Ellington

Description

Al Jarreau always said he sang Al Jarreau music, and he truly was one of a kind: his six GRAMMY awards and nineteen nominations as Best Vocalist cover no fewer than three categories jazz, pop and R&B in other words, musical genres didnt really concern him. Music may well fall into categories for other people, and I understand that, he said, but for me, if I like a song, I have to do it, and thats that. If you come to my concerts, I sit on your shoulder and whisper in your ear. I open minds and walk through many doors. This kind of rich, descriptive imagery evokes the flights of vocal fantasy which his singing was capable of at any moment. He could suddenly take a song in new and unexpected directions. He used to explain it thus: If there is a backbone to what I do, its the jazz vernacular. I saw Al Jarreau for the first time in the Troubadour in Los Angeles in 1974 and was instantly hooked by his voice and his stage presence, ACT founder Siggi Loch recalls. The next day I went to see Mo Ostin, President of WEA, to convince him to sign him. After encountering initial resistance, Loch was given the go-ahead and Jarreaus debut album for WEA, We Got By, was released in 1975. We Got By won the German Record Critics Award and his first German tour sold out large concert halls. Jarreaus long association with NDR prompted Jörg Achim Keller, chief conductor of the NDR Bigband, to suggest a collaboration with the singer in 2016, Doing a production with Al and Ellingtons music was something I had wanted to do since the early 2000s, he remembers. Als reaction was very positive from the start. Jörg prepared a list of some hundred Ellington titles and, as Jarreau later recalled, We just went down the list, and it was a case of, Oh, that one works for me, and Lets do this one as an old gut-bucket blues what was important for me was to find myself inside the music and maybe make a different kind of statement about Ellington so people could hear the music in a different way from anything they had heard before. In writing the charts, Jörg was careful to respect Jarreaus approach to the material by giving him space. Tracks such as Im Beginning to See the Light or I Got It Bad (and that Aint Good) also give the bands soloists headroom to give of their very best. These are highly evolved, intelligent soloists who can play with anybody in the world, said Jarreau. Theyre pushing me, and I love the push, and theyre making me sound like a real singer! Jarreau and the band toured the music during the latter part of 2016, There was still some fine-tuning going on during the tour, from concert to concert, Jörg added with a smile. He loved doing those ballads and each one had a different feel. Come Sunday was very important to him, though. That chart was reworked twice before he was finally happy with it! On some songs, he went for a pure ballad style I Got It Bad (and that Aint Good), some tunes were put into a pop / R&B bag (Lush Life, Come Sunday) and he loved that old gutbucket blues feel of I Aint Got Nothing but the Blues. Looking back on those sessions and tour, Jörg says, It was Als style and personality that held it all together. The whole thing was a true combination of Jarreaus and Ellingtons musical mastery it appealed to audiences all over Europe, they loved the programme. This feeling is echoed by Siggi Loch, who caught Jarreau with the NDR Bigband in Paris, It was obvious that he really enjoyed performing this music and he did it with so much energy and emotion, it was a joy to see and hear. Sadly, Al was to pass away only a few months later. In many ways, Ellington closes a circle: it feels very right that Jarreaus final album should be released on ACT, the label founded by Siggi Loch, whose strong and unwavering advocacy for the singer originally set him on the road to superstardom. And the fact that it was recorded by broadcaster NDR and their in-house big band is a fitting reminder that this was the very broadcaster whose TV programme had once made Jarreau famous in Germany overnight. Furthermore, just like Look to the Rainbow which was Jarreaus international breakthrough album, Ellington was also recorded live. Sometimes there are threads of connection between events which at first appear to be unrelated, and the result turns out to be not just special and magical, but also meaningful and deeply affecting. It certainly has done here.