Saturday, March 06, 1999
Jazzy Jarreau takes journey with Pops
BY JANELLE GELFAND
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Al Jarreau is a chameleon, a singer who can turn a note a dozen different colors before he lets it go. He can mimic a string bass or a set of drums.
The five-time Grammy winner, sometimes called the “acrobat of scat,” brought his inimitable art to the Cincinnati Pops Friday night. His style is part jazz, part R&B and part Al Jarreau. For most of his set in the evening's second half, he prowled the stage with shoulders twitching, chatted, vocalized, and prodded the Music Hall audience to sing along.
You had to be patient in the six numbers he sang, to see where each jazz journey would take him. Those in the crowd of 2,863 who abandoned ship before the encore, “After All,” missed his strongest, most passionate performance of the evening. For after all was said and done, Mr. Jarreau was best when he sang it straight.
Still, there was something arresting about this jazz singer, who will be 59 next week, and the way he could sing between the lines. His art may have started with Mel Torme, but it clearly paved the way for Bobby McFerrin.
He sauntered out in white shirt and tie to a medley with the Pops conducted by Erich Kunzel, including “We're In This Love Together.” Then he segued into his first big hit, “We Got By,” stopping for a scat cadenza of swoops, clicks and arpeggios.
His voice swung high and swung low, traveling with ease from the basement to a high falsetto.
He was a storyteller in Dave Brubeck's “Take Five,” as he told a silly tale while his four-piece combo vamped, then turned it into an inventive number while he mimicked instruments in the orchestra.
He was eccentric as he bounded around the stage, imitating opera diva Kathleen Battle in “My Favorite Things.” But he also knew how to sing a ballad. Gershwin's “Bess” from Porgy and Bess was given a Johnny Mathis-style croon, in an arrangement that dissolved into soft jazz.
This semi-serious moment soon turned wacky, as he modulated into “Summertime” and artfully improvised around the melody in an edgy exploration of rhythm. He wound up his set with “Mornin,”' which he sang with soul and a nasal twang, and earned a standing ovation.
With the Pops arrayed Big Band- style on stage, Mr. Kunzel devoted the first half to music arranged by bandleader Nelson Riddle, for an album to be recorded Monday and released in January 2000.
Five of the seven featured soloists played with Mr. Riddle, who died in 1985 and was most known for his collaborations with Frank Sinatra. The arrangements were smooth, but never really caught fire.
“For All We Know” featured Jim Pugh on trombone; David Edwards played alto sax in the Sinatra hit “The Lady is a Tramp” and Cole Porter's classic “Night and Day.”
A pair of dancers, Doug Reynolds and Dahlia Aitova, did a sexy samba to “Let Yourself Go” and danced a swing routine to “Get Happy.”
The Pops repeats at 8 p.m. today and Sunday. Tickets: 381-3300.
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