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Hannover

It’s up north there, near Hamburg, and I must have played here a bunch of times over the past since 1976. I’m certain there were a lot of people who came to Uncle Po in Hamburg during that first and second week in Germany in 1976, I spend several moments, thanking them for that great send off, and their loyalty to my music ever since. And I say, “Here we go again!” I was new back then, and now, I’m asking you to allow me to be new again doing Ellington with the Nord Deutsche Rundfunk Big Band. Thank you for coming tonight and taking a chance. This is extraordinary, you know! So in that spirit of things in the moment, we take Ellington himself on a trip.

Jorg, Joe Turano, and I have tried to be Jarreau-ish in our approach to Duke Ellington. We wanted our arrangements to sound like Al Jarreau and how he would approach things. We didn’t want our arrangements to sound like we had simply gone out and bought the sheet music and did something stock and unadventuresome. Of course, this is risky, but our thinking has been that if you take the time to look inside and find Al Jarreau-isms and build good solid arrangements around that, you very well could have something fresh and new. In fact, this is what we hope our audiences will sense and feel and respond to. So Hannover is concert number six, and I haven’t been thrown in jail for disrespect to Ellington. In fact, I’m pleased as punch, joyous and happy, at the response so far.

Sometimes, there is a person or group of people in the audience who just really are so present in their attention to what’s happening on stage, and so responsive, and happy about being there at that moment, that the performer is drawn to them, and in fact finds himself lifted to more and more inspired playing or singing. It happened tonight. There were two ladies in the second row, just right of center, who touched me that way. Of course, I did not ignore everyone else, but as I sang to other people out there, I brought the inspiration these two ladies in the second row. When it’s working like this, you even have fun with a loud mouth over in the right hand isle about 20 rows back, who yells something that is totally unintelligible and whack! I invite him to come up, and he says the same unintelligible whack thing again! It’s so comfortable in the house, that I tell him to come up to the stage again, and then he shuts and gets quiet. But I don’t stop! I said, “HEY!” So, look, everybody, he added as much of the specialness to that evening. Folks will remember that night because of that exchange between him and Al Jarreau, and that it didn’t interrupt the flow. It was so cool, it was as though it was planned.

This was a wonderful night that was really exceptional because of the looseness of things. Nothing pushed. We all just allowed it to happen… even the guy on the right. I wish I had a moment to say hi to those two ladies. If they’re reading this, they know who they were. Once again, a really big bow and thank you to my Hannover friends who love NDR and came to hear us take a ride on Ellington’s A Train.

-Al Jarreau

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Dortmund

I woke up this morning, and wow, there was sunshine!  In southern California, we coast along with sunny mornings being the norm. Over here, in Europe, by late September, there can be days and weeks of cloudy days. Cool and cloudy, then cold and cloudy. And then comes the snow. After several days of cloudy weather, I found myself reacting to sunshine, just outside the window… and I laughed to myself. That set the tone of things for the day.

The concert hall is almost a 360 degree wrap around audience seating venue. It was at sound check that I realized what a long walk it was going to be from off stage to my set up on stage. But I get there, sit down, and take a moment to thank NDR for this time with them, where I’m learning so much and finding a new me. I love being around so much inspired “playing and soloing”. We stop in the dressing room for an hour, and then it’s show time! For my first number, I start out to cross the stage, on a crutch, with Joe Turano supporting me on the other side, shouting, “Come on, let’s go to Harlem!” Of course, they did not know I was coming out on a crutch, but there’s a slow and gradual increase in applause and shouts, and I realize it’s an acknowledgement of the effort. I sit down on my stool and raise my arms in the fashion of an Olympic gymnastics champion who just stuck the landing, and throwing my arms in the air like they do, in that well known end of routine pose, and I yell, “Ta-daaah!” They recognize it and scream. It’s a great way to begin the night.

Off we go with “Drop me off in Harlem” and Ingolf’s fiery trumpet playing gives them fair warning. And then, bang! Right into Duke’s “I let a Song go out of my Heart,” as a hot little jazz waltz, with a screaming alto solo by Feite. This is probably a new and challenging version of “I let a song” but it is so powerful that it carries you along and it works. It’s just about at this point when I look down at the first row and directly in front of me, there’s a lady who looks like the twin of  Angela Merkel.   I was convinced, and spent a lot of the evening addressing songs and comments to one of the great world leaders.

I rode the wave of that possibility all night long, and made comments to this Dortmund, Germany audience about so many things, like the importance of this national/international treasure, Nord Duetsche Rundfunk Big Band,  Pretty soon, we’re at “Take the A Train,” and close out the first half of an eight song set.

It’s somewhere into the second half that I look up and realize that there are three balconies. The third is so high up near the ceiling, that I hadn’t seen it ’til the lights were just right. And there were people up there. I began to look more toward the balconies during the second half. Frank Delle comes down front and blows the front doors off, with tenor sax at “Beginning to see the Light.” Claus plays the most blue and moody muted trumpet on “I got it Bad and that Ain’t Good”.

The spectrum of the concert takes more shape, and then another surprise, and then we close the evening with some Jarreau standards as encores. This was the seventh time doing this program, and the audience response has been wunderbar. Thank you, God. Thank you, Dortmund. See you in Vienna.

– Al Jarreau

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Dusseldorf

The concert hall is a conversion from a planetarium, with a domed ceiling, to a basically round room, with a stage occupying an arc that’s about 40 feet deep to the back row of the band. This is a most amazing and interesting venue to be in because of what the conversion required. Really interesting levels of floors and stairways, that give an Eschere like feeling, has two recognizable balconies, the upper one being quite close to the dome ceiling. If you’re able to capture the spirit of this structure in some aspect of your performing, it’s a magical wonder!

I realized at sound check that I have played in this room at least one other time. I looked down and just to my right, and it’s the Bear Sisters! They’ve come all the way from Berlin. We start laughing and grinning immediately as I was pointing to them. They’ve been coming to my concerts since they were teenagers. 13 and 15. They have remained true to their tradition of bringing me a little stuffed Berlin bear… always. There must be 20 of these at home, in my office and my music room. Ricarda got the inspiration to sing and perform and she does it a lot. She has felt the joy in her life that comes from music, and sharing it with listeners and other players. What a wonderful thing. Those kinds of moments are so very, very special for me and my audience, especially when they see it happen. It opens the door for mentioning the grandmothers and grandchildren who come see me now.

In a flash, this Dusseldorf audience senses the truth about which I speak all the time, that Germany has been very important to me, for a long time, since the beginning.

We soared high to the planetarium ceiling last night, and did three encore songs, and we were finally allowed to stop! I always feel like I never thank the band enough. There isn’t enough thanks. They play this jazz genre like they’re Americans from New Orleans, Chicago, or Harlem, with contemporary sensitivities of our finest players in America.

I forgot the Moniques were going to be there, and when they showed up, I almost lost it. The music brought the three of us together at different periods in my life and career, and they found each other, and they’ve become like friends who are more like sisters. Whenever I’m in the neighborhood, they come together. We laughed and grinned and reviewed old stories like it was Christmas eve. Oh, man, I love that! And so we closed out performance number five, hardly believing that we’ve finished five performing days! Well, we have, and even though I’m still not confident about the material, I feel pretty good! Thank you, Dusseldorf, and the planetarium (yes, we touched the stars).

-Al Jarreau

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Dresden, Germany

Old Dresden! Really old and beautiful, like a pretty silver haired lady having tea and a touch of vodka and bourbon. She’s seen a lot and still she smiles quietly.

Oh, they like our music, our poems and jazz, too.

They do 14 days of jazz every year. This is my second time here, and this time it’s with NDR. I’m exploring a bit of the big band universe. This was our fourth night, and it was wonderful to share some music and feelings and heart with this audience of long time jazz listeners, who truly love subtleties and delicacies, of tones and chords and rhythms and feelings. At sound check, we saw the big black & white stills… photos of the greats, past and present, peeking out at us from behind their instruments. Faces glistening of sweat… enough to.. “ok I’m going home now!”

So, we all took a deep breath… pretty sure that we would have some Ellington lovers, and that would be a good start. Getting on and off stage for sound check and performance is a little difficult these days. I’m using a crutch a lot. This venue was a serious challenge to just get on stage, and make it to my center position. It’s 8 O’clock and time to hit it. There’s screaming applause and people on their feet immediately, as NDR takes the stage. WOW! That’s a shot in the arm! There’s a real love for this organization of jazzers that’s been around since 1946. I’ve been getting some great spill over/trickle down effect from being with them, from doing Ellington! My god!

They do pay special attention and applaud loudly as I hobble across stage with a crutch and on Joe Turano’s arm. I’m calling, “Taxi! Harlem! Cabby! Harlem!” I tell ‘em, come on, everybody! Drop me off in Harlem. They get it.

By half time, they’ve heard some fabulous soloing and ensemble playing of new Ellington. New Ellington, still Ellington. I struggle back down the ramp to my dressing room, and get ready for a second half. Here we go! Nothing like a hot sparkling version of “Cotton Tail,” for welcoming the audience back to their seats, and getting their ears open again. The second half is a little more risky, featuring a seldom heard Brubeck song, a non Ellington composition, called “The Duke,” and what a lovely tribute it is to someone who must have been a hero of Dave Brubeck’s… Nice little circular admiration society, as you guys know how much I love Brubeck. They liked it, just the way we all hoped they would appreciate it. With this second half, we’ll include a couple of nice high wire moves on “Nothing but the Blues,” and “Satin Doll.” This ought to be a first timing experience for the audience on both of these classic Ellington compositions. This is our fourth night, and so far the response has been wonderful!

What has happened here is… Joe Turano and Jorg Keller and I began with a big broad list of tunes that we thought are important to cover, which we thought we could find some fresh arranging, soloing, and singing. AND THEN we let the kids out for recess and joined them. We let out some ideas and asked Jorg if “this” or “that” could work. Jorg has an amazing ability to understand the gist of an idea, and then expand on it, and bring it to life, in a way that makes a whole and wonderful new canvas, on which to paint. It’s like Joe and I would suggest some flowers and Jorg would return with a garden all laid out. I keep discovering new stuff inside these Jorg Keller arrangements every day, and I’m certain that will continue to happen inside this book of Ellington arrangements that we’re doing.

We ended up doing three encores for this jazz audience, and we all left the stage feeling good.

The hotel does a wonderful late night jazz session that I felt conspicuous about not attending, but it was time for me to lay down and be still and give thanks. So farewell to madam Dresden, with her beautiful silver hair. Auf wiedersehen. Thank you, Jazztage Festival.

-Al Jarreau

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