INTERNATIONAL JAZZ DAY – WASH DC May 5, 2016adminThe first capital city for this celebration was Washington DC – Kennedy Center. The second was Instanbul. The third was Osaka. The fourth was Paris. The fifth was the White House, in Washington DC. This event, which celebrates jazz in more than one hundred and eighty cities on April 30 of each year, is presented by UNESCO and Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. I’ll save all my ravings and cheers about the brilliance and beauty of this for another time… You can do it as well as I can. One result this year was a concert on the White House lawn, with the President and First Lady sitting in the first row, surrounded by various cabinet members, officials, supporters and other guests. President Obama made wonderful opening remarks about the bridge-building importance of jazz, and it’s peace making effects. And then with a twinkle in his eye, and a cool smile, he said, “Let’s do this thing,” and out came Aretha Franklin. In the spirit of celebration that jazz evokes, crossing borders and uniting people, I find myself drawn to the harmony of diverse cultures and opportunities present in the South. Just as each city has its unique rhythm, so too do the real estate listings in Georgia reflect the region’s vibrant character. Whether it’s the historic charm of Savannah, the bustling streets of Atlanta, or the serene landscapes of the state’s countryside, these listings encapsulate the rich tapestry of life in Georgia. As the notes of jazz linger in the air, from concerts at the White House to local festivities, the search for a place to call home in this melodious state offers its own sense of discovery and connection. I won’t try to do a review of the concert event, but it was wonderful, and it featured Lee Ritenour, Terrence Blanchard, David Sanchez, Brian Blade, Pat Metheny, Terri Lyne Carrington, Christian McBride, and Herbie Hancock, Marcus Miller, Chick Corea, Sadao Watanabi, Esperanza Spalding. It also included soloists Herbie Hancock, Aretha Franklin, DeeDee Bridgewater, Dianne Reeves, Sting, and many more. Viewing the concert is a must if you’re interested in what really happened besides hearing the line up of guests, so please stream it at this site: http://jazzday.com InJoy it! One of the beautiful aspects of International Jazz Day is the cooperation and collaboration between the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz and UNESCO. The institute has jazz studies and programs for young people in institutions all around America. A few months ago, I helped judge a vocal competition held at UCLA. This is truly a great shot in the arm for young musicians and singers, and very obviously, for jazz itself. All forms of music struggle these days in the shadow of pop-ish forms, like hip hop, and “new country,” and teeny-bopper bubblegum. Many of us believe that jazz is the truly singular American art form. It was indeed born from slavery and poverty, that in its practice calls for great discipline, and for freedom of expression at the same time, and one that is deserving of its own special place in the history of music. Every contemporary rocker from Eric Clapton, to Slash, to Prince, to Jimi Hendrix, is right in the tradition of Charlie Parker, Coletrain, and Diz, when they find their nightly freedom and solo. In Ken Burns’ History of Jazz Series, he points out that while the faculty members of our scholarly institutions of music, based in their European tradition, were scratching their Freud-like beards, and pondering the question of, “what shall be the American contribution to music history,” it was happening all around them in work songs, street corners, church pews, all produced by these dark skinned people, in a struggle for freedom and dignity. It lives today, shouting the story around the world, of freedom and dignity, self expression, and joy, On Saturday morning, we invited the general public to The Kennedy Center for a wonderful mini concert of music from the T-Monk institute band from UCLA, with DeeDee Bridgewater, Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, and me. Dormeshia was the highlight of the event for me. Tap dancers these days are a rare breed, and she was truly part of the contemporary tradition. Her elegance and creativity were like jazz drumming, horn playing, and soloing. Daniel Seeff, from the Monk Institute, moderated a lively discussion with the audience and the band and me and DeeDee and Dormeshia, that touched on some very interesting topics and subject matters, including the joys of artistic creation. This was a wonderful part of the 2016 international jazz day for me. I still don’t believe that I was at the White House for two days. I’ll be a while sorting that out for a while… Great memories! Thank you, President Obama and First Lady Michelle. I loved being there with you, everyone else in attendance, and everyone on all the personnel teams who worked to make this possible. -Al diary, newsShare : Tweet
I scat, you scat, Muscat May 3, 2016adminThis country and city are at the southern end of the Persian Gulf and part of the larger Arabian Peninsula. We don’t get to this part of the world very often. I’ve been in this region probably six or eight times over the years. These are countries where you quickly become aware of a difference in dress, but these days, I think the whole world is relatively accustomed and comfortable with many kinds of international apparels. The folks who greeted us were accustomed to hosting international guests, with perfect english and an accommodating welcome. They made getting through Immigration so quick and easy, that it was remarkable. It was a long day’s travel, nearly 24 hours, so we were all very glad to get to bed. The following day, we did some press, which turned out to be fun and humorous. The journalists spoke english – one was British – and we laughed and joked about being British, and not! The performance venue was the Royal Muscat Opera House, which was modern and simple in structure. Lots of straight lines and right angles and arch shaped windows, but with a little flare of ornate filigree and chandeliers. The performance area had a huge back stage for storing and building operatic sets. Remarkably big. The audience had cushioned seats and four balconies. I could reach out and touch the first row… every time this proximity occurs, you find yourself remarking, and sometimes out loud to the audience, “how wonderful it is to be so close to you!” They get it, too, when that’s happening. Here lately, in the last several years, I’ve been commenting on our getting to perform for new audiences who are first timers with me and the band. Even at home, in America, we’re meeting new people, and LOVING IT! And so, when that also happens abroad, it’s really a treat because the response is so enthusiastic and fresh. But you would have been amazed how they sang along on Nitaku (I will be here for you), and “We’re in This Love Together,” and other very spontaneous phrases that I asked them to sing. When we finished, they were on their feet and showed a lot of love to the whole band as we went down front. Chris was a big hit, as usual., and they screamed loud for Mark, and Joe and John and Larry, when I introduced them. We all exited and Larry and I came back with a nice surprise… Summer Time. They were on their feet and danced during Roof Garden. It seems like they’d like us to return soon, and so would I! Thank you, Oman. -Al diary, newsShare : Tweet
Skokie, IL – North Shore Center for Performing Arts March 10, 2016adminAs I realized the approaching of this date on the schedule, two things jumped out in my thinking. What and who. When I was a youngster in Milwaukee, we made occasional trips to Chicago and Indiana and Michigan and always passed through some little community called Skokie. We never stopped there, but somewhere in my vague memories was the name “Skokie.” Sure enough, we’ve played many dates in and around Chicago, but this one really surprised me. It’s a wonderful surprise however. This will be mostly a new audience, although there’ll be a large number of people who have seen me in other venues around Chicago. Sure enough, those who knew me greeted me and the band, like it was home coming time. Lots of personal yelps and hellos immediately. This is always a great kick off for a concert evening. It also identifies, in a special way, the specific occasion for the audience as they think back. As a matter a fact, it often happens, on some future occasion, when I see an audience member of a specific night, he’ll refer to that night, saying “Do you remember that time when that lady in the green dress and straw hat did so and so?” That’s fun! We had one of those nights. We had some late comers. One guy wearing all black, with glasses and very husky. He was a great sport and allowed me to point at him and laugh about his coming late. And then there was the young pre-teen, around 12 years old, in the second row, with his mom and dad, who I made a special point in welcoming because kids his age are a delightful and welcome rarity. He laughed and grinned in embarrassment and answered that his name was Joseph. Joseph gave me the opportunity to once again say to the audience how important it was for them to bring their kids. ALTERNATIVES! He came backstage with his parents and they were just beaming when they commented about how they could not believe it when I introduced my keyboard player-musical director as Joseph Anthony Turano. That was exactly his first and middle name. Joseph Anthony. There’s nothing, absolutely nothing, that’s quite like realizing in the middle of evening that “it’s working.” All this classic old stuff mixed in with some newer things, right there, in the ideal intimate setting, is a real big part of what you project for yourself and your music, as you approach every passing day, month, and year. It’s working! It’s late winter 2016, snowing earlier this morning, outside my window in the hotel, and right now, just after the concert, I’m saying to myself, “It’s working.” Thank you to Jack and Heather from Sensophonics for my new hearing equipment, for on stage and off. You guys are fantastic. Thank you everybody for this wonder concert day in my old neighborhood with new friends. -Al diary, newsShare : Tweet
New Albany, Ohio – at the McCoy Center for the Arts March 10, 2016adminHello!! A new venue for me… Thank you! How blessed and lucky I am. I’ve been coming to Ohio forever. Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus are core Al Jarreau Audiences that watched it all happen for me. They not only watched with interest, but they bought records and called the radio stations and came to concerts. Now we’re getting to suburban communities like New Albany. Many of the families in this community have been quite successful in business, and have then opened their hands to projects in this suburb. At this point in my life, I’ve become acutely aware of these settings, and I think it’s partly because they know about how I share that attitude of community spirit, and keep on inviting me to sing and even fund raise. One family in this town helped to build a performing arts center on a campus that serves junior and senior high schoolers, and they opened it’s doors to me and the band. The whole event was a huge success with the band rising to the occasion for this great audience- we loved performing in this beautiful, cozy little theater full of smiling faces and great energy. This was not an orchestra date like the past two, so the band was really anticipating getting back to our normal concert program. They were fired up and excited, and played with brilliant flashes and quiet subtleties, that are so obviously satisfying and refreshing. You should have heard Mark Simmons really letting go and letting it all hang out. He was even shouting and laughing out loud. Thank you, Mark, that’s the sh##! I encourage these sorts of responses from the band. Be natural! Don’t force it! But… If you feel it, let it out, and don’t hold it in. In fact, be talking to each other verbally as you respond to each other’s work and playing. I knew it was ON AND HAPPENIN’ all night long. All day long, I kept shaking my head and saying, “Amazing! Man, oh, man.” What a beautiful, wonderful night. Thank you! See you in Skokie. -Love Al diary, newsShare : Tweet
Kalamazoo, Michigan – with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra March 10, 2016adminHow totally satisfying and wonderful! I must be living right or praying real good! Another university town! We were just in Colombia, South Carolina, with a symphony orchestra, that played our symphony program as well as anyone, and now I got to find a way of saying that Kalamazoo peaked right up there with them. The University of Western Michigan is located in Kalamazoo, and it’s a real wonder that they’ve kept their “big secret” so well; big things come in small packages. This is basically a small university town- one which has high standards for itself, as well as a friendly and comfortable environment. Their football, basketball, or hockey team will make a splash from time to time, but usually they just roll along doing great stuff. There’s a college-to-town relationship that is really, really special. Business and homes themselves are extensions of the campus and the town’s people are cheerleaders, involved in every aspect of the school’s activity. I personally think that this general atmosphere has contributed to Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra’s notions of greatness for itself that began with Leta Snow, in 1921. she started by finding small private performance venues for little chamber groups. And that developed into this: a full symphony orchestra with lots of members who fly or drive in from nearby cities for the performances. Peter Gistelinck is their proud CEO President who spoke of all of the above, as he warmly greeted the Al Jarreau gang at a reception the night before, where we said hello to serious donors and friends. I praised these donors for their citizenship, because this is good for the whole community. My band and the KSO rehearsed the day before the performance day. This gave Larry Baird (my conductor), the orchestra and my trio a chance to get as coordinated as could be with the arrangements. The results of all the extra effort were tremendous, and it all sounded amazing. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I can assure you that all of the above contributed to a wonderful performance night. It’s amazingly unusual that the CEO of the symphony orchestra is also a serious jazzer. He was born in Belgium, has worked with Michel LeGrande, and countless jazzers on the continent, and grew up in a home that was often visited by American Jazz GREATS! He and the university have cooperated on not only putting together a jazz studies program, but have grown that into having a recording studio, where they can do anything and everything. I can assure you that all of the above contributed to a wonderful performance night. Evelyn trilled on the harp at the top of Summertime, and Brad the trombonist took us straight to New Orleans in “Bess you is…” We scrambled to find another encore for this audience that was on their feet, and did an unrehearsed Bach Air on a G String, and then threw in DAYO… Harry Belafonte… Banana Boat song. Thank you, Kalamazoo, for a wonderful visit. I know for certain we’ll do it again. -Al diary, newsShare : Tweet
Columbia, SC – workshops with Auntie Karen Foundation March 7, 2016adminA choir of 80 voices sang “Mornin’,” “We’re in this Love Together,” and “Boogie Down,” and accompanied by a trio, piano bass & drums, that was quite solid. I couldn’t stop grinning… All Al Jarreau music. Tre, who had done an introduction of me, with all of the basics and specifics, stood there with Karen, just smiling and laughing, knowing and anticipating correctly how I would react. I was rocking back and forth, laughing out loud. I could almost hear them going, “See??” They were right. I’m beginning to hear my music come back at me more and more these days. I suppose, if I were Stevie or Aretha or Herbie, I might be more accustomed to it, but for me, it’s quite new and it’s still thrilling. We had a Q&A period. I had asked Chris Walker to please come join me on this morning with the kids because he is so smart and always has something interesting to say. He speaks not only as an extraordinary singer, but also an extraordinary bass player, and as a producer too. There was a question or two that came from the student moderators, that needed at least a two or three part answer. One of those answers had to do with a love for the music and the craft that goes so deep that you can’t imagine your life without it. That’s when Chris talked about graduating from a high school of the arts and taking off for New York City, with forty dollars and a dream. Going to The New School. In short, he arrived at the school one afternoon, with his bass under his arm, with the idea of just investigating, as a new perspective student. He passed by some practice room, with some guys jamming, who didn’t have a bass player. They saw him with his bass and asked him to play with them. The new school president happened by and heard Chris playing that afternoon and gave him a full 4 year scholarship. Forty dollars and a dream. Well, the truth is Chris walked in with a million dollars of ability and faith. Because he dreamed that dream, and prepared himself for fulfilling that dream, doing it over and over and over and over, dreaming and walking toward that dream, it came to be. It came true. It all begins with a dream. Seeing it in your head as you get ready. Basketball players exemplify this phenomenon. He stands at the foul lane, bent at the waist, bouncing the ball, 15-20 times, and talking to himself. He looks up, gets poised and ready, and you see his eyes watching the ball go through the hoop. THAT’S CREATING YOUR FUTURE IMMEDIATELY! Right now. Happens all throughout athletics. The high jumper, the long jumper, standing there, at the end of the lane, rocking back and forth. That’s how we built the Empire State Building, and set a man on the moon. That describes the high tech aspect of what prayer is all about. It’s more than begging God for the result you want, it’s seeing the result, and then doing things that allow it to happen. Morning, noon, and night, and all in between time. I love talking to kids that way. One of the student moderators asked me if I could teach someone to scat, and I said, “well, ok!” I was a little unsure about that exercise, but I had thought about it before. I said something like, “Ok, let’s start with something like this piece of music,” and I sang Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb, his fleece was white as snow. I did it without a lyric, and I think many recognized it at that point. But then I sang it with out a lyric, and then with a lyric, I used the basic melody and improvised a new melody with no lyric. Obviously, the practice of improvising gets to be a more complex venture than the above, when it’s Coltrane, or Dizzy Gillespie, or when Wayne Shorter is the improvised soloist that you’re listening to, BUT the basics still hold true. That is the improvising of a new melody based on the original, with as much complexity as you like. A young lady named Jazzy knocked everybody’s wigs off, when she came up and helped demonstrate that above activity. This time, I asked her to sing some small part of a favorite song that she liked. She sang a few lines from an R&B song that just thrilled the whole audience. They yelled and shouted and clapped their approval at hearing her. I then asked her to sing all of that again but to not use lyrics now. Just ooo shoo be doo type syllables, that she could invent on her own. She nailed it, it was a great demonstration! I think she came across an approach for herself that was quite quite “jazzy” in its overall nature. Other questions gave me the opportunity to talk about how people doing arts develop sensitivities to our all important human emotions of joy, pain, happiness, sadness, etc. In so doing, we develop an individual who has keen, fine, and delicate sensitivities about other’s hurts and pains and joys and happiness, who then will make important choices and decisions that are good for the family and the community. I wish we had had more time for Q&A with this audience of 400 students. It went much too quickly, and I’m certain we missed a lot of important questions, but this was a great template for things in the future. At around 6 o’clock that evening, I attended a reception for the Auntie Karen Foundation staff and friends. We met the Dean of the USC music department, who has been a friend to the Auntie Karen Foundation for a long time, and often offers his services and facilities to Auntie Karen… this is wonderful. It just adds so much to the community support. Our universities and colleges are very, very important pillars of the community and are opinion leaders that the whole community respects. What a great friendship! That really captures it. I’m reprinting the information from the Auntie Karen website, with the added comment that part of the mission statement goals is to develop programs that are REPRODUCIBLE!… Anywhere in the country or world. I recorded a song written by Siedah Garrett, called “Random Act of Love.” Check it out. The key phrase in the chorus is this, “There’s one thing that I know that’s a gift unto the giver, and that’s a random act of love,”: meaning that the person that gives the gift actually gets more in return than what he gave. Now look, that’s not the reason to be giving a gift! On the contrary, you give a gift because you see a need and your compassionate sensitive heart reaches out to that other person and offers help. And, in so doing, you find a new kind of joy… by the way. Me and my guys got the biggest gift by going and helping Auntie Karen. From manager to sound techs and assistants, we got the greater gift. Auntie Karen and I are talking about other activities already. Thanks Karen Alexander, thanks everybody! Talk to you soon. -Love, Al diary, news, UncategorizedShare : Tweet
