this audience of 400 students. It went much too quickly, and I’m certain we missed a lot of important questions, but this was a great template for things in the future. At around 6 o’clock that evening, I attended a reception for the Auntie Karen Foundation staff and friends. We met the Dean of the USC music department, who has been a friend to the Auntie Karen Foundation for a long time, and often offers his services and facilities to Auntie Karen… this is wonderful. It just adds so much to the community support. Our universities and colleges are very, very important pillars of the community and are opinion leaders that the whole community respects. What a great friendship! That really captures it. I’m reprinting the information from the Auntie Karen website, with the added comment that part of the mission statement goals is to develop programs that are REPRODUCIBLE!… Anywhere in the country or world. I recorded a song written by Siedah Garrett, called “Random Act of Love.” Check it out. The key phrase in the chorus is this, “There’s one thing that I know that’s a gift unto the giver, and that’s a random act of love,”: meaning that the person that gives the gift actually gets more in return than what he gave. Now look, that’s not the reason to be giving a gift! On the contrary, you give a gift because you see a need and your compassionate sensitive heart reaches out to that other person and offers help. And, in so doing, you find a new kind of joy… by the way. Me and my guys got the biggest gift by going and helping Auntie Karen. From manager to sound techs and assistants, we got the greater gift. Auntie Karen and I are talking about other activities already. Thanks Karen Alexander, thanks everybody! Talk to you soon. -Love, Al diary, news, UncategorizedShare : Tweet
Brooks, CA – Cache Creek Casino March 6, 2016adminIf you aren’t familiar with it, I won’t be surprised. I only know of it because I’ve played here one other time before. Cache Creek Casino has more than three hundred hotel rooms, and a giant gaming floor, and a show room, that sits on approximately 5 acres of land. It is marvelously tucked away in the agricultural midlands of California, for vegetable and fruits and nuts that supplies the largest percentage sold in the world of those sorts of crops. Three hundred yards out of the casino, you can see nothing but vegetables growing and huge fields, with basically no humans in view. Well, you know, humans are actually doing this work, so you conclude they are somewhere in these farm houses that sparsely appear here and there. You can be sure the people that work these lands are largely immigrants, which means they’re not from America. Americans now believe this sort of work is beneath them. We are able to get away with paying unregistered farm workers, slave labor basically, with no benefits, and no protections. That’s wrong. It’s a system that’s being fought by everybody. I didn’t get to say all of that on stage, but I did remind the audience that people from all over the world, from Indonesia, and Oslo, Norway, who are looking to gamble and have some fun, and don’t want to be in crazy Las Vegas or crazy Atlanta city, and all the other crazy casinos around America, may be sitting next to you tonight. They’re looking to have some fun, but they’re also looking to get away from the hustle and bustle traffic of down town, and the like. The pace is slower here. From the stage, I hear people yelling requests from the 70’s and the 80’s, and I’m certain these people have come here to sing and have fun, with me, the way they have for forty years, back in San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Stockton, etc. Al Jarreau without all the traffic. I could see folks in the first five rows, who were rockin’ “Big City” to me and the band, sitting right next to a quiet little asian family, with only their eyes moving side to side. Quiet, shy. Behind them was a slow moving elderly couple, who could have been from Brooks, or Superior, Wisconsin, or even Hamburg, Germany. Grey hair and sparkling blue eyes, perhaps who knew my name from Hamburg 1976. Well, that was the make up of this audience, and I and other entertainers really love and appreciate this cross section of people, who gather in casinos to have a good time. They’ve left the city behind for a couple of days, and shrugged off a few worries, pulled some one arm bandits, had some good food, and had a good night’s sleep away from the daily grind. The band guys played like they were missionaries from jazz heaven. They didn’t let up because we weren’t in New York, or Paris, or Berlin! They have a love for the craft, and “doing it”. That has always been the best motivation for doing music or any art form. The acquiring of fortunes for mediocre work has also become part of today’s commercial music scene, but I promise you those days are over, and there will be less and less of that in the future. The future will see musicians and singers doing it because they love and can’t live without it, not because there are fortunes to be made, and THAT’S THE RIGHT MOTIVATION!!! So the band was swinging any number of times with Mark Simmons, the drummer, causing me to turn around and making me smile, and looking over at Joe Turano, with his horn strapped around his neck, waiting to play, as he sings backgrounds and does keyboard strings. Peaceful look on his face. He’s my music director who’s from Milwaukee. I won’t repeat here the marvelous contributions of Chris Walker, Larry Williams, and John Calderon, as I normally do – I’ve said it before, and you’ve heard it before. We gathered down at the end of the performance, and take one final bow, and the crowd is standing for encores. We do ’em. What a wonderful night. The Casino is happy, the guests are happy, the band is happy, and we had a little reception after for some VIP guests in, and a fabulous meeting with my old friend, Eileen Chavez, from Gatsby’s days in Sausalitos, from the early 1970’s. What a wonderful family. Her husband was a hugely successful and athletic coach in San Rafael County, with kids in the family who followed their mom and dad’s lead. Eileen herself was a tennis pro, and taught. The kids played every sport offered in the school curriculum. Amazingly, there was always an additional new family member, who was some economically challenged young man from the community, living in their house. Remarkable. Making a difference. They were friends of mine and Julio’s and we saw them often. I had dinner at their house, and played basketball in their backyard with their dad and the kids. Papa Eddy Joe was a lot like Tom Cheeks, at Lincoln High School, for whom we named a scholarship program at UWM. Well, that’s a wrap, you guys! Thank you for refreshing old friendships, and especially for new friendships, that come from gigs in the quieter rural areas of the world! KEEP IT COMIN’! I Love it. -Love, Al diary, newsShare : Tweet
Scottsdale, AZ – Arizona Music Festival March 6, 2016adminThe whole experience, from the first phone calls that I made to the radio station and press, to the concert itself, were truly a wonderful delightful, laughing, and smiling experience. You guys in Phoenix are a rarity on the planet, you know?! Your continuing support for and interest in jazz, America’s music as much as and before rock n’ roll, is extraordinary and wonderful and necessary. I’m going all over the place and wishing for just what you gave to me every day. You filled that two thousand seat church, with your smiles and bright eyes and open hearts and a real interest in my band in me. That kind of interaction between the people on stage and the audience really makes and encourages people on stage to give their all and their best. I felt you. You were there for us. You’ve been there for me since the “We Got By” album. That’s 41 years. Wow, that’s 41 years. Highlands Church is a wonderful venue, and you’re so close to us, that we can almost reach out and touch you. I love that. The closer, the better. Joe Turano, my music director/horn player/keyboard player, played and sang with inspiration. You heard and clapped and applauded your approval. And when Chris Walker, my bass player, came down and sang a duet with me, I felt and saw the surprise and delight in your eyes, and how we all went to a wonderful new tangent. That’s the $#-%! John Calderon and I tried a new little venture with “We’re in this Love Together,” sharing a starting vamp, with just the two of us. And when he went to the familiar guitar lick, you guys heard it and clapped, and said, “Oh, yeah!!!” Once again, that’s the $#-%! To venture something new on stage of an improvisational sort, and have it received well out there in the audience, that’s not just marking time and walking in place – that’s sharing the experience, you, and the band, and the situation, and finding it refreshing. In short, that’s the story of jazz and improvised music. It’s looking for something delightful in this particular moment now, with your faces as inspiration, and going for it. That happened with Mark on drums, too. Of course he plays well for everything, but he solo’d for you last night, and played something different because of last night’s different situation. Oops, sorry, Larry! I missed the entrance on “My Old Friend,” but it didn’t disturb you at all. And when you pick up the silver flute, it’s a killer. Every body in the room feels it. After an intermission, we came back with some old standbys like “After All,” that was requested in writing more than 3 times. And Take Five, which you guys recognized, even with the strange new start we’ve adddeed. And “Boogie Down” and “Roof Garden” were really big hits last night. You stood up and danced! That’s really fantastic and when jazzy people feel the groove like that, they go “party!” All of this means we should come back next soon, and often. Thank you, KJZZ, thank you donors and sponsors, and thank you Highlands Church for your youth educational programs and love for jazz and the arts. I’ll be back as soon as I can. Call the station, call the promoter, call the festival! -Love, Al diary, news, UncategorizedShare : Tweet
