JP/Arief SuhardimanIt seems that for legendary singer Al Jarreau, singing is just as natural an activity as talking, and even remembering. Songs, and music in general, appear to have been imprinted in his mind as solidly as the memories that come with them. 

Take, for instance, the way he describes the recording of the album Al Jarreau and the George Duke Trio Live at the Half Note, 1965. According to the website of fellow musician George Duke, the album is “historical gold, a time when Al and George were laying the foundation for who they came to be as mature artists.”

Jarreau has his own way of telling the story of how the recording came to be. 

“Mmm, how did we do that? Well George is very smart and in 1965 he brought in a tape recorder and said ‘We’re going to record tonight guys, 1,2,3,4..’” he told The Jakarta Post in a recent interview, before breaking into a jazzy melody demonstrating the music they played that night with his signature smooth voice that has earned him adulation throughout his career. 

The days with George Duke, however, were by no means the earliest stages in his lifelong love affair with music. According to Jarreau, he was introduced to the art at a very young age in his hometown in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he spent what he recalls as his happy childhood. 

“For me it was wonderland. I can’t imagine a more ideal life. That’s how I feel about it now. Maybe actually it was not as idyllic as I thought but for me at that time I thought it was just a wonderful world. I had five brothers and sisters. Four of them older and some of them played instruments and we would get together and have family recitals and raise money for the church. I belonged to a wonderful church community that encouraged me to sing,” he said. 

Jarreau followed the recollection by singing several lines of a song from the musical Finian’s Rainbow, “Look to the Rainbow” — “follow the fellow who follows the dream” — to illustrate the encouragement. 

He recalled that the community he grew up in was a mixed one, consisting of blacks, whites, Mexicans and Italians. The smell of the brewery where he worked, located four blocks away from his then home, and the lunches involving Polish food and German potato salad are still quite vivid for him, along with the music trends at a time when he was still around 20 years of age. 

Jarreau said that his family had been the first to instill in him a love of jazz music, and it developed through his neighbors and friends in high school and college. 

He learned from the “musical world from which I pick things to say and write” lessons that legends such as Chuck Berry, Elvis and Little Richard were teaching the world. 

After demonstrating a few rock and roll tunes, Jarreau explained how that mosaic of tunes influenced him from then on. “I heard that music. It’s inside of me and it comes out. And the world has been so patient with me and encouraging me to let that happen and do it in my own way and there’s a new music in the world called Jarreau music,” he said. 

Part of that “Jarreau music” might be his singing style- a melodious mixture of smooth tunes, instrument-mimicking notes, and of course the scat technique, which he says he tried to master from when he was very young, following his older brothers’ example as they rehearsed in the family’s living room. 

“They sang it and it was there for me if I wanted to do it and I did but then I think it was really at around age 14 and 15 that I tried it the first time with a jazz trio, high school guys. And I sang. ‘A foggy day in London town, had me low, had me down’ … [I] tried to scat a little bit. And it wasn’t very good. I’m still learning now,” he said. 

For a renowned singer who has earned himself at least seven Grammys and a star in the Hollywood walk of fame, it is quite a humble statement, but that attitude seems to come easy to him. When a number of journalists began setting up equipment to take his picture, he seemed to be mildly surprised and joked “Ok Hollywood, there’s Hollywood over there … Maake uup!” 

According to the official biography in his website, Jarreau’s interest and talent extends beyond music and singing. As suggested by his athletic figure and a picture of his younger self playing basketball on the website, he excelled in sports. He also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology and a Master’s degree in Vocational Rehabilitation from the University of Iowa. 

His close relations with the church, along with his first choice of career in rehabilitation counseling, helped form “sensitivities” and empathy towards people, he says. 

“My dad was a Seventh Day Adventist minister and my mother played piano in the church and all of us kids went to church a lot and …the studies and school and work as a rehabilitation counselor does reach inside you and touch sensitive places that, if you allow it to happen, can be a very nice moment to share with people,” Jarreau said. 

Eventually, however, he decided to fully pursue a career in music. That was the era captured by Al Jarreau and the George Duke Trio Live at the Half/Note, 1965, before he decided to relocate to Los Angeles to work in various nightspots. 

His debut album for Warner Bros. Records, We Got By, was released in 1975, and earned him a German Grammy for Best New International Soloist the same year. His productivity, from then on, has seemed endless, with a string of albums such as Glow in 1979, This Time in 1980 and All I Got in 2002. 

He is known for his numerous hits, such as “Spain (I Can Recall)”, “Take Five”, “After All”, and “We Got By”.  

Jarreau was recently in Indonesia to perform in the 2012 Java Jazz Festival. His website lists several dates in US and France for upcoming shows. 

He says that he is due to finish a new album, which he wants to call “Collage”, describing the word as “a wonderful French word which means many different things inside a picture frame.”

Aside from working on music and tours, Jarreau says that his main priorities in life nowadays include maintaining his health. 

“I am a distance runner, a marathoner … literally and figuratively. This work is a distance run,” the 72-year old who recently celebrated his birthday on March 12 said. 

And at this rate, it seems unlikely that Jarreau will retire from the track soon. 

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