The rise of Al Jarreau

Al Jarreau died a few years ago in Los Angeles at the age of 76. Matt Schudel did a good job of paying tribute to Al in the Washington Post obituary. Margalit Fox provided a more ambivalent take in the New York Times obituary. The Star Tribune zoomed in on the local angle here.

Now my friend Scott Sansby writes to alert me to the new documentary “UNSUNG: Al Jarreau.” You can watch the whole thing (about 40 minutes) at the link. It taught me a lot I didn’t know about Al, especially the struggles that preceded his success.

Al was a native of Milwaukee. Once he was able to make his voice heard on record in the mid-1970’s, he developed fans all over the world, but he had a special following long before then in Minneapolis. Al came to town for a gig with his then guitarist Julio Martinez in 1970 and stuck around to date a local woman (a friend of my cousin DeeDee).

Everyone who heard Al perform back then knew he was an awesomely talented musician. Scott Sansby was my first and best friend through high school. When I came home from college in the summer of 1970, Scottie told me I had to see Al. He raved about Al’s talent. He was certain that Al was going to be a star.

Scottie anchored the rhythm section on drums in Zarathustra, the house band at Minneapolis’s old Depot club (the predecessor to First Avenue), and Al would occasionally sit in with the band. He approached Scottie about playing with him. Scottie talked him into using Bobby Schnitzer (guitar) and Rich Dworsky (keyboards) and Dik Hedlund (bass). Scottie confirms my memory: “We knew how good he was the first time we heard him sing.” Bobby and Rich subsequently moved out to Los Angeles with Al as he sought to make it big. (They can both be seen in the documentary.)

We were thrilled when Al returned to perform at Minneapolis’s Pantages Theater in 2011. I think all his old fans turned out to see the show. Al caught up with the audience’s musical contingent at a party later that night. From left to right in the photo below are Dik Hedlund, Rich Dworsky, Scott Sansby, Al, and Bobby Schnitzer.

While we saw early on what Al had to offer, it took the music industry another five years to seize on Al’s talent. Scottie was recording for Shelter Records in the early 1970s and took Al’s demo tapes to Shelter president Denny Cordell. Scottie tells me that Cordell thought the tapes were “great but that he didn’t know what to do with Al as far as genre and marketing, so he passed.” Scottie adds that the Twin Cities’ own Patrick Rains — former owner of The Prison teen club in Burnsville — became Al’s manager and finally got him signed to Warner Brothers, where he released his first album in 1975. Patrick has a prominent voice in the documentary. (Patrick, incidentally, is now married to singer/songwriter Jonatha Brooke, of whom I am a huge fan. Patrick’s agency manages Jonatha and other talented musicians including Cyrille Aimée as well as local fave Davina and the Vagabonds.)

The rest is music history. Al won seven Grammys in three musical categories (jazz, pop and R&B, respectively). According to the AllMusic Guide biography, Al is the only artist to win Grammys in three different musical categories.

Al’s music expressed infectious joy and endearing romanticism. You can hear the threads of his talent in his approach to Chick Corea’s “Spain.” It was an instrumental until Al put words to it (video below). As you listen to this I defy you to be unhappy. Can’t be done.

Al also put his stamp on the famous Dave Brubeck Quartet number “Take Five” (composition by Paul Desmond, lyrics by Iola Brubeck, video below).

In the lyrics to “Take Five,” Al sang: “Stop your busy day and take the time out to see that I’m alive, I’m alive.” There’s a timely message in there somewhere.

UPDATE: I have corrected my reference to “Take Five” courtesy of a reader.