Category : diary

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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Hamburg

Hamburg

We’ve been operating out of Hamburg to nearby cities for 4 days. And even before that! 2 weeks ago we started rehearsals with NDR and bounced back and forth from Vienna doing the G3 opening and the Lalo Schifrin tribute. This has been a rare opportunity for me to really feel the city again. Lots of outdoor summer dates over the years but I mainly remember the fall and winter season, and those jogs and exercise walks in Milwaukee style weather. I’ve said it before and it’s always a little bit scary – coming back to perform in your hometown. And the same is for me, you know. As much as Milwaukee and San Francisco and Los Angeles. Gawd!! You really want to do it good. Here are the people that gave me that great send off into the world. Tell them about Hamburg when you’re out there. And I did. And I will.

My dear Siggi Loch of ACT records, and formerly head of WEA international, dropped by before the show. You should have seen us laughing and grinning like a couple of grown-up kids about how we used to play on the playground. And how one thing led to another. He and WEA and Fritz Rau engineered one of those almost classic breakthroughs where you show a guy in a small club for a week, and 3 weeks later he’s headlining appearing at a major concert house in Hamburg. Things moved like a rushing river down stream. Thank you Hamburg for helping me relive those important times in my life!

Love, Al

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Bremen

This is sacred ground… Cathedral-esque. Well at least in my mind, Al Jarreau. I have come here with something to say, that I think is personal and important and oh so respectful of the past.

On stage, I’m watching people in the audience who know, “We’re In This Love Together,” and “Boogie Down,” and “L Is For Lover,” and I can tell it’s taking a moment or two for them to flip the switch. BUT I also see them relax, take a deep breath, and join me on the journey… and discover A NEW Al Jarreau! A new me that they have never seen before. Kudos to the NDR band. They are the best at this shtuff. I’d love for this to happen in America.

Susan and I first came to Bremen in 1977. How well we remember the Bremen Rotskeller, and even, even, even more the train station just across the street from the hotel where PEOPLE walk and ride. We could see it from the hotel on a slight hill. Oh what memories. Bremen, Bremen mein schottzie lein.

It’s not especially unusual that teenagers show up in big numbers at my concerts in Europe. So many of my concerts there are open air with a beer and a hot dog and a let’s parteeee. But tonight, 3 kids in their mid-teens bought tickets and sat in the front row andthey listened closely and laughed and smiled at this fun-filled and funny Gershwin music. I spoke directly to them and thanked them for being there and that they made me feel good and I hope they found some alternative listening music.

OH YES. Deutschland. And thanks for the memories. And great food. Thank you for helping me revisit these nostalgic moments that remind me of my wife and the beginning of my career and now during these real veteran moments of my career. I never expected it.

P.S. NDR what a beautiful band. Danke.

Love, Al

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Gothenburg

Once again I sit for 15 minutes before I’m on, listening to Sample’s, “Children Of The Sun,” and just awestruck at the various recognizable early elements of Honky Tonk, all the way to real challenging sophisticated compositions found in Ellington, Basie, Gil Evans, and even Schoenberg. You go Joe. And how brilliant to invite Nils Lundgren in with his special understanding of Big Band orchestration. This is one of those great, Norwegian wood, Scandinavian constructed Concert Halls. With pin prick acoustic holes to perfectly absorb lots of the sound that might be bouncing around off those hard surfaces. The band sounds fabulous. I almost never get to the edge of the stage 15+ minutes before I go on. These days I do. And I’m so happy that moment occurred to Brian to be especially early in getting my pack set up at the side of the stage, and then just having some moments to breathe deeply. Normally, I go rushing about. This is different. And very valuable for me in coming to remarks that I should be making. Joe is yelling, “Al.” I hesitate and say, “What?” from backstage. Joe says, “You better get out here and sing. These people want to hear you sing.” So POW here I go, and just across the stage is Jörg Keller, and on his immediate side stands tall and stately Nils Lundgren. Ramrod spine. No extraneous anything. Lifts that mouthpiece on that red trombone and talks to Kai Winding and JJ Johnson. I reach center stage, and there they are… I’m not always looking for those special faces with those special eyes, smiling and open-hearted, but here, especially these last 2 or 3 concerts I’ve been very touched by those immediately welcoming, twinkling eyes. And here again sits an elderly gentleman on his own. All naturally dressed, grey-hair, and unselfconsciously, openly friendly. Brian spotted a few seats to his left, a woman with grey hair and glasses and sang along with everything.

There are VIP boxes, and then there are really special VIP boxes. Someone took the time and thought, along either side, instead of doing enclosed boxes with windows, they designed boxes that were projections into the room, which contained 12-14 seats. Little extras like this make for little extra flashes all night long. So we’re off to a fine start and I’m loving these connections between Joe’s program the, “Children of the Sun,” and the Gershwin’s, “Porgy and Bess” opera, which is surely about The Children of the Children of the Sun. And now, me and George, Children of the Children of the Sun, getting to play this music for continental audiences like Ambassadors, and bring them closer to the Children of the Children of the Sun. We’re closer than you’d expect. So I close the front part of the show with Joe and the NDR doing a progressive rhythmic Bossa, samba rhythmic feel that I still find fresh and brand new. And he has me writing in new ideas, even these days. It’s especially poignant that Joe Sample played on that 1994 rendition with me and Marcus and a bunch of guys whose names you’d recognize if we’d started listening, including David Sanborn and Steve Gadd. We all take an intermission, and come back excited about a second half. What is Al Jarreau going to do now? Well, the first thing you do is warm the audience up with a wonderful, classic Eddie Harris piece of music from the early 70’s. I remember hearing it on one of my first listens while I was driving along on Moorepark Street with Susan to the Laundromat. Oh we did that a lot. And I said, “Oooohhh Susan. Listen to that.” Well it took me another 35 years to write a lyric. But I did and we did it here in Gothenburg again. Please go listen to the original. It’s a real treat. And then have a listen to how a singer might treat those melodies and suggestions. The title is, “Cold Duck Time.” I don’t know how much time Eddie Harris spent thinking about a lyric, but as a singer, doing a lyric for a song that is already titled, you find yourself in a serious exercise of writing for assignment. I won’t bore you with more here. If you’re interested check out my lyric.

As unknown as many of the songs are from Porgy and Bess, and I can click off 4 or 5 more beginning with, “My Man Is Gone, etc.” Still as a classic opera production, there are more, better-known songs from this opera than 80% of others. The NDR orchestra, with Steve Gray’s arrangements, have increased the poignancy and depth of feeling as they come about in this new setting. Tonight, on 2 occasions I heard a single voice, deep in the audience breathe a moan, which otherwise would have been called a silent scream. If I were smart, oops now it occurs to me, I should have asked that person to do that over again and again so I could play it in the morning. Moving on and moving off.

Along the way here, I’ll get to specific selections at P and B that deserve more comment. But let me see, I keep being surprised by this old churchy ballad called, “Oh Lord I’m On My Way,” in 6/8 time… real churchy and slow. And lyrically, it’s about Porgy who’s going to New York in his push-cart. And that’s a “long, long way.” And as he’s talking to the Lord he says, “I’ll ride that long, long road. If you are there to guide my hand.” Unsaid, but strongly suggested, is his prayer that he finds Bess there. At the same time, the listener is overwhelmed with the sense that this is mostly a song about the struggle of people less fortunate, trying to make ends meet. They are the poor, Les Miserables, almost La Bohem. Po’ folks. The audience gets it and they’re on their feet. It’s obvious that we can’t go home, so we launch into a whole other program. Dave Brubeck, and Paul Desmond, and Take 5 are calling. We three have a long history together. I continue to be astounded at the response to this smokin’ little piece of music that I tailed in on in the 1970’s. And then seamlessly we go Brazil. With 2 other counter-rhythmic, Sambossa feels. Oh you’ll have twinkle toes in a new time. And as it fits with the evening, the only word is fun, fun, fun, fun. We should exit. But we have decided that all of that is too much walking. And a useless delay. And now we say goodnight with some unplanned little, tiny blues spoken in a whisper. Me and Joe and Nils. Talking about C.C. Rider. Historians will tell you that in the early times of the growth and development of all communities, that there were very important people who came to town infrequently but provided great services to the community. Preachers, teachers, lawyers, milkmen, scissor sharpeners. The path that they followed was called a circuit. And so from time to time, these very attractive traveling worldly people would be in town and entice all the innocence to their wagon. Soon, circuit rider took the C and the C and just called it C.C. Rider, and out of this simplification was born C.C. Rider. And we sing it well. With Nils, and a singer, and a piano player. Thanks Gothenburg!

Love, Al

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