Category : diary

Java Jazz Festival With The George Duke Trio

Jakarta, Indonesia – 3/2/12 and 3/4/12

Jakarta, Indonesia is way down in Southeast Asia, near Malaysia. It’s further south than the southeastern tip of China, one of a chain of island countries that could have been the setting for The King And I. It takes about 20+ hours to get there. Puff puff I’m tired.

God bless Peter Gontha. It was a real inspired flash of genius to begin this Java Jazz Festival (actually a cultural exchange program by any other name) more than a decade ago.

In addition to Al Jarreau with George Duke, other names on the marquee included Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Erykah Badu, Bobby McFerrin, Pat Metheny, and really good prominent locals.

We’re up early for an 8:30 pm sound check and we do the first of two nights at Java Jazz. I’m backstage doing my warm-ups, la la la la la. And Jeff Lorber Fusion is out front and on fire, and the people are on fire too. It’s hard to know who is inspiring whom. But I can tell you one thing that’s for sure: it would be hard to find a more enthusiastic audience anywhere on the planet. In fact, the next morning at a press conference I talked about how great the audience’s singing was.

Maybe if you were at the Apollo Theater in the 40’s, 50s, 60’s or danced your ass off at The Palladium, bloomers and britches and uptown… Just across town from where you lived you might have seen this celebration at Java Jazz in Jakarta, Indonesia, that RESEMBLES black folks in Harlem… Jumpin’ and bumpin’ and pumpin’… New new new.

Ok ok ok ok ok. They will never know the “Chitlin’ Circuit” that BB and Lightnin’ and Muddy knew but…

Both nights I was amazed to see what every songwriter dreams of… People singing their music. I watched in amazement as they approached the phrase… “And touched the face of God.”

The second night was more of the same except for the fact that George and I and the trio took another small, big step… We could feel it!!! We were tighter, and that made it looser. Cindy Bernadette, a beautiful and talented local singer, helped George and I sing Duke Ellington’s, “Mellow Tone.”

3000 screaming people on both nights. Our second night was with Pat Metheny. What a painter. He played with a drummer and bass player that night; really free and expressive. We also saw Chanté Moore and Bobby McFerrin, who are amazing musicians too. And off we went and had a great time. The George Duke Trio is amazing. Mike Manson is on bass, and Gorden Campbell on drums. Mike Manson is playing like a percussionist. And Gorden Campbell is a super drummer playing like a mad scientist. Intensity! And George was exploring the universe. When I’m with them, I’m going for it. And finding a new me as I do.

Indonesia was great. The people were wonderful and even the weather cooperated.

Thank you Peter Gontha and staff. What you’re doing is truly amazing. You’ve made an important new home for this great American art form called jazz. The cross-cultural exchange aspect is brilliant. Let’s do it again next year.

Share :

San Remo Music Festival

San Remo, Italy

I sang with Matia Bazar at the San Remo Music Festival. It is seriously spectacular and has always been a super spectacular event with the biggest and most glamorous Italian and international artists appearing on the same stage on the same evening. I’ve only been a couple of times, but the first time I exchanged greetings with Luciano Pavarotti, who was sitting just beside a well-known Italian actor.

San Remo is on the Italian Riviera, which is part of the beautiful and ritzy Cote d’Azur. Cannes and Nice are just minutes away.

Matia Bazar has been a super hot cross over band since the mid-70’s, recording and performing internationally. They are huge. And the festival proposed that I might sing the, Speak Softly Love,” with them at the festival. Wonderful idea! I’ll be there. We landed on a beautiful sunny afternoon at the Nice airport, and drove the breathtaking one hour drive to Hotel Nazionale on the main street of San Remo… with all shop till you drop shopping. The town was decked out like Christmas. I went straight to bed. Big day tomorrow. And an even bigger day today getting here. We’ll have a rehearsal tomorrow and do press like crazy. Thank you God. I am so smiled upon and given unto… blessed and favored. Here I am in Italy doing this… with 15 million people watching.

Sylvia, Piero, Fabio, and Giancarlo are wonderful warm people doing great music. And the arrangement that we created was beautiful, with strings.

Performance day was a marathon 3-ring circus with the entire backstage packed with performers. Jose Feliciano was the only one with a dressing room. And there was a crowd in there too. But the spirit of the occasion was definitely warm Italian exuberance. And the spirit won out.

And what an orchestra. They must have played over a hundred pieces of music that day.

I didn’t get a chance to personally come say “hi”, but if you see them say “hi” to the following people who were part of that gala: Brian May, Patti Smyth, Macy Gray, Emma Marrone. What a day.

Lorena you were fabulous. Thank you for your spirit and invaluable help.

Of course, thank you Matia Bazar for inviting me to sing with you guys. It was a pleasure. And thank you San Remo Music Festival. You are fabulous.

Love,

Al Jarreau

Share :

Airmen of Note – DAR Constitution Hall

Looking out the window this morning, I haven’t seen snowflakes this big since I was a kid in Milwaukee. They take forever to fall, and if you’re outside you can catch them on your tongue. Right here in the District of Columbia. No one talks about that very much do they? I suppose it happens more frequently than we visitors realize. For me, this is a romantic vision that turns on my imagination. Cant you see Ali McGraw and Ryan o’neil in a love story walking hand in hand sitting on a park bench and faces turned up, snowflakes falling. It’s poetic stuff. And here it is the rehearsals with airmen of note and strings; high poetry itself.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,

I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air….



Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue

I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.

Where never lark, or even eagle flew —

And, while with silent lifting mind I have trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
 –
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

John Gillespie Magee jr., Pilot Officer, Royal Canadian Air Force.

I love that poem so much that I borrowed the last line for the bridge of “Mornin’”, a real high point. The poet of that piece was in the Air Force during WWII, and perished in flight.

This is my second year in a row with the Airmen of Note. I’m really proud of that. Last time we sold out at George Washington University’s Listner Hall. And this time we appeared at the fabulous DAR Constitution Hall. It was a sell out. I have friends and family in DC since the first days of, “We Got By.” When I mentioned the Childe Harold, these people scream and go crazy. The Childe Harold was the big living room in an old mansion where I did my first dates in Washington DC. The Capital Jazz Fest and Merriweather Post are relative newcomer venues… Wonderful! And boy what fabulous times at Wolf Trap. It has been a wonderful 37-year history. Thank you DC.

General McDew (the commander of the Washington DC Air Wing that has constant jet airplane security patrol flying over Washington DC) blew my mind when he came back stage. And greeted me with a hug and a smile, lookin’ like the presidents cousin. And saying “thank you” to me.

Wow! Several times, probably too many, I said thank you to our military people who serve and protect. My heart and soul are in this music that I do. And I gave it to them tonight. We shared it, and acknowledged our love for music and country… Together. That is very special to me. To be invited to sing with the air force band/orchestra in the very first place is… You tell me the word. How about over the moon?

Monday morning breakfast with Pete and Donna and Paige and Brian. Silver golden halos in my mind around that breakfast table when I think of it. Pete and Donna are old friends from Ripon College, and the Indigos singing quartet. Pete is a Professor Emeritus of Engineering in the Computer Science program at George Washington. And Donna is a counseling psychologist.

Tech sergeant Paige Martin, singer extraordinaire, who can easily share the stage with any singer in the world, joined us for breakfast. She is a fantastic singer who should be heard all over the world. We promised each other we’d sing together again soon. Thank you Washington DC area and Airmen of Note. We did it again.

And a special thanks to the lady in white in the front row who was texting her girlfriend something about me… I hope. Anyway, she gave the evening such a light-hearted air when she was a such a good sport about my stopping and asking her what she was doing in the middle of a song, as the orchestra kept playing. That was fun. Ok ya’ll I’ll see ya later.

Share :

Hilton Americas – Houston

Happy New Year to all of you long time friends and family, and new friends to be. And a very special Happy New Years wish and congratulations to Legacy Community Health Services of Houston, since early 1980’s, where we played last Saturday night January 20th. I’m personally claiming this event as my New Years Eve celebration with all the accompanying resolutions. Susan came with me for this weekend gala and quietly told me how she cried when she saw people dancing to “After All,” “Boogie Down,” and “Roof Garden.” After all these years! That speaks volumes and implies so many satisfactions about this work I’ve been doing for such a long time and my wishes for the future.

Saturday night was a great big beautiful black tie formal affair with dinner and champagne. All to benefit the Legacy Community Health Services organization. And all of it set in motion by my bass player Chris Walker and his brother Ernest who have been involved with Legacy and other community outreach organizations for years. AS A MATTER OF FACT.

Let me just coin a new phrase called “enlightened democratic capitalism,” which implies a new and broader awareness of America’s economic circumstances and needs that determine how we decide to protect and take care of all of our people. Let me summarize the conclusions of this thinking. If Washington doesn’t keep in place the safety net for all of us, especially the forgotten and underserved, and exponentially growing number, then we citizens must take care of each other. We’ll need to form new organizations that feed and shelter and heal one another. The next needy person could be your brother.

How about that for a New Years Eve Greeting? Oops!!! Once again, Houston, the bayou city that just a few short years ago stood tall and welcomed Katrina victims, stood up again as they have since the early 80’s, and supported Legacy Community Health Services.

Share :

MILAN

Checco Zalone. Network television show. Flash bam alacazam! We’re arriving in Milan, Italy to do, “Spain,” with a wild and brilliant TV personality who graduated from law school and plays great jazz piano. He also sings and does great comedy bits.

We accepted the invitation with happiness and enthusiasm. This is another opportunity to stay in touch with our Italian audience, like last Christmas time, when I sang in the Concerto de Natale Malta. I met Mario Biondi on that occasion, and later recorded a duet with him… soon to be released. Of course, the song that I recorded with Deodato, which is still running high on the smooth jazz charts, is part of this same push. But this thing is different, still. I am actually being comedic with several lines all delivered in Italian. My jaw hit the floor when I discovered this surprise in our preliminary organizational meeting. I was like Fuggetaboutit. Ciao bello, ciao tutte. Where’s my hat… Well I did it. And inside of the bit I sang, “Spain,” with Checco and the studio band; really good band.

My appearance was a surprise for the studio audience and will also be for viewers at home.

Good job to my manager, Joe Gordon, You cuddled and coddled this baby from the start, and this is sure to be a very important facet of our whole “Back to Italian” adventure. We met some beautiful people.

Every time I involve myself in special projects like this (television people, radio people, fundraisers, charities) I come away with beautiful pictures in my head of the folks I met. Great to see Antonello, our promoter, from way back when, and his colleague, Antonella. You should have seen Youma: Six-foot three or six-foot four gorgeous model with black skin and classique features. Special thanks to Mario for leading us around by the hand, and helping us all day long.

With a very deep bow of congratulations I want to thank Checco Zalone and the whole staff on a brilliant production. Checco is amazing. Call me anytime.

Love Al

Share :

‘TWAS SUMMER CONTINUED

Fifteen months ago in the summer I had a little heartburn, and spent awhile in a Marseilles, France hospital with Dr. Bonnet. We cancelled seven concerts, but I got up and walked out of that clinic, and into a recording studio for an eight-hour recording session to complete the duet I recorded with Deodato, “Double Face.” Then I went and did the last three dates of the tour.

So when we began this past summer’s six-week tour, there were unspoken question marks in the air… And in my own head as much as anywhere… Prayer is some high power stuff you guys. It is the constant morning, noon, and night visualizing of what you want to be and what you want to take place and what you want to happen at some future time. This mechanism builds skyscrapers and golden gate bridges. And it puts men on the moon and high jumpers over 7-foot bars. They keep seeing it and rehearsing it in their minds morning, noon, and night. And this can be referred to as prayer. Or creative visualization. And it’s the only way to get there from here. And it’s through your thoughts and thinking about what you want to have in your future. I did a lot of visualizing and picturing and moving with determination and positive attitude. Audience responses were great. As strong as ever. What a lesson. ‘Twas Summer.

I normally comment on almost all of the concerts that we do, but I’m so late that I’ll simply pick a few that really demand some personal statements from me. The city of Munich has had a wonderful festival summer of music and jazz for years, but the budget was just not there for a festival this year; a disappointment to a real music loving city. Thank God for the Bayerischer Hof, which continued their tradition of hosting several performances that normally happen during Synclavier Sommer Festival. The response was nothing short of tremendous. Screaming and yelling from before the start. Maybe we were making up for some of the music that got missed last summer. I’ll never forget our hostess and organizer of the music in the hotel. She had the look of a little girl who just got a pony for Christmas. The audience was over the moon. Thank you Munich once again. I’ve said this so many times. May it continue, and continue, and continue.

France has been a home for jazz and jazzers since the 20’s. They know it, love it, play it, perform it as well as Americans, and I must say promote it more. In my earlier career, I traveled to a greater number of the provinces beyond Paris and the Cote d’Azur. Something happened in more recent years that I’m now trying to make a correction for that with an old friend Bernard Dulau. He was working for my first promoter, Francis Dreyfus, during my first tour in Europe. He was a great help with his big smile. Bernard Dulau and I have taken the attitude of “let’s start all over.” We are committed, Bernard Dulau and I, to reconnecting with the provinces… Champagne, Normandy, Burgundy, Toulouse, etc…. all of France, as in the beginning. We do not get to these places enough. And so now, here we come. Bring your children. This is the real thing. Come and see… We are finding lost relationships and new friends with greater hopes and high certainties for the future.

One of the great festivals that we regularly attend is in Juan-Les-Pins… It always sneaks up on you as you drive along this country-like pathway, and suddenly you’re in the city with a hairpin left turn at a 45-degree uphill angle. And then suddenly like a Roman charioteer you burst into this gargantuan Roman amphitheater, maybe 200 feet at the top. Talk about intimidating for any gladiator, Shakespearian actor, singer from Milwaukee, or Pisa, Italy.

When I was here a couple of years ago I met Bobby McFerrin’s son with his beautiful, wild hairdo. We do several interviews again this time and bang we’re on stage. This audience is always so enthusiastic that almost on their own they carry the show and make the performance. This was no exception. Oh to be sure the band played some many hot licks in “You Don’t See Me” and “Sweet Potato Pie” much to the delight of so many people who had not heard this music ever before. The hairpin turn feels better as we leave. And we’re relaxed and happy after a strong performance at a great shrine.

Barcelonette, the city where I had the hiccup heard around the world in 2010, and 12 months later I’m back, full tilt boogie. Threatening to set fire to their neat little lawn and lawn chairs. These beautiful people had sat for a year anxiously wondering whether last year’s headliner who was taken away in an ambulance would be in fact all right, and would he ever return to sing.

I didn’t have to say a word. They stood up when they recognized that it was me. And we all just quietly stood there nodding our heads with little smiles on our faces. Some of us had big smiles. Their students are teenagers and study and practice and play in this country, woodsy mountains setting. Another world. I’ll bet they are getting some great work done. They should be. Thanks for the welcome back Barcelonette, and our first real meeting.

Marciac. Wow! Thank God for us finding ourselves at this classic French Jazz Festival. It’s huge. And this is my first time! Our hotel is a tiny hotel in a small country town of a few thousand people. And they said it’s the closest town with a hotel or motel to the festival, but we still had to drive more than an hour and fifteen minutes to the festival grounds. This means that they must be drawing people from lots of provinces that are probably closer to an hour drive. I knew this would be a special day when, just at the edge of town, I passed by a building that for whatever wonderful or strange reason had a huge mural of the cover of the book “Le Petit Ponce” by Saint-Exupery. I was immediately transported to a wintery classroom in Ripon where we were studying “Le Petit Prince” as a first or second reading French lesson. So romantique. This moment of déjà vu as seen through the back window of a car moving past the side of a building in the French countryside. That just absolutely took me away to the time of a 20-year old Al Jarreau in my new hometown Ripon College, Wisconsin and all its bedazzlements.

And then believe it or not: Pow! And fields and fields of millions of sunflowers. A Van Gogh mirage. I was thinking to myself “Wow I love this but what is happening here.” I think tonight at Marciac is going to be quite special. We arrive at dusk and it’s all white tents backstage. Well organized and a bit dream-like.

I could spend time telling you about yet another great band performance. And it’s a lead pipe cinch that we made some new friends from these nearby French provinces. If anyone can understand and appreciate this music that we’re doing these days from the earliest records, it is the French. The French are amongst the earliest die-hards. What I’d really like to take a moment to describe to you was a fantasia-like closure to this already surreal day. Dianne Reeves with two guitars. What a concept! What courage. I’ve been in that neighborhood myself, suddenly there’s a lot more empty space to deal with than there was with a full on trio or more. Her choice of material was excellent and when she took the audience into some “shonuff” blues singing they got a real treat, rarely heard, and more rarely from her. I was backstage doing interviews, but could hardly concentrate because Dianne was taking me away. I told her that she and I should do something together. Her cousin George Duke would be the obvious connection as producer. What a day. And then it all jumped even more wonderland surreal when an old friend, Franky March, from Bernard Dulau old days appeared out of the mist at the hotel on Avenue Hoche. We laughed and lingered until it was time to go. Then I took a wonderful long ride back through the sunflowers and passed the little prince. Thank you Marciac. Thank you France. Thank you fantasia. Love Al Jarreau.

Share :