Al Jarreau Biography
Alwyn Lopez Jarreau, 12 March 1940, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. Singing a highly sophisticated form of vocalese, Jarreau's style displays many influences. Some of these come from within the world of jazz, notably the work of Jon Hendricks, while others are external. He customarily uses vocal sounds that include the clicks of African song and the plosives common in oriental speech and singing patterns. This range of influences makes him both hard to classify and more accessible to the wider audience for crossover music. More commercially successful than most jazz singers, Jarreau's work in the 70s and 80s consistently appealed to young audiences attuned to fusions in popular music. By the early 90s, when he was entering his 50s, his kinship with youth culture had clearly diminished, but his reputation was by this time firmly established.
Although Jarreau sang from childhood, it was many years before he decided to make singing his full-time occupation. He attended Ripon College in Wisconsin, and after graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology moved onto the University of Iowa to complete a Master's degree in Vocational Rehabilitation. Jarreau settled in San Francisco and began working as a rehabilitation counsellor, but continued to sing in small west coast clubs, working with George Duke and eventually achieving enough success to change careers. By the mid-70s he was becoming well known in the USA, and, via a recording contract with Warner Brothers Records and a European tour, greatly extended his audience. He earned the first of six US Grammy Awards in 1977 for Best Jazz Vocal Performance ("Look To The Rainbow'). The following year's All Fly Home earned the singer a second Grammy. His real breakthrough came with 1981's Breakin" Away, which sold a million copies and was garlanded with Grammy Awards for Best Male Pop Vocalist and Best Male Jazz Vocalist. Further R&B and pop hits followed, including "We're In This Love Together" and the theme tune to the hit television series Moonlighting. Jarreau has consistently attempted to update his style, teaming up with Chic's Nile Rodgers for 1986's L Is For Lover and Narada Michael Walden for 1992's Heaven And Earth. The latter received a Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance. In 1996, he appeared in the Broadway production of Grease and released a compilation album. He subsequently signed a recording contract with producer Tommy LiPuma's GRP Records. Jarreau had previously worked with LiPuma in the mid-70s, and his work with the producer on Tomorrow Today (2000), All I Got (2002), and Accentuate The Positive (2004) came close to matching the duo's previous work together. In 2006, Jarreau collaborated with guitarist George Benson on the Concord release, Givin' It Up. One of the tracks, a version of the traditional "God Bless The Child" also featuring Jill Scott, earned Jarreau his seventh Grammy Award (Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance).
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
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