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Happy New Year

Happy winter solstice, happy snow day, and skiing, and here we go again! Doesn’t it come quickly?  Even non-Catholics like me were touched by Pope Francis’s early hopes and wishes for the world as he took office. His dream was for a more caring, paternal, loving world! As I look around these days, after a few decades of observations, I find myself whole heartedly joining him in this wish and prayer, and urging. It seems to me our quick pace and high tech gadgetry and money motivations need a little bit more of the above. So, you and I need to dig a little deeper, and be more sensitive and caring, and compassionate, and giving. We must. As we approach this new year, I wish you love, and all of the above.

-Love,

Al

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Berklee College of Music

Here we are, doing a two day stop at Berklee College of Music, where I’ll hang out with staff and a few students to Q&A, about all things considered, regarding jazz and music today. Roya was our hostess with the mostest, and made us feel real welcome, as though I might be SOMEBODY! Smile! She was great. I can see her now, waiting there to my right. So attentive! The whole occasion was a classy operation, to say the least. Thank you, Berklee!

Everybody doing music has known about Berklee College of Music, and their wonderful jazz program, par excellance! And one my closest associations with the college came from the time of my first recordings, and playing the jazz workshop and Paul’s Mall on Boylston Street, next to Strawberry Records. . I had a close friend named Andy, a high school class mate of my wife Susan, who was in jazz school at Berklee and studying guitar etc, and he and I just delighted in those occasions, when we could get together while I was performing, and he was studying. How hip… I don’t know how many women were on campus then, but Andy had found two of them who had formed a little performing quartet, called Edna. Andy and I truly thought how hip that was. Women in the jazz program, and all.

And so, I have to admit that through the years, I’ve thought of Berklee as a wonderful little Ivy League-ish enclave of Ivy League educators and students, who were doing this marvelous work of codifying and organizing jazz studies, for a select small, but growing, group of college students, with the interest and dollars to study jazz music in an academic setting.

WELL, that may have been the case at one time… maybe not. But, it sure is far from a school of music of today with 500+ teaching staff and enrollment of more than 4,000. That blows my mind. If I’m not wrong, a student to instructor ratio of 9 to 1, approximately. That’s amazing. The community of Berklee graduates must be enormous. And the influence on American music must be incredible.

It tickled me to no end, and it touched me to tears, to share the stage and some time with Terri Lyne Carrington, and also with Jeff Ramsey, who are on teaching staff, and who also have played in my band over the years. I was so proud, and it made me at home and comfortable when we played some music together on stage during the Q&A session. We rounded things off with a little luncheon, and then headed for the airport.

I still feel the pride of receiving an honorary degree from Berklee in 1991, along with Phil Collins.

Boston has always been one of my favorite cities in the world, for things beyond music. All the stuff that an American from Milwaukee or San Francisco would be touched and impressed by.  So here I am with another beautiful memory to add to my Boston strong memorabilia. Now I get a little break and rest period at home, where I’ll take a really deep breath. And so my thanks to Berklee and Boston, and all the graduates, who have helped make music of the world a lot better.

Love,

-Al

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Hammond, Indiana – December, 2015

To all my friends at Kappa Alpha Psi: I want to send you a belated Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, for inviting me to sing at your scholarship fundraiser evening. I feel honored… This work that you’re doing to help kids go to school is quintessential. Education has always been the answer, and will continue to be the answer, until kingdom come. You can get on the wings of a book, and become a doctor, lawyer, or in another moment, you can be transported in a novel to another galaxy and time.  This is God’s work, and you guys have been doing it for more than thirty years. So thank you again for allowing me to add to your effort.

Love,

Al Jarreau

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Los Angeles – Monk Institute Vocalists Competition

If you don’t know about the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, you really should look it up for all its glorious details.  But for short, Thelonious Monk III, Maria Fisher, and Clark Terry created it in 1986 for the purpose of furthering the legacy of jazz by finding and educating young musicians and singers. Amazingly, they have also partnered with the United Nations to put on an international Jazz Day. Each year, on April 30, over 80 nations around the world celebrate jazz, and its contribution and influence.

I’ve been blessed to be a part of International Jazz day for a few years now.  Last April, we were in Paris. A couple of years before, we were in Istanbul. Herbie Hancock is Chairman of the Board and is an eloquent spokesman for the group. This year, along with featuring a wonderful group of singers in competition, the institute did a tribute to Quincy Jones, with a large audience with a 20 piece band directed and rehearsed by John Beasley at Dolby Theater, in Hollywood. Anyone has to say that this is a wonderful upscale undertaking that really does jazz proud, for its wonderful importance and significance. We did the preliminary judging at UCLA basking in the sunshine and glow of one of the great universities on the planet. All for jazz!

I can’t say enough about the whole affair, and it would take too long if I could. Just try to believe me when I say that you’d have totally impressed with this year’s group of singers, taught and tutored by a cadre of well known professionals, including Kenny Burrel.   They were amazing… knocked my socks off.

There were singers in this class who are already singing at a high quality professional level. It’s too bad that the competition forces us to pick one winner, and a second and third place place finalist, but in doing so we are also rewarding these leaders with valuable scholarships. Each of the judges wishes we could do it for all of the contestants. The semifinals we on Saturday, we had the finals of the singing competition on Sunday, along the tribute to Quincy Jones, featuring appearances and comments by actor/director/singer Seth McFarlane, Jeff Goldblum, Billy D. Williams, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Freddy Cole, Patti Austin, Deedee Bridgewater, Luciana Souza,  and myself. I did a duet with Gretchen Parlato (a recent winner of the vocal competition), of “Human Nature,” one of Quincy’s massive musical successes. All in all, this was a magnificent two day celebration of jazz and the legacy of jazz, with its special contribution of improvisation, that lives even in today’s rock guitarists. Hello, Eric Clapton, and Slash, too! They took the queue from jazz to improvise.

By the way, let’s not overlook the wonderful support of this event by Concord Music Group, United Airlines, and Northrup Grumman… these guys get it!

And so, as the sun sinks slowly in the west, we say “see you soon!” to the wonderful Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. This time, in Los Angeles and Hollywood, the world’s Mecca of stardom and entertainment. Smile 🙂

I’ll see you next time!

-Al

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