Category : diary

Hammond, IN – Horseshoe Casino

Horseshoe Casino – Hammond, IN – 2/13/15

This was a wonderful return for me to a seldomly-visited city with a good size audience. The first time was seven years ago with Take Six. This time, the promoter, Al Kennedy, partnered had me partnered with Jeffrey Osborne and Angela Winbush.

Hammond is situated in the Northwest corner of Indiana and feels like an extension of the south side of Chicago. I’m sure lots of our audience drove in from Chicago.

I was delighted all evening long with bursts of applause and shouts of recognition as we went through our program of “Jarreau” songs. As I think about it now it could be because seven years is a long time ago and that might be quite long for someone who wants to hear “Black and Blues” or “We’re in this Love Together” played live and in front of them. And so it was this evening with Jeffrey Osborne joining me on a version of “My Old Friend” which he also sang with me on my new George Duke tribute album.

It was great to have Rick O’Dell, a local and popular smooth jazz radio DJ, be the Emcee and begin the whole evening with what felt like a real friendly fireside chat. It’s kind of reassuring. It was great to see the audience respond to him sounding like an old friend rather than a peppy, quirky, comical 9am drive time DJ. He is simple and cool.

By the time we closed with “Roof Garden/Reach for It,” it was clear that we had satisfied a lot of people. So thank you, Al Kennedy.   And, you guys who keep coming back to hear heartfelt, uplifting, joyous music, please Don’t stop!

Love,

Al

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46th NAACP Image Awards

We won. My new album, “My Old Friend: Celebrating George Duke” is a tribute to a music master and genius. And on February 5th, it won the NAACP Image Award for Most Outstanding Jazz Album. How wonderfully fitting that Stanley Clarke and Dianne Reeves, who contributed greatly to success of this project, were also nominees in this category…along with Dave Koz and Jonathan Butler. I planned my acceptance speech to be short and sweet and simply name all the people who made this project happen in 45 seconds or less. This plan went totally out the window in the surprise of the moment and the walk and ten stairs to get on stage. I ended up pointing at my son, Ryan, who accompanied me to stage, and said, “I was just telling Ryan that it’s hard to believe I did my first record 40 years ago. And here I am with you today celebrating this new, wonderful project that is a tribute to my old friend George Duke.” That’s all I could get out of my mouth because my heart was in the way. But here’s who I should have thanked:

George Duke and his sons, Rashid and John, Concord Records and John Burke, Joe Gordon, my manager, Joe Turano, Stanley Clarke, Boney James, Marcus Miller, Dianne Reeves, Gerald Albright, Dr. John, Lalah Hathaway, Jeffrey Osborne, Kelly Price, Paul Jackson Jr, Jubu, Greg Phillinganes, Patrice Rushen, John Beasley, JR Robinson, Lenny Castro, Mike Cottone, Bobby Sparks, Brandon Coleman, Rob Bacon, Alex Al, Omari Williams, Porcha Clay, Katriz Trinidad, Fred Martin, Seth Presant, and Patrick Lundquist.

I’ll try to be brief in a moment when I could go on and on about the significance and importance of this album being recognized by the NAACP Image Awards. To have “My Old Friend” acknowledged and singled out in any capacity anywhere is of singular importance. The real deal for me is that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has stood up and applauded this first tribute to an exceptional man of color and artist within two years of his passing. This album of mine may be the first tribute to George. A Grammy Award could not proclaim this immense significance. This is a family recognizing one of its members, one of its own, and not letting the opportunity blow by. I’m sure that this project is just one of many that will celebrate George Duke. I dare to say that none of these projects will adequately cover the diversity and brilliance expressed by one man.

George Duke stands alone in a category by himself. You can start with Diz and include Miles and the new voices like Marsalis and Herbie and stand and applaud and shout and scream, but George played and composed across the genres like no one else. Look up fusion music and George will be there right alongside Billy Cobham, John McLaughlin, Jean-Luc Ponty, and Chick Corea. Look up pop music and R&B and George will be there alongside Earth, Wind, and Fire and Stevie Wonder. Look up funk and George will be there alongside Parliment-Funkadelic, George Clinton, James Brown, and Sly Stone. Go a little farther and take a giant step to find a classical piece called “Muir Woods Suite”…George composing for the symphony orchestra. I don’t know how you say all of this in one sentence or one breath…you can’t!

I’ll stop right there.

Thank you again, NAACP Image Awards, and thank you, George Duke!

Love,

Al

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Pepperdine University – Dec 15th

Pepperdine – Dec 15th

This is our third appearance at Pepperdine University and it turns out to be a Christmas concert. WOW!! What new inspirations this brings to my thinking about appearances in Los Angeles in the future. Normally, for a long time now, my Los Angeles audience has met me at the Playboy Jazz Festival or the Long Beach Festival, which are huge events with lots of artists and distance from the stage to many festival music lovers. So being two feet and a little bend at the waist to touch hands with people in the first row was the description of an intimacy with my LA people that hasn’t occurred since the early days of my career (like at the Troubadour and the Bla Bla Café). This was really something quite special and I could feel that specialness emanating from this audience where the farthest seat was 180 feet away.

My cousin Sandy Moss and her husband were there, Shireen Reid (YAY!) from MusicCares came to say hello, Cat Bolton and the kids met me back stage before the show, Cindy Landon, Tom Canning, Jim Darby (one of my new best friends), and as you can guess lots of folks who live just around the corner from me all came to the show as well. That’s a great thing to be able to do in my hometown, so to speak.

The program we did was a kind of mix assortment of holiday treats and other old favorites of my music. That was a serious winning ticket! What a concept! And so several times I mentioned doing this program as a regular thing and got a great response. I need to bring back this intimacy to my home audience. I’m thinking Christmas time 2015.

Everyday I thank God for my fabulous band that has been so important to what I do for many years now. What a lucky and blessed guy I am. I said this in a little invocation back stage with the band before starting. I also said I hoped and wished for a continuation of this joy and love with my band and this little mini-ministry.

So Happy Thanksgiving, again, and Season’s Greetings and I pray joy and love and peace be yours forever more.

Love,

Al

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Musicians Institute – Stanley Clarke Scholarship Foundation

Musician Institute – Stanley Clarke Competition – 2014

I’m constantly amazed about those guys who manage to juggle full time touring schedules as well as a regular recording schedule with multiple projects, teaching and speaking engagements while raising a family too.

Enters Stanley Clarke. The two of us have shared the stage with George Duke and other collaborations that go back to the recording of the song, “Spain” in the 1980s. Not enough…there should have been more of all of this.

For 12 years Stanley has headed up a scholarship fund for young students at the Musicians Institute in Hollywood. THAT’S FANTASTIC! Really important stuff. So when Stanley and his wife, Sophie, asked if would come and be a judge at the competition, I gave a real loud “YES”. And the main thing is obvious; we have to do any and everything we can to encourage young people to find their way into the arts. Any of these wonderful avenues of creating something now where there was nothing before is huge in how it describes and points out this magnificent gift of expression. And when you look at it closely you begin to understand that the arts are really “fine” in their exploration of human emotions. Joy, love, sadness, etc. In fact, these are the people that I want making political decisions for me in Sacramento and Washington D.C. Dig it?!?! ARTS…the workshop for human sensitivities.

Eight of us, including Paul Jackson and Byron Miller took out a sharp pencil and graded 5 students on the various aspects of performing, stage presence, etc. It was a wonderful event and amazing night!

Congratulations to all five finalists. You have already won. This music stuff that you’ll do the rest of your life will make you joyful and those around you will feel it.

Until next time…

Al

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The Blue Note – Tokyo – 2014

The Blue Note Tokyo – 2014

This was a wonderful trip to Tokyo and the Blue Note.

Two consecutive nights of two shows each night has always been testy for me. That’s a lot of singing. So it’s always with some nervousness that I head for Japan and the Blue Note. But this time I walked on stage just 7 short weeks after a really important back surgery. And the conclusion is that it was a wonderful two nights.

Two extraordinary things happened. My band was on point as usual and it would be impossible for me to get to first base without them. But Arno Lucas, a percussionist who now lives 8-10 months of the year in Tokyo, playing and writing with Japanese artists, joined us on stage both nights. What he brought to me and the band and the audience was new and refreshing. Now mind you, Arno had played in my band for four plus years long ago but on these two nights it was seemed like he never left. But it also felt like he did leave and had returned with exciting gifts in a big sack. It was uplifting for the band and me and most certainly for the audience who rarely sees such and exciting performance from a percussionist. In fact, we began each of the four shows with Arno walking on from the side of the stage with me playing and percussively vocalizing some real exciting tambourine as we played a half version of Weather Report’s “Teen Town”. The original writing by Zawinul and Pastorius is so inventive and compelling that very few musical organizations even attempt it. So this audience of “jazzers” was immediately knocked on their butts when they heard the opening ethereal phrases of this new classic. A percussive bombshell. We’ve played this before but everything changed with Arno accompanying me on stage shouting and screaming and playing tambourine.

The audience, the second extraordinary component in this story, brought their own instruments. Their voices for sure, but this other thing that’s called joy and spirit and laughing-smiling expectation that in itself is a game changer. I know I am absolutely certain that I’ve mentioned this thing that audiences bring which I’ve sometimes referred to as fellowship and church. I suppose that’s a heady and lofty description of things but it is in fact what’s going on when you see an audience sing and respond to everybody from Taylor Swift to Bruce Springsteen. If you’ve ever sat in the middle of it you know what I’m talking about. And those of who know the Reverend Franklin Experience (Aretha’s father) and the Baptist church know exactly what I’m talking about. What a great description.

Joe Turano had put together a great collection of songs that gingerly avoided “Take Five”, “After All”, and “The Midnight Sun” (every night staples in our show). This opened up a space for some things from the new George Duke tribute CD and it all worked. A lesson learned.

I loved talking to the audience about their special Japanese bonsai and origami spirit and love for intricate and intimate detail which has made them serious fans of lots of western music, such as classical, jazz, blues, and country (with classical and jazz leading the way with detailed precision). And any of you who have ever seen a bonsai tree or an origami bird know what I’m talking about.

Maybe in short we can say there was a coming together of the old and new to create yet a new experience for the band and the audience. I won’t belabor that description.

I’m personally delighted to see the band and our little family was just laughing and grinning and thinking we had a wonderful outing in Japan. Just suffice to say how much I am thanking all my longtime Japanese friends for continuing to actively listen and show up to enjoy and support my music. What a Christmas present! Arno, too!

Thank you, Tokyo!

Love,

Al

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Carmel, Indiana – 2014

Carmel, Indiana

We’re doing the unthinkable and almost undoable for this show. Sometimes the schedule calls for this. We left Iowa City at 7:30 in the morning after three hours of sleep, which was preceded by the above description of my alma mater event. Then we drove six hours straight to the venue and did a sound check…everybody’s dragging. But this is where you reach deep for your marathon skills, attitude, and extra power. We even sing a little rehearsal with Chris in the car and decide and determine that this is perfect. You couldn’t be happier.

Carmel is a suburb of Indianapolis that’s new and fresh with the neat and clean sparkle of all the great new industrial parks. Ellen, the hall manager, greeted us with such enthusiasm and happiness and joy of this life occasion that it acted almost like a wave. All smiles and bubbling energy about the new performing arts center called The Palladium. When we got inside we understood why. She was right. Somebody really reached deep in concept and construction. This place was like a new version of a classical orchestral and opera venue. There were three balconies that wrapped around to your 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock positions. Before I went on stage, I shook hands and laughed with some audience members in one of these balconies. And there was a wrap around balcony behind us. When I turned my back to the audience, there was more audience. That’s fantastic! Only in Europe! This makes everyone interact differently than they would in 99% of performing situations. They sensed it and we sensed it. Right now I’m thinking about that moment when John Calderon takes the spotlight and plays classical music on his acoustic guitar. Ellen said that this room was acoustically perfect.

I deliberately try to make some special memories by coming through the stage door early and quietly standing and smiling and chatting with people in the lower balcony who were almost on stage. What a design!

Chris sounded wonderful here on his solo ballad and we could both reach down and touch people in the first row when we did our “Random Act of Love” duet. I wish I could have gotten to that opposite wing that was almost on stage just behind Larry to spend a moment or two enjoying and helping to show this exceptional venue.

What an amazing venue, what an amazing night! All just outside Indianapolis with lots of brand new listeners. We signed a ton of CDs after the concert and laughed, squealed, hugged, and kissed. Great stuff, y’all. Thank you very much!

Love,

Al

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