Category : diary

Lincolnville, Maine – 2015

Please accept my apologies for the delay in posting this. My show on Saturday, August 8th was in Lincolnville, Maine at the Cellardoor Winery. What a wonderful run to the state of Maine this turned out to be! I’m always talking about the importance of finding new audiences, listeners, and friends, and this surely was a wonderful epitome of that phenomenon.

I can count on one hand the number of times that I’ve been to Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts (not counting visits to Boston), Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Aren’t you surprised to find that Al Jarreau has only been to this group of northeastern states in America less than 6 times? Well, I’m surprised!

Of people, audiences, and observers in general in the US (and maybe the world), this is a unique group of people. They really value the classroom and education. Some of the finest teaching institutions are geographically clumped together in that region.

I’m getting real self-conscious and trying to be really careful of the snobbishness that these folks are often accused of, but I will risk it. Because whether it’s Sunday School, Hebrew School, the physics classroom, it is learning that is the answer to everything. You can learn to read and even put a man on Mars ten years from now. You can build a rocket ship to the moon or learn to meditate with Siddhartha Buddha.

So you can imagine my surprise when a 40+ crowd was immediately down front and dancing. And they did it all night long, right through the ballads.

The Winery usually puts on between seven to nine concerts a year, but our show was the first of the “Live in the Vines” concert series. Our show was the first time they had three acts in one day. Bettina Doulton is the brains and engine behind this series. Additional, she supports the Children’s and Women’s shelter and Habitat for Humanity. Now, that’s my kind of enlightened owner and operator.

We played on what was a temporary stage that was set up in a big open field. About 150 yards wide and under 50 yards deep. Starting mid way back, there was a semi circle of tents surrounding the stage. They had great pizza, ice cream, and other food available.

The opening acts were Spencer Albee and Federick Yanet. Spencer Albee played some exciting renditions of my favorite Beatles songs. Frederick who played harmonica, sang, and went down front amongst the people and had them moving and grooving. Then right before we our set during the changeover between bands, there was a brief acoustic set. I loved hearing him sing Paul Simon’s iconic song “You Can Call Me Al” just before my entrance to the stage. I didn’t catch the performer’s name. If you were there and happen remember his name, please write to me on Facebook or Twitter.

I am, in fact, very flattered to have been invited to participate in this very young music series and play for this audience who is not overrun with hundreds of artists in a year. And I think our strong performance have reaffirmed everyone’s faith and belief in this series of concerts way up there in Maine.

They were close enough to shake my hand AND my pants leg; they did so all night long. They sang every chorus, especially on “We’re In This Love Together,” “Mornin’,” and “Boogie Down.” They sang the melody and lyrics on “Take Five” and applauded for solos. You can’t ask for more than that; it was a wonderful surprise.

“Day-o” continues to be the surprise of surprises. And when we followed that with “Roof Garden,” that was the icing on the cake.

We met some friends of Bettina backstage, and I got to thank her for inviting me. We returned to the hotel for a short sleep and then a ride to the airport in the morning. Thank you, Maine.

Love,

Al

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Munich, Germany – 2015

Munich, Germany – 2015

Guten Morgen! We’re in the car to the airport and leaving town again. Are you out of breath? Maybe a little bit dizzy? Well I am, and there are five other band members, 2 sound guys, and an organizing manager who are really puffin’ hard. What a bunch of sissy’s J. Just kidding!

Well the truth is that there are some young bands who will go out on much longer tours and who will party even harder than they work. I never could do that. Something suffers. Well we’ll be home soon. We just finished a wonderful night in Munich at the Bayerisch Hof Hotel (one of my favorite hotels in the world, along with the Pfister in Milwaukee). And believe it or not, Ingrid Volgard, the owner, has jumped in headfirst and decided to continue some jazz aspects of what was a bigger festival called “Sin-clavier Sommer” that was sponsored by the city. This is an unprecedented move and I can’t even imagine the detail of this undertaking…a private hotel doing six days of jazz. I shouted her name all night long and reminded everybody on how important this was.

My musical history in this city almost mirrors the important details of my career on the continent. Right now, you can see me in a red shirt on YouTube performing “Take Five” from 1977 and that would have been the period when I sang my first date in Munich at a little tiny club called the Spectacle (about 110 people). This was the time when people in Hamburg and people at the Berlin jazz festival were raving about this crazy American singer doing so many wild things with his voice. All of this was apart of a small explosion for me that opened up the rest of Europe from Oslo to Naples. And so I take the joyful opportunity to keep reminding these sons and daughters and nephews of those first audiences that we have something special together.

This performance space in the hotel was surely no doubt designed as a ballroom where Munich dignitaries and socialites gathered for very special occasions. But it was as if though the nymphs and muses spoke to the architect while they were sleeping and influenced the design so that it’s a perfect place for doing music with double balconies and railings that are beautifully carved and ornately painted in gold-like stuff, and the whole deal makes you feel like, “wow this is amazing!” And there they are in the front row with their knees almost touching the stage…so close that they can walk away with Larry’s flute. This is a great way to experience music, live and in your face. And it’s so loose and comfortable that it’s like we’re in a living room drinking wine in front of a fireplace. It’s fabulous that this is so obvious and is felt and sensed by everyone there. It’s as though you’ve been cut off from the rest of the world and things seem to go in slow motion, almost silent.

They sang great on the choruses and inhaled some great solo playing from guys in the band. Also, we’ve been showcasing some new material on this tour and they’ve added a final punctuation of “Yes, record that!”. This was an intermission evening and even though we planned it to be equal halves, the second half went way longer than we anticipated. But it was wonderful and beautiful and all smiles, and lots of gratitude for a wonderful tour. One more time I pined for taking advantage of such an intimate setting and the casual hanging out with guests and audience. That’s fun stuff.

That’s it for now. I’ll see you in a couple of weeks in Maine. For now I’m going home to be with my Babay, Ryan and Jen, the dogs, and my own bathroom. Wooo-wee!

Love,

Al

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St. Mortiz, Switzerland – 2015

St. Moritz, Switzerland – 2015

St. Moritz. Dracula Club. We’ve played here one other time before…only once. But this venue and location is so rare that you find yourself thinking about it a lot. At the moment, we’re descending back down the Alps here in Switzerland and we’re looking at unbelievable mountain ranges and evidences of geology that is mind blowing. One changing visual after another. It’s dizzying.

Ok let’s get back to the Dracula Club. The guys who organized this club were part of an Olympic bobsledding team who continued to bobsled long after competitions. But the unbelievably wild thing is that they found a way to bobsled at night, especially late at night. And somehow, the term “Dracula” came into play. Amazingly they were serious jazz lovers and did the almost unthinkable thing of building a restaurant/club/performing venue. It’s cramped and tiny but that’s the magic. People sitting on the floor close enough to reach out and touch them. I don’t know another club like it in the world. There’s even a balcony in this room that is about 20 yards square.

You just don’t forget this. The people love the music and they’re super precious about this setting. And they are right.

As a performer, it’s a lead pipe cinch in this setting. So, once again, when our outfit took the “stage” (that’s right—same level as the people) and gave it to ‘em the same way we do at the Hollywood Bowl with all the bells and whistles, you make “friends” real fast and they ask you back. We were here 24 months ago, but now we’re back with a new program of music and the surprise and near astonishment is real visible. Huge grins with eyes darting back and forth from one soloist to another in the band. They were singing along a lot and I love it because it never interrupts the serious soloing and playing of the band but rather brings them in and makes them performers themselves (with us). Somehow this is happening on this tour more than ever before. It’s got me grinning right now.

We’re popping and sparking and Mark has them astonished. They are so very close to this kind of intensity with its “right now” improvisational freshness. A balcony in a place this small is so unique as to make you think of the coziness of a loft. Where are the pajamas and potato chips?!?

We did a little more than an hour and a half but could have played all night long. They were yelling for more! Christian and the other club personnel were laughing and grinning…and so were we. When we left, I was surprised to see the rain. There had been a pretty good little downpour and I immediately thought, “They came out anyway.”

As we were leaving I had this little tugging regret that I couldn’t do the most natural thing in the world in this situation, which is to stay and hang out with the people in this restaurant/bar. That’s what I used to do. But these days my legs and back don’t like that so I head back to the hotel and enjoy the thunder and rain in my room.

As I said earlier, we’re descending down this glorious mountain with little villages and I keep thinking somebody’s going to pinch me and I’m going to wake up from this amazing dream. This doesn’t happen to kids from Milwaukee from the other side of the tracks. I was just talking to my sister, Rose Marie, about all of that just yesterday.

Well, we’re going to do this one more time on this tour in Munich tomorrow. Then we’ll go home. Thank you, God! This was wonderful!

Love,

Al

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Mainz, Germany – 2015

Mainz, Germany – 2015

I’ve been here before several times and the last time was two years ago. But I always forget and it’s right on the River Rheine. And this time, we’ll play a new venue for me from a boat that IS literally docked on the Rheine and will play to people on the shore. That’s another new one. When I woke up that morning and looked out my hotel window, the venue was visible from a far off audience standpoint. A broad, flat terrace leading from the front of the hotel to cement stairs that went right down to the shoreline. The audience was looking at the stage and performers on a boat with the River Rheine flowing past…and I do mean flowing! You could see ripples as it urgently moved along. No stagnant stream here.

All of this put the first row of seated audience people about 40 yards from the stage, and as per my previous discussions about distances to the first row, I wasn’t happy. But all of the audience seemed to be accustomed to that and they received our messages from the stage really loud and clear and responded in a way that gave us high certainty.

The opening act, Leona Berlin, was a quintet of students from University of Mainz who highlighted the audience with their young, jazzy program (later they all came to say hello and we talked about me coming to hang out with them at their music school sometime in the future).

I and everybody were so glad for a cool and overcast day. In a certain respect, there was no way to lose tonight.

Once again I’m struck with the obvious results of the long, long relationship I have with this audience and their mothers and uncles. You may remember that sometimes I describe this as being almost as though I was a young neighborhood kid that emerged onto the music scene from some local town who did well at home and went off to the rest of Europe with their best wishes. They feel to be part of that little success story. And I feel it too.

After a couple of encores, I was quietly whispering to myself, “Thank God”. This is the part of the tour where my throat is glad for any little break it can get.

So off we go back down the stairs to my great little dressing room with a grey haired, rosy checked attendant/guard who could have been the real life model for the little old sausage maker cartoon. He was shy and a little nervous about my American over-exuberance. By the end of the night he was smiling and had warmed up. He helped me with the German word for “fly”. Flurgen. That’s what happened that night. We flew!

Now it’s off to Switzerland! See you there.

Love,

Al

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Dusseldorf, Germany – 2015

Dusseldorf, Germany – 2015

This venue and type of venue was a first for me and I’m glad that the “Unique Moniques” were there to pay witness. They’ve seen me inside, outside, in concert halls with 15,000 people at North Sea, etc., etc. But never at a planetarium! Well, converted planetarium that still has the dome ceiling against which the Milky Way would be projected with all its stars and planets. I’m not sure when the conversion took place but it was well done. A domed ceiling like that could easily have been just a monstrous reflection of uncontrollable sound that bounces everywhere like being in an oil drum. Not so here. It was great! It made for a quite sizable performance space. From front to back it was about 50 yards and its diameter from side-to-side was about 75 yards. It had a balcony that was almost wrap around and the dome ceiling was painted and lit in such a way that you almost had a sky-like effect left over its planetarium use.

I was so aware of the uniqueness of this venue and the fact that the “Unique Moniques” were here to see me and this band knock it out of the park—Grand Slam! These old friends know about the new “me” and my challenges new challenges. And so, to have a hot night like we had that was so satisfying for me and the band, it was great to share with folks who know.

Before we played the first note, the audience was giving me and the band a standing ovation. WOW! It just gets better from there. They even allowed me to play with the name of their town, saying silly things like “three-seldorf”, “four-seldorf”, “whos-eldorf”, and “what-seldorf”. And then in the next moment we would be totally serious about the music.

Bam! Amazing! Right there in the front row were two sisters who’ve been coming since they were teenagers from Berlin. I almost jumped off the stage and hugged them. They brought me another stuffed teddy bear (the mascot of Berlin). I’m sure I have 8 or 10 bears like that—usually smaller—about 3 inches tall at home in my office.

The whole night followed this pattern of give and take and we-ism­ that is ideal and dreamlike for performing. The mood and the feeling mounts and multiplies on itself, and by the end of the night, everyone’s feeling as though they have been abducted and transported and really seeing the Milky Way and the stars like this old planetarium was meant to do. Along the way we played lots of standards from my book and seasoned that collection with several new pieces that brought grins and nodding heads.

Mark Simmons has caught fire these days and found yet a new level of drumming that’s bringing people to their feet mid performance. Just generally speaking, there’s nothing like several weeks on tour to get everybody sharper and in tune and connected with each other. We nod our head about that.

We’ve taken a couple seasons off from regular performances of “Spain” but it was so obvious, even in sound check today, that John’s acoustic guitar would ring so beautifully in this room and be heard like it seldom gets to be heard. And so when he plucks the first notes that suggest the Spanish mode of “Spain” there is immediate applause, without us even playing the signature melodies and lines. When we do, they clap four to the measure—almost Flamenco-like—and then Larry solos his butt off.

Everything is wonderful! We end up doing four encores…and they would have stayed for more. We know that backstage there’s a room full of guests so we beg off and they let us exit.

Backstage, we’re all almost jumping up and down like little kids with a popsicle. And there’s Carol and Garol! When I asked about their kids, they say, “Oh yea, wonderful! 19 and 21 now and doing great.” Blows my mind, but it fits right with what I so often mention directly to audiences these days that I’m looking at people who first saw me when they were teens and pre-teens and now their kids are coming with kids. What a gift from God. What a blessing! I’m the luckiest guy in the world. What an occupation!

Just as we were leaving, downstairs at the exit door, a husband and wife—both in wheelchairs—just took my breath away. They had come to see me play and waited around for at least an hour. They were determined to not leave until they said hello and I signed an autograph for them. He was paraplegic with good upper body control, but she had much less mobility. It hit me like a lighting bolt. Wow! He’s taking care of her. He’s her caregiver…full time. I hugged them as hard as I could and did autographs and knew even then it was too little. And then we did autographs for 15 other people who were waiting outside the backstage entrance.

Ok, enough for now. I got to hurry to Mainz. We’re on stage in 18 hours. On a boat J.

Love,

Al

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Torino, Italy – 2015

Torino, Italy – 2015

Dramatically speaking, this date on the summer tour calendar was as distant as Pluto. I guess I said that before. Well here we are on a return visit with just a few more miles to go as we are closing out the summer tour, which had so many question marks surrounding it—mainly having to do with my new back. The answer in short is that I’m finding a new Al Jarreau who is less physically busy on stage but has found another door open up that has gotten me inside the music in a new and special way. I’m hearing and seeing things that I had not before!

It’s hotter than blue blazes here in the city, but here comes cool, sweet Roberta to welcome us back to Torino…to one of those “new in the world” Italian performing venues that’s part of a shopping mall. They’re taking the music to the people. That’s a brilliant concept. That particular iPhone/Blackberry/Shopping crazy audience has been slipping away because we somehow don’t get to them in their gathering place. This will be a serious situation for the new artist to deal with.

I have to say that Italy as much as any country has kept quite good focus on traditional musical concepts and ways of performing. Puccini, Verde, Pavarotti, and Caruso will always be at the top of their charts (and for me, Cecilia Bartoli—a rising star). So for them to have accepted and enjoyed my music since the first record in 1975 is quite a compliment.

The outdoor cabins backstage are small but comfortable and cool. And cool…I’ll say it twice! We start at 10:00pm and are thankful for sundown. And, wow, I’m stunned that this place has the feel of a permanent outdoor music amphitheater. And there’s 2,500 people out there…sold out. Thank you, God. And they’re immediately singing, “I hope you don’t mind, I hope you don’t mind that I put down in words…”. And then they’re right into singing “I need somebody” from “Black and Blues”. Pretty hip sing-a-long. I love it. These simple little sing-a-long phrases are interspersed with some very serious instrumental stuff. And the reaction to a new song called “Great City” has been wonderful every time. It’s like Jimmy Smith’s organ meets the Count Bassie band and Joe Williams. Stompin’.

When it’s comfortable sometimes I meander in my thoughts on stage and this one was one to remember. I meandered into the comment “what a wonderful pope we have these days.” He cares about poor people and all who need help. He was just in South America doing that. And further more, this IS our responsibility to each other. Lots of heads nodding up and down. No standing ovation but I think they got it. That will be one of my favorite meanderings.

We made a few changes in the program that bring back a couple more well known Jarreau standards that gets smiles of recognition. Pretty soon we’re doing “Boogie Down” and “Roof Garden” and saying good night…. They jump on my first “day-o”, almost inaudible like an afterthought. Then I pick it up and continue and somewhere Harry Belafonte’s going, “What?!”.

I stopped and signed a few autographs before getting on the bus, and just like when we left the stage, everyone is all smiles, grinning and chuckling and laughing with real delight about a wonderful evening.

Off to Germany we go!

Love,

Al

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