Al Jarreau Retires From Touring

I hope it's nothing too serious. I have only seen him once in concert (circa 1983) and he put on an excellent show. I also have an old Laserdisc with the Live In London concert. It seems as though he is suffering from exhaustion, and is recovering "slowly and steadily." This was posted this afternoon as well. :laugh:

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I saw him in '97 at the Dallas Jazz Fest. Herb was the next to last act with his Passion Dance band (great band, by the way). It opened with Alex Bugnon, then Gerald Albright, followed by Boney James (yech! :rolleyes:), Herb and Jarreau. I remember Jarreau saying Herb played some "funky butt". Neil Larsen was in Jarreau's group as well. He's an amazing singer.
 
Maybe they needed Boney James so everyone could catch a good long bathroom break between the other sets. :D
 
Here's my photo with Mr. Jarreau from his concert at the Niswonger Performing Arts Center, Greeneville TN, on 9/21/2013. The venue is the auditorium of the high school from which I was graduated in 1972:
 

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This is posted on his official site. It gives further insight into the person...

... A few days ago, I was asked to describe Al to someone who knew of his success, but did not know him as a person. I responded with this: His 2nd priority in life was music. There was no 3rd. His 1st priority, far ahead of the other, was healing or comforting anyone in need. Whether it was emotional pain, or physical discomfort, or any other cause of suffering, he needed to put our minds at ease and our hearts at rest. He needed to see a warm, affirming smile where there had not been one before. Song was just his tool for making that happen. ...
It should be noted that he had a degree in psychology, and a masters in rehabilitation, so I can understand the "healing" part of his personality.
 
Some of his later Warner albums got a bit heavy on the R&B side, but even there I would always find some gem on the album.

One I really liked end-to-end, though, was L is for Lover since Nile Rodgers did some excellent production work on it--it's tight, focused and clean.
 
Great videos, everyone! Thanks for sharing those links. (Especially the concert footage. I unfortunately never got a chance to see him live - I didn't really delve all that deeply into his catalog before up until just a couple of years ago, so I was definitely late to the party - so I've been watching a lot of old concert clips and television appearances of his on YouTube this past week. They're all delightful, naturally, but the ones that blow me away the most are the clips of him doing "Take Five" or "We Got By.") [If I might add a link here for my fellow Jarreau fans, I actually threw together this memoriam piece where I pick my twelve favorite albums of his; if you're interested in reading it, you can find it here.]

I totally agree with you, Rudy, about the production on L Is for Lover. Like you say, it's very tight and clean; some of his other '80s discs sound a bit overproduced, but L Is for Lover is very well-crafted and slick-sounding without ever actually sounding too labored or overdone. It's definitely one of Rodgers' most underrated productions. And oh, those songs! I'm not sure there's any Jarreau song I get more joy out of listening to than "Says."

It says a lot about the quality of his individual albums that he's one of the rare artists I've opted to compile my own best-of for rather than pick up an official compilation of, 'cause the available compilations overlook so much of my favorite work of his, especially his early '70s material (which typically seems to only get represented by "We Got By" and maybe "Take Five" or "Rainbow in Your Eyes") and L Is for Lover, nothing from which I can ever recall seeing pop up on a compilation. I'm not aware of there being any double-disc anthology of his work, but there really ought to be one out there. [You could certainly devote an entire disc just to the music he made from We Got By through Breakin' Away without any kind of drop in quality over the course of the disc, and I wouldn't think a full disc of his best work from Jarreau onwards would be overkill.]

He'll certainly be missed!
 
Jeff, you might search for Live in London. Don't know if anyone ever uploaded it to YouTube or not, but it is from the High Crime era. That album is not a top pic of mine, but I have a few favorites on that album; the Live in London video has a couple of those same tracks (like "High Crime" and "Raging Waters") that get rid of some of that "electric boogaloo" found on the original album. (It has brass instead--Jarreau had a 2- or 3-piece section on that tour. So it's a bit more organic.) The live CD of this concert is too doctored up (studio overdubs) and I didn't enjoy it as much.

I saw the tour for Jarreau. The highlight of the evening for me was the "drum battle" between the drummer...and Al. They traded off licks until the drummer finally threw up his hands in frustration and walked off the stage. :laugh: I think "Roof Garden" (a big radio favorite locally) was the one that got the loudest reception from the crowd, and he either closed the main part of the gig with it, or did it as an encore. Great times!

[If I might add a link here for my fellow Jarreau fans, I actually threw together this memoriam piece where I pick my twelve favorite albums of his; if you're interested in reading it, you can find it here.]
Great article! I'm going tackle the rest of it at length.

It's definitely one of Rodgers' most underrated productions. And oh, those songs! I'm not sure there's any Jarreau song I get more joy out of listening to than "Says."
"Says," "Across The Midnight Sky" and "Tell Me What I Gotta Do" are definitely favorites of mine. For that matter, I could toss "Golden Girl" on there (what a great way to close out the first half of the album) and "Give A Little More Lovin'" as two more. The only track that doesn't really quite hit it with me is the title track, which seems to be a grab at hitting the charts. The vinyl doesn't sound half bad either. :wink: Going to spin that once I get some free time to myself in the next few days.
 
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