Al Jarreau, singer who spanned worlds of jazz, pop, and R&B . By
Margalit Fox New York Times . NEW YORK - Al Jarreau, a versatile
vocalist who sold millions of records and won numerous Grammys for his
work in pop and R&B as well as his first love, jazz, died on Sunday in
Los Angeles. He was 76. His death was announced by his manager, Joe
Gordon, who said Mr. Jarreau had been hospitalized for exhaustion two
weeks ago. A preacher's son, Mr. Jarreau started singing in public as a
boy but did not begin a full-time musical career until the late 1960s,
when he was nearly 30. Before that, he had worked as a psychologist and
rehabilitation counselor. By the 1970s he had became a widely popular
jazz singer, touring extensively and appearing often on television.
Critics praised his supple voice, his improvisational skill, and, in
particular, his virtuosic ability to produce an array of vocalizations,
ranging from delicious nonsense to clicks and growls to
quasi-instrumental sounds. Over time, Mr. Jarreau's work - both his
singing and his original compositions - came to incorporate elements of
pop, folk, soul, gospel, rhythm and blues, and Latin music. The result
was a highly accessible, intensely personal, and commercially
successful style that defied easy genre classification, though some
jazz purists derided it as fusion or, worse still, smooth jazz. Writing
in The New York Times in 1981, Stephen Holden reviewed a concert by Mr.
Jarreau at the Savoy in New York. The review encapsulated both the pros
and the cons of his singular style: "Al Jarreau may be the most
technically gifted singer working in jazz-fusion today," Holden wrote.
Of the evening's performance, however, he continued: "Mr. Jarreau's
concert lacked the emotional range of great jazz. He is such a
prodigious talent that the absence of even the slightest blues
inflections kept his music from cutting deeply. Mr. Jarreau released
more than 20 albums. He won seven Grammy Awards, and it was a mark of
his eclecticism that they spanned three categories: jazz, pop, and R&B.
He won a Grammy in 1978 for best jazz vocal performance, for his album
"Look to the Rainbow. He won his last in 2007, for best traditional R&B
vocal performance; the award was shared by Mr. Jarreau, George Benson,
and Jill Scott for their collaborative performance, "God Bless the
Child. In between, in 1982, Mr. Jarreau earned a Grammy for best pop
vocal performance by a male artist for the title track of his album
"Breakin' Away. That year, he also received the Grammy for best jazz
vocal performance by a male artist, for his version of Dave Brubeck's
"Blue Rondo à la Turk," from the same album. His other Grammys came in
1979 for the album "All Fly Home" (in the jazz category) and in 1993
for the album "Heaven and Earth" (in R&B). Alwin Lopez Jarreau was born
in Milwaukee in 1940. His father, a minister, was a fine singer; his
mother played the piano in church. Young Al began singing at 4,
harmonizing with his siblings. As a youth he sang in church, as well as
with street-corner harmony groups and local jazz bands. Mr. Jarreau
earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from Ripon College in
Wisconsin in 1962, and a master's in vocational rehabilitation from the
University of Iowa in 1964. Afterward he moved to San Francisco, where
he worked as a rehabilitation counselor for people with disabilities.
But Mr. Jarreau found he could not resist the pull of jazz and before
long was singing in small clubs. By the late 1960s he had quit his day
job and embarked on a nightclub career, first on the West Coast and
eventually in New York. The album advertised as his debut, "We Got By,"
was released by Warner Bros. in 1975 to critical praise. (A decade
earlier, Mr. Jarreau had quietly recorded an album, later released on
the Bainbridge label under the title "1965. Though Mr. Jarreau took
legal action, without success, to block its belated release in 1982, it
is esteemed by jazz connoisseurs today.) His other albums include
"Glow" (1979) and "Accentuate the Positive" (2004). Mr. Jarreau's first
marriage, to Phyllis Hall, ended in divorce. He leaves his wife, the
former Susan Player; a son, Ryan; two brothers, Marshall and Appie; and
a sister, Rose Marie Freeman. So eclectic was Mr. Jarreau that he even
did a turn in a Broadway musical, appearing as a replacement in the
role of the Teen Angel in the 1994 revival of "Grease.
