Al Jarreau
Al Jarreau
Alwin "Al" Lopez Jarreauis an American jazz singer...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionJazz Singer
Date of Birth12 March 1940
CityMilwaukee, WI
CountryUnited States of America
audiences feeling finding jamming might music people shirt stage wonderful
There's a wonderful tradition of jazz people getting on stage and jamming and finding some feeling for music with audiences who may be fresh. For others, it might be just like a comfortable shirt they've been wearing.
anywhere concerts giving great near ohio people performing perhaps relationship spend state time
I'm a Buckeye at heart. I spend more time giving concerts in Ohio than I do in any other state - perhaps more time than I spend performing anywhere else in the world. I have a great relationship with the people of Ohio, and it's great to be near the OSU when I come to Columbus.
beers drinking feet fourteen frankie great growing heard kid people singing slept tavern time
I slept fourteen feet from a polka tavern as a kid growing up. I heard polkas all night long, people singing and drinking beers and having a great time. I know more polkas than Frankie Yancovic!
good mind people time
I say what's on my mind and have a good time. I try to give people a show. It's all about giving people a good time once you get out under those lights.
access brought crossed ella fitzgerald george link lots people pop
I don't know how much more what I've done is any more important than what Ella Fitzgerald did. Ella crossed those lines, as did George Benson before me. There've been lots of people who brought a pop audience to jazz because they were able to link the two and give people easy access to the world of jazz.
children people listening
It's all background experience and listening and exposure. That's why it's so important for people today and during any time to expose your children to lots of different kinds of things.
fashion people records
Obviously given good health, and a continuing audience and a record company that allows me to do music. So given those things yes, I'm introducing some new music that people haven't really heard me do in quite this fashion.
america came freedom general jazz music people special
Jazz told people about the special music that came out of America and about America in general and this kind of liberty and freedom that we have.
brought contact great group mental people personnel producer project worked
That's Tommy, this great producer who comes in contact with people and must have a mental library of personnel who are great for this and great for that, and he brought this whole group of musicians to the project that I'd never worked with before.
accents based charlie danced dynamic horn jazz music parker people playing recognized version whatever
Jazz should be recognized as music of the people, based in a lot of accents and melodies. What is jazz but music that people danced to? Jazz has the dynamic thing. I don't think you have to be playing only Charlie Parker licks on your horn or whatever the new version of that is.
audience beyond body communication constantly experience members music people playing sing
What I try to get beyond is playing music at people and, instead, to play music with people because audience members are constantly part of the experience. What they say in their body language, what they say in their eyes, what they sing with me... it's an 'us,' and there's a communication that's like... it's like church, man.
difficulty feeling hard jazz pop radio recording records since stations understand urban
Since the beginning of my recording career in 1975, I have had a little difficulty because the pop stations think I'm a jazzer who doesn't have a feeling for pop, so it's hard to get my records played. Similarly, black urban radio doesn't understand that with my R&B roots, I am more than a jazz singer. So I get pigeonholed.
practical sing song
My mother and father come from that post-Depression, middle-of-World-War -I kind of thinking that says, 'Find a practical job. You know what I mean, Mr. Big Shot? So, you can sing a song ...'
becoming corner four guys inside music rolling stuff
I was singing doo-wop on the corner under the streetlight with four other guys when it wasn't called doo-wop. We just got together and sang, so that music is inside of me. It's a lot of stuff that has been rolling around in here and becoming this compost and has made me who I am as a singer.