Al Jarreau Quotes

Al Jarreau was an American singer and musician known for his versatile vocal abilities and genre-crossing style. He achieved success in jazz, R&B, and pop music, winning numerous Grammy Awards throughout his career. Jarreau's smooth voice and innovative approach to music have made him a respected figure in the music industry.

I'm this strange kind of fusion of jazz, pop, and ... -Al Jarreau

I'm this strange kind of fusion of jazz, pop, and R&B.

The Metropole Orchestra is like Count Basie or Duke Ellington with strings... it's strings that swing. Strings that swing like Dizzy Gillespie... keep swinging, baby. And when you have all of that special excellence of the Metropole Orchestra, then your music just flies - it soars in a way that's really magical.

When you do a lyric for 'April in Paris,' those who have heard it before can hear it in a different way now. It can add perspective to a great piece of music that does not have a lyric and may be inaccessible to lot of ears because people don't deal with complex music very well.

I was really learning my craft as a jazz singer and working with some great players and all, really growing and feeling my wings.

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.

It's always been about making music. I've never gotten caught up with the trappings. You can't get caught up in the limousines and the chicks. The most important thing is the music.

I'm a little bit nervous for us with all of this electronically generated new hyper-space that we've moved into, where not only people but also economies and systems, like banking, are left to zeros and ones. I want to be more than a zero or one.

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!

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.

I've got an odometer on my voice that has out-odom... -Al Jarreau

I've got an odometer on my voice that has out-odometered an odometer on an automobile.

I think being a little older and a little more determined and being a little more evolved in my case and maturity in the kind of music I was doing and how I was doing it really helped to keep me grounded and with an audience that could appreciate what I was doing, who grew with me and evolved with me and kept me alive and around.

I don't know where we got the notion that God wants us to suffer. Every living thing tends toward the good or we would have been gone a long time ago.

I really do see it as the start of the second half... -Al Jarreau

I really do see it as the start of the second half of my career.

I'm really looking forward to it because it will give me the opportunity to do the whole other kind of approach to the music live that I haven't had a chance to do. and I think is important for me to do.

I am inspired by all kinds of players and singers.... -Al Jarreau

I am inspired by all kinds of players and singers.

I'm touched by the Beatles. I want some of the music I do to reflect that. Here I am. I love Sly Stone and James Brown and Stevie Wonder, and I want my music to reflect some of that. Here I am. I'm touched by Jon Hendricks. I want some of my music to reflect that. And when I write, you're going to hear it.

I'm touched by rock n' roll. I'm touched by the Beatles. I want some of the music I do to reflect that.

Every good gospel singer you can hear is a scat singer; they're just using different syllables. There are a lot of jazz singers out there, and more coming out of the churches.

I tour Europe a lot. They still have a love and a fascination with the basic thing about music - how it feels and that being the focus. I've got people bringing their kids. And their kids bring their kids. The grandchildren are getting selfies with their Uncle Al.

The work must be its own reward. I got that early on. And I'm blessed by meeting my own standards of excellence.

More live recording. I have missed the boat over my career by not doing every second or third CD live because things happen onstage that don't happen in the studio.

The band and I really enjoy working for people who enjoy the music. I haven't made a bazillion dollars doing this. I do it because I love it. I did it for free and will do it for free in the morning.

I have this image in my head of me in the house I grew up in, and hearing this incredible music on the television show, going over to it, and there's Jon Hendricks, Dave Lambert, and Annie Ross. It knocked me out of my socks, and I'm still in flight.

My eyes went blank, and I stared off, and the music started. It was raining, and the sun was shining at the same time, and there were these big bay windows, and there was the blue in the sky, and the sun on the trees, and it was drizzling.

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.

I have serious hearing loss. I'm challenged if I d... -Al Jarreau

I have serious hearing loss. I'm challenged if I don't have my hearing aids in.

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.

Learn it well in your head, know it well, pick things you know and bring the old you and all the experience you have from singing these various kinds of feelings that are still related to what I have done in the rest of my career.

I've thought about doing it as soon as it is possible with this new CD getting some wings and getting out there. I don't know how soon that will be.

I'm an R&B and pop singer as well as a jazzer.... -Al Jarreau

I'm an R&B and pop singer as well as a jazzer.

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