A sonic exploration and tonal analysis of contemporary creative music in a myriad of improvisational/composed settings, textures, and expressions.
Welcome to Sound Projections
I'm your host Kofi Natambu. This online magazine features the very best in contemporary creative music in this creative timezone NOW (the one we're living in) as well as that of the historical past. The purpose is to openly explore, examine, investigate, reflect on, studiously critique, and take opulent pleasure in the sonic and aural dimensions of human experience known and identified to us as MUSIC. I'm also interested in critically examining the wide range of ideas and opinions that govern our commodified notions of the production, consumption, marketing, and commercial exchange of organized sound(s) which largely define and thereby (over)determine our present relationships to music in the general political economy and culture.
Thus this magazine will strive to critically question and go beyond the conventional imposed notions
and categories of what constitutes the generic and stylistic definitions of ‘Jazz’, ‘classical music’, ‘Blues.’
'Rhythm and Blues’, ‘Rock and Roll’, ‘Pop’, ‘Funk’, ‘Hip Hop’, etc. in order to search for what individual
artists and ensembles do cretively to challenge and transform our ingrained ideas and attitudes of what
music is and could be.
So please join me in this ongoing visceral, investigative, and cerebral quest to explore, enjoy, and pay
homage to the endlessly creative and uniquely magisterial dimensions of MUSIC in all of its guises and expressive identities.
Saturday, September 17, 2022
Bobby McFerrin (b. March 11, 1950): Outstanding, versatile, and innovative musician, composer, singer, songwriter, arranger, conductor, ensemble leader, producer, and teacher
Vocal virtuoso Bobby McFerrin ranks among the most
distinctive and original singers in contemporary music -- equally adept
in jazz, pop, and classical settings, his octave-jumping trademark
style, with its rhythmic inhalations and stop-on-a-dime shifts from
falsetto to deep bass notes often sounds like the work of at least two
or three singers at once, while at the same time sounding quite unlike
anyone else. The son of husband-and-wife classical singers, McFerrin was
born in New York City on March 14, 1950, later studying piano at
California State College at Sacramento and Cerritos College. After
touring behind the Ice Follies, he performed with a series of cover
bands, cabaret acts, and dance troupes before making his vocal debut in
1977. While living in New Orleans, he sang with the group Astral Projection before relocating to San Francisco. There he met legendary comedian Bill Cosby, who arranged for McFerrin to appear at the 1980 Playboy Jazz Festival.
A performance at the 1981 Kool Jazz Festival led to a
contract with Elektra, and the following year, McFerrin issued his
self-titled debut LP. With 1984's The Voice,
he made jazz history, recording the first-ever solo vocal album (sans
accompaniment or overdubbing) to be released on a major label. His Blue
Note debut, Spontaneous Inventions, followed in 1985 and featured contributions from Herbie Hancock, the Manhattan Transfer (on the Grammy-winning "Another Night in Tunisia"), and comic Robin Williams;
McFerrin also earned mainstream exposure through his unique performance
of the theme song to the television hit The Cosby Show, as well as a
number of commercial spots. With 1988's Simple Pleasures,
he scored a chart-topping pop smash with "Don't Worry, Be Happy";
around that time, he also formed the ten-member a cappella group Voicestra, featured on 1990's Medicine Music.
With 1992's Hush, McFerrin shifted gears to team with acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma; the record remained on the Billboard Classical Crossover charts for over two years. The jazz release Play, a collaboration with pianist Chick Corea, appeared in 1992 as well. McFerrin returned to classical territory in 1995 with Paper Music, a collection of interpretations of works by Mozart, Bach, and Tchaikovsky recorded with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, (which he joined as Creative Chair a year prior). For 1996's Bang! Zoom he teamed with members of the Yellowjackets; a second collaboration with Corea, The Mozart Sessions, appeared later that same year. With 1997's Circlesongs,
McFerrin returned to his roots, recording an entire album of improvised
vocal performances. He then recorded a collaborative album of classical
and jazz standards for Sony Music Special Products in 2001. It teamed
him with such esteemed musicians as Herbie Hancock, Yo-Yo Ma, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. A year later, Blue Note released his Beyond Words album, McFerrin's first work for the label in nearly a decade. It featured a band comprised of Chick Corea, Richard Bona, Omar Hakim, Cyro Baptista, and Gil Goldstein. Supported by a choir, McFerrin released VOCAbuLarieS in 2010. Spirityouall, released in the spring of 2013, was a tribute to McFerrin's father, Robert McFerrin, whose 1957 album Deep River brought Black spirituals into the world of high art.
Bobby McFerrin is one of the natural wonders of the music world. A
ten-time Grammy Award winner, he is one of the world's best-known vocal
innovators and improvisers, a world-renowned classical conductor, the
creator of "Don't Worry Be Happy", one of the most popular songs of the
late 20th century, and a passionate spokesman for music education. His
recordings have sold over 20 million copies, and his collaborations
including those with with Yo-Yo Ma, Chick Corea, the Vienna
Philharmonic, and Herbie Hancock have established him as an ambassador
of both the classical and jazz worlds.
With a four-octave range and a
vast array of vocal techniques, McFerrin is no mere singer; he is
music's last true Renaissance man, a vocal explorer who has combined
jazz, folk and a multitude of world music influences - choral, a
cappella, and classical music - with his own ingredients. As a
conductor, Bobby is able to convey his innate musicality in an entirely
different context. He has worked with such orchestras as the New York
Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the
Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Vienna Philharmonic.
'Unconventional'
is a good way to describe the career of Bobby McFerrin. Those familiar
with McFerrin's shows, whether as a conductor or a vocalist, know that
each one is a unique event that resonates with the unexpected. He is
that rare artist who has the ability to reach beyond musical genres and
stereotypes for a sound that is entirely his own. As one of the foremost
guardians of music's rich heritage, he remains at the vanguard with his
natural, beautiful and timeless music that transcends all borders and
embraces all cultures.
“My pursuit of music has always been about freedom and joy,
finding inspiration in the folk traditions of every continent, composed
music like Bach or Ives or James Brown or Bernstein, plus every sound
I’ve ever heard or imagined. In the collective improvisations of jazz,
to participate fully, each player brings their universe of influences,
so we can listen, lead, and respond to each other in an ever-continuing
real-time adventure. And, on top of all that, we actually get to play
and to make up stuff for a living too! Thank you NEA for inviting me to
be recognized with this honor, among so many of my dearest friends,
influencers, fellow players, and some of the most imaginative beings on
the planet.”
Bobby McFerrin is a master of vocal improvisation, using his
four-octave range in various techniques, from scat singing to polyphonic
overtone singing to vocal percussion, working both unaccompanied and
with instruments. Oftentimes he will sound like an entire band all by
himself, sometimes using his own body as a percussion instrument. A
ten-time Grammy Award winner, McFerrin has moved comfortably among
genres, and has won awards in both jazz and classical.
McFerrin’s influences started with his father, who was the first
African-American male to play leading roles at the Metropolitan Opera
(he sang the part of Porgy (portrayed by Sidney Poitier) in the 1959
film version of Porgy and Bess) and his mother, also a
professional singer and teacher. Hearing a variety of music growing up,
McFerrin began playing first the clarinet, then the piano, forming a
high school jazz band and continuing to play piano in college. At 27, he
realized his true calling was singing, and spent the next six years
developing his style, with a performance at the 1981 Kool Jazz Festival
leading to a contract with Elektra Records. His recordings for the label
include The Voice (1984), considered the first solo vocal jazz album recorded for a major label with no accompaniment or overdubbing.
In 1988, McFerrin had a big hit with "Don't Worry, Be Happy," from his album Simple Pleasures.
Although the song became an enduring global sensation (the first a
cappella song ever to reach top 40 in America), McFerrin moved in a
different direction, creating a ten-person a cappella group Voicestra
and working with various artists in the classical and jazz fields,
including Yo-Yo Ma, Chick Corea, and the Yellowjackets. He has also explored world music, such as on his 1997 release Circlesongs, which comprised spontaneous vocal improvisations on African and Middle Eastern themes.
In yet another turn in his career, McFerrin took up conducting in
1990 (on his 40th birthday) with the San Francisco Symphony after taking
lessons from Seiji Ozawa and Gustav Meyer. “The conducting came up only
because I was very curious about the art of it,” McFerrin noted. Since,
he has guest conducted symphony orchestras worldwide, and from 1994 to
1998 was creative director of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. During his
time with the orchestra, he developed the educational program CONNECT
(Chamber Orchestra’s Neighborhood Network of Education, Curriculum and
Teachers), which provides supplementary music education free-of-charge
to local public schools, reaching as many as 5,000 students annually.
In 2009, he and musician, scientist, and author Daniel Levitin co-hosted The Music Instinct: Science & Song, an award-winning PBS documentary based on Levitin's bestselling book This Is Your Brain on Music
that looks at how the brain reacts to music performed in a variety of
ways. McFerrin continues to perform and tour internationally and
participate in music education programs, making volunteer appearances as
a guest music teacher and lecturer at public schools throughout the
United States.
Selected Discography
The Voice, Elektra, 1984 Spontaneous Invention, Blue Note, 1986 Beyond Words, Blue Note, 2002 VOCAbuLariesS, Emarcy, 2010 Spirityouall, Masterworks, 2013
Bobby McFerrin is a master of vocal improvisation, using his four-octave range in various techniques, from scat singing to polyphonic overtone singing to vocal percussion, working both unaccompanied and with instruments. Oftentimes he will sound like an entire band all by himself, sometimes using his own body as a percussion instrument. A ten-time Grammy Award winner, McFerrin has moved comfortably among genres, and has won awards in both jazz and classical. More information: hhttps://www.arts.gov/honors/jazz/bobb...
Visit the National Endowment for the Arts’ Jazz Masters Fellowships section to learn more about the recipients of our nation’s highest honor in jazz: https://www.arts.gov/honors/jazz
Robert Keith McFerrin Jr. (born March 11, 1950)[1] is an American folk and jazz
artist. He is known for his vocal techniques, such as singing fluidly
but with quick and considerable jumps in pitch—for example, sustaining a
melody while also rapidly alternating with arpeggios and harmonies—as well as scat singing, polyphonicovertone singing, and improvisational vocal percussion.
He is widely known for performing and recording regularly as an
unaccompanied solo vocal artist. He has frequently collaborated with
other artists from both the jazz and classical scenes.[2]
McFerrin's first recorded work, the self-titled album Bobby McFerrin,
was not produced until 1982, when McFerrin was already 31 years old.
Before that, he had spent six years developing his musical style, the
first two years of which he attempted not to listen to other singers at
all, in order to avoid sounding like them. He was influenced by Keith Jarrett, who had achieved great success with a series of solo improvised piano concerts including The Köln Concert of 1975, and wanted to attempt something similar vocally.[6]
In 1984, McFerrin performed onstage at the Playboy Jazz Festival in Los Angeles as a sixth member of Herbie Hancock's VSOP II, sharing horn trio parts with the Marsalis brothers.
In 1986, McFerrin was the voice of Santa Bear in Santa Bear's First Christmas, and in 1987 he was the voice of Santa Bear/Bully Bear in the sequel Santa Bear's High Flying Adventure. On September 24 of that same year, he performed the theme song for the opening credits of Season 4 of The Cosby Show.
In 1988, McFerrin recorded the song "Don't Worry, Be Happy",
which became a hit and brought him widespread recognition across the
world. The song's success "ended McFerrin's musical life as he had known
it," and he began to pursue other musical possibilities on stage and in
recording studios.[7] The song was used as the official campaign song for George H. W. Bush in the 1988 U.S. presidential election,
without Bobby McFerrin's permission or endorsement. In reaction, Bobby
McFerrin publicly protested that use of his song, and stated that he was
going to vote against Bush. He also dropped the song from his own
performance repertoire.[8]
At that time, he performed on the PBS TV special Sing Out America! with Judy Collins. McFerrin sang a Wizard of Oz medley during that television special.
In 1989, he composed and performed the music for the Pixar short film Knick Knack.
The rough cut to which McFerrin recorded his vocals had the words "blah
blah blah" in place of the end credits (meant to indicate that he
should improvise).
McFerrin spontaneously decided to sing "blah blah blah" as lyrics, and
the final version of the short film includes these lyrics during the end
credits. Also in 1989, he formed a ten-person "Voicestra" which he
featured on both his 1990 album Medicine Music and in the score to the 1989 Oscar-winning documentary Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt.
Around 1992, an urban legend
began that McFerrin had committed suicide; it has been speculated that
the false story spread because people enjoyed the irony of a man known
for the positive message of "Don't Worry, Be Happy" suffering from
depression in real life. But in reality Mcferrin knew the song help
spread the message of positivity to the world abroad and was very proud
of the work as a whole.[9]
For a few years in the late 1990s, he toured a concert version of Porgy and Bess, partly in honor of his father, who sang the role for Sidney Poitier in the 1959 film version,
and partly "to preserve the score's jazziness" in the face of "largely
white orchestras" who tend not "to play around the bar lines, to stretch
and bend". McFerrin says that because of his father's work in the
movie, "This music has been in my body for 40 years, probably longer
than any other music."[10]
McFerrin also participates in various music education programs
and makes volunteer appearances as a guest music teacher and lecturer at
public schools throughout the U.S. McFerrin has collaborated with his
son, Taylor, on various musical ventures.
In July 2003, McFerrin was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music during the Umbria Jazz Festival where he conducted two days of clinics.[11]
In 2009, McFerrin and psychologist Daniel Levitin hosted The Music Instinct, a two-hour documentary produced by PBS and based on Levitin's best-selling book This Is Your Brain on Music. Later that year, the two appeared together on a panel at the World Science Festival.
McFerrin was given a lifetime achievement award at the A Cappella Music Awards on May 19, 2018.
McFerrin was honored with the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters award on August 20, 2020.
Personal life
He is the father of musicians Taylor McFerrin and Madison McFerrin, and actor Jevon McFerrin.[12][13]
Vocal technique
As a vocalist, McFerrin often switches rapidly between modal and falsetto registers to create polyphonic effects, performing both the main melody
and the accompanying parts of songs. He makes use of percussive effects
created both with his mouth and by tapping on his chest. McFerrin is
also capable of multiphonic singing.[14]
A document of McFerrin's approach to singing is his 1984 album The Voice, the first solo vocal jazz album recorded with no accompaniment or overdubbing.[15]
Bobby McFerrin, (born March 11, 1950, New York, New York, U.S.), American musician noted for his tremendous vocal control and improvisational ability. He often sang a cappella, mixing folk songs, 1960s rock and soul tunes, and jazz
themes with original lyrics. He preferred to sing without fixed lyrics,
and he could imitate the sounds of various musical instruments with
great skill.
McFerrin’s parents both had distinguished vocal careers. His mother, a soprano, was a Metropolitan Opera
judge who chaired the vocal department at Fullerton College, near Los
Angeles, and his father, who sang at the Met, dubbed actor Sidney Poitier’s singing on the 1959 Porgy and Bess sound track. In McFerrin’s youth he was inclined to become a minister of music, but, after attending California State University at Sacramento and Cerritos College in Norwalk, California, he instead became a pianist and organist with the Ice Follies ice-skating show and with pop music
bands. In 1977 he auditioned for and won a singing job. As a swinging
jazz and ballad vocalist, by 1980 McFerrin was touring with popular jazz
singer Jon Hendricks. Inspired by Keith Jarrett’s improvised piano concerts, in 1982 he worked up the nerve to sing alone.
McFerrin issued his self-titled debut album in 1982, and it was followed by The Voice (1984), which was unusual because it featured no accompaniment; Spontaneous Inventions (1985), which featured music by Herbie Hancock and Manhattan Transfer; and Simple Pleasures (1988), which featured the hit song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” He also recorded television commercials and a theme song for The Cosby Show; improvised music for actor Jack Nicholson’s readings of Rudyard Kipling’s children’s stories; and released an album with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, titled Hush, in 1992.
McFerrin
was perhaps best known for his spontaneity; in concert he might wander
through the auditorium singing, make up songs on listeners’ names,
conduct his audience in choirs, or burst into a condensed version of The Wizard of Oz,
complete with tornado sounds and munchkin, witch, and scarecrow voices.
On record he could improvise all the parts in a vocal group himself, as
he did in “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” In 1995 McFerrin released Paper Music, an album he collaborated on with the St. Paul (Minnesota) Chamber Orchestra that featured orchestral works by Mozart, Bach, Rossini, and other masters, with the melodies sung instead of played.
By the beginning of the 21st century, McFerrin’s work had garnered 10 Grammy Awards. His later recordings include Circlesongs (1997) and VOCAbuLarieS (2010), for which he drew from various world-music traditions to create minimally accompanied, harmonically rich choral pieces; the impressionistic jazz album Beyond Words (2002); and Spirityouall (2013), an homage to African Americanspirituals. In 2020 the National Endowment for the Arts named McFerrin a Jazz Master.
While rummaging through well-worn Jazz Reports,
a magazine I published for a good eighteen years beginning in 1987, I
came across my interview with vocalist Bobby McFerrin from August 1988.
What makes this so intriguing is the fact the issue coincides with the
release of McFerrin’s triple-platinum best seller, Simple Pleasures, featuring the massive hit, Don’t Worry, Be Happy.
McFerrin’s career was on the upswing and he was most willing to sit
for a conversation detailing his ambitions, vocalizing, and plans for
the future. I’d been familiar with his recordings, especially his 1982
debut, Bobby McFerrin, on Electra Musician with a brilliant
cover of Van Morrison’s Moondance, which I frequently played on Q-Jazz
back in 1985. Here’s that conversation – and by the way – he has 10
Grammys now!
Bill King: Unlike other jazz vocalists who pay homage to the
past by recording traditional standards, you have chosen to explore the
songs of the ‘60s. Do you have a particular fascination with this era?
Bobby McFerrin: Not necessarily a fascination, but I
do think the ‘60s were rich with distinguishable sounds, unlike the
homogeneity of today. You never know who is doing what today. In the
‘60s you had all these distinctive voices like Janis Joplin, Jimi
Hendrix, Cream, Led Zeppelin – great groups who wrote some exciting
music. I’m a ‘60s child, and that was the music I listened to. Jazz was
the last music I got into, and that was in the early ‘70s. I think I was
more influenced by rock and classical music than anything else, so I
thought that, on Simple Pleasures, I would tip my hat and pay homage to the good music of the ‘60s.
B.K: Some songs are deemed untouchable considering the
strength of their original interpretation, but you were able to breathe
new life into classics such as Van Morrison’s Moondance, Lennon and
McCartney’s From Me to You, and Cream’s Sunshine of Your Love. How did
you go about selecting material?
B.M: Those are the sorts of tunes I like, but even
pieces that I think I like may lend themselves to immediate treatment
while others may take a while to put together. I usually go for those
that I have some relationship with right away. That doesn’t mean I don’t
take time to work on other tunes. There was another Beatles song; She’s
A Woman, that almost ended up on this record. It’s a great tune. I had
put down the basic tracks, but I couldn’t figure out what else to do
with it. There’s a lot of waiting involved in the recording process so, I
waited for something to happen, and eventually, I found that I had
waited too long. I kept coming back to She’s A Woman, but by that time, I
figured I’d just save it.
B.K: Is there something in the components of a song, whether
melodically or lyrically, that you look for in a tune like You Really
Got a Hold on Me?
B.M: You Really Got a Hold on Me was not one of my
favourite choices, although at first, I thought it would be a good idea
to do. I was still a young and naïve musician at that point, and that
was my first record. It was difficult for me to say no. I didn’t take
any chances with it so it could have been a better arrangement. Now, I’m
taking chances.
B.K: On your first LP Bobby McFerrin, on Electra
Musician, you surround yourself with a band, but since then you’ve
chosen to go it alone. Why have you decided to work solo?
B.M: Well, even when I was working with a band, I
had already decided to go it alone, but I didn’t think that my first LP
should be a solo album. It just wouldn’t have been a good idea. My
manager, Linda Goldstein, probably wanted to wait and see. Another
reason is that I had all of these songs that I had written a few years
before, such as my arrangement of Moondance and Feline, and they needed
to be put on vinyl. These were the tunes I wanted to record. It just
made sense to do the first record with a band.
B.K: Do you get many opportunities to use your keyboard skills?
B.M: There’s a piece on the Elephant’s Child
record, which I did with Jack Nicholson, where I played some keyboards.
It depends on the piece whether I hear keyboards. I’m more into the
vocal instrument, and I’m going to stick with that. I don’t see me
working on or orchestrating other instruments in the foreseeable future
B.K: You paid your dues playing lounges and different jobs. Are you grateful to have those days behind you?
B.M: Yes. I don’t think I’d like doing that now, but I can now see it was all a process and indeed a valuable experience.
B.K: What was your stay in Salt Lake City like when you were based there?
B.M: It was wonderful. That’s where I started
singing, playing piano bars and thinking about solo voice. I was also
exposed to working with dancers, so a lot of good things came out of
Salt Lake City. It’s a beautiful place to live, close to the mountains.
It was a wonderful two years of musical germination, which made a lot of
things clear.
B.K: You credit Keith Jarrett’s spontaneous solo concerts as being what inspired you to attempt performing as a solo artist.
B.M: Most definitely! I was intrigued by him because
he dared to walk out on stage with no set idea, sit down at the piano,
play and it would work. I wasn’t exposed to any other musicians who were
doing that at the time. If you’re an arranger or a musician, generally
you walk out with a set-in mind, sit down and play. And often, you’ve
got your lights, you’ve got your smoke, you’ve got you’re dancing girls,
you’ve got your lines or whatever.
For rock in the ‘60s, they didn’t do that too much. You rehearsed and
knew what you were going to do, but then along comes somebody who just
sits down at the piano and plays. It was new every time, and I was
captivated by it all.
B.K: How do you prepare for a concert?
B.M: I eat fruits, I pace, I talk, I read letters, I have dinner, take walks, pet dogs..
B.K: Are there any particular exercises that you practice to maintain your vocal flexibility?
B.M: I don’t drink milk, and I vocalize.
B.K: You turn your body into a rhythm machine and your voice into a variety of instruments. How did you develop this technique?
B.M: Out of necessity. My body does not contain a
lot of instruments. It contains sounds and colours. The technique came
out of necessity. When I work on something, I must ask myself, “What are
the elements? Intonation. Good intonation. I’ll focus on that and just
work at it. I would like to have the best intonation in the world, but I
can’t just stand out there and sing notes. So, what am I going to do
with my body? Nobody is going to sit in the audience and watch a singer
sing perfectly and creatively if he just stands there with his hands in
his pockets. So, I started to move my body and it helped me as a singer.
The audience needs to see the sound, so body movement is a way of
taking a sound and putting in into a physical form. It’s giving them,
the audience, something to see.
B.K: You’ve developed the ability to play rhythm patterns while improvising a horn solo. How do you bring all this together?
B.M: Drummers. Drummers fascinate me with all the
things they do. Left and right feet; left and right hands and
especially, drummers that sing. They can’t be thinking my left foot is
doing this and my right is doing that. They can’t be thinking
consciously about that. It’s impossible. You can’t divide your mind into
four different activities at once.
B.K: Could you suggest a simple warm-up exercise for vocalists?
B.M: Sing tenths.
B.K: Do you have any favourite vocalist that you enjoy listening to?
B.M: Anita Baker, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Steve Winwood, Joni Mitchell, Taj Mahal sometimes, and many others.
B.K: How do you view the music of the ‘80s?
B.M. There’s nothing distinguishable about most of
the groups. You’d think that it would be the producer’s job to get the
groups or musicians to be as unique as possible. The difference between
the ‘60s and the ‘80s is that Janis would open her mouth, her musicians
would be playing guitars plugged into amplifiers turned to 10, and they
would wail. Now, you’ve got a guitar with 13 buttons, plugged into 12
more buttons on the floor, plugged into computers, plugged into a person
backstage, plugged into 12 Marshalls speakers, plugged into a video
screen.
There are only a few musicians I know who can handle that,
creatively. Pat Metheny is one. I wouldn’t call him a rock musician. But
he certainly has a rock undercurrent, along with jazz, classical and
folk influences, yet he’s capable of synthesizing all these individual
types of music into one voice. A lot of musicians don’t know who they
are. Artists must take control of themselves. There are a lot of good
vocalists out there, but many are drowned by technology.
B.K: Do you have any desire to record a pure jazz album?
B.M: I’ve thought about it, and one day I might go
into the studio with a trio and do a straight-ahead jazz record, I’m not
closed-minded enough to say, “No, I won’t do that,” but presently I
have no such intentions.
B.K: You’ve won five Grammys, and you’re heard across North America each week on the Cosby Show and as the voice on the Levi jeans commercial. What else do you envision yourself exploring in the future?
B.M: Writing movie scores, television scores, an
opera, putting a vocal group together and writing poems, along with
staying home and singing in the bathtub.
Elizabeth:
Your songs often don’t use words, but they carry as much meaning,
depth, and emotion as the most beautiful, skillful lyrics. Is it a
conscious choice not to use words? How can “nonsense sounds” evoke such
an emotional response?
Bobby: I don’t think of
them as nonsense sounds; I think of them as language beyond words. When
we listen to improvisational jazz, or solo classical violinists, the way
they phrase and inflect melodies feels vocal, like they’re talking to
us. When I was figuring out how to perform solo, I wanted to move back
and forth between bass riffs, melody, and harmony, so I often used
sounds instead of—or alongside—the words of a song. I found that if I
sang a line using the consonants, vowels, shadings, and inflection we
recognize as human language sounds, people responded as if I were
talking to them. There is a human connection even though there are no
words. If I sing “you broke my heart, you left me flat,” everyone knows
exactly what that means—they know the story. But if I sing a line that’s
plaintive or wailing, people can experience their own set of emotions
and their own story. Each of us might give that phrase a different
meaning. It’s open to interpretation, and one song becomes a thousand
songs. I love that. Inviting audiences to open up and hear things
differently is an important part of what I do. But I still love to sing
songs with words, too.
Elizabeth: Was your
family religious? Was music part of your spiritual life as a kid? Do you
consider it to be part of your spiritual life as an adult?
Bobby:
My family was deeply religious, and music was one of the ways we prayed
and worshipped. My parents were both professional singers and singing
teachers, and my mother was the soprano soloist at our church. Music is
still part of my spiritual life. Sometimes I sing my prayers. When I get
audiences singing, I hope I’m helping them feel connected to something
beyond themselves.
Elizabeth: You teach musical
improvisation at Omega. Do you think improvisation is a skill that can
help people in other aspects of life—at work, or at home with families
and friends?
Bobby: Improvisation means
coming to the situation without rigid expectations or preconceptions.
The key to improvisation is motion—you keep going forward, fearful or
not, living from moment to moment. That’s how life is. Remembering that
life can be full of surprises is useful in any part of your life. You
can try a new way of singing a song you’ve performed for years, a new
way of showing your family your love for them, or a new recipe. Don’t
just play the licks you know. We’re all improvising all the time—it’s
good to recognize that and embrace it.
Elizabeth:
Sometimes when I am writing I don’t feel as if “I” am writing. Rather, I
feel something comes through me, that the words already exist and I am
just catching hold of them. Do you have that experience? Are the songs
already “out there” waiting for you to catch hold of them?
Bobby:
Yes, I know that feeling. What I do is mostly made up on the spot, so
I’m used to it, and I’m used to thinking about my options. I can catch
an idea, stay with it, and let it develop. Or, I can let go and move on
to the next thing. There’s always another idea waiting—another sound.
Elizabeth:
You’re known for so many different kinds of music. You had an early pop
hit with “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” you’re an improvisational jazz
phenomenon, you’re an orchestral conductor, and you’ve created some of
the most sacred spiritual music that I’ve ever heard. When I first heard
the way you put Psalm 23 to music, I was moved to tears. Why did you
use the word “she” when speaking about God in that piece?
Bobby:
The 23rd Psalm is dedicated to my mother. She was the driving force in
my religious and spiritual education, and I have so many memories of her
singing in church. But I wrote it because I’d been reading the Bible
one morning, and I was thinking about God’s unconditional love, about
how we crave it but have so much trouble believing we can trust it, and
how we can’t fully understand it. And then I left my reading and spent
time with my wife and our children. Watching her with them, the way she
loved them, I realized one of the ways we’re shown a glimpse of how God
loves us is through our mothers. They cherish our spirits, they demand
that we become our best selves, and they take care of us.
Elizabeth:
Years ago when you taught at Omega, I used to sit on the bench at the
Omega basketball court and watch you play with your kids and my kids.
You made all of the boys feel good just to be playing, even if they
weren’t “good” at the game. That is what happens when you teach—you just
seem to have a way of making people feel good. Is that part of the
motivation for you as a musician?
Bobby: I think
play and joy and feeling good deserve more of our time. I don’t see why
adults are supposed to grow out of those things. If I have a mission
it’s to make everyone who comes to my concerts leave feeling a
heightened sense of freedom to play, sing, and enjoy themselves.
Elizabeth:
Vice-President Al Gore once spoke at an Omega conference and we asked
you to give him a musical introduction. You started improvising the
Vice-President’s name: “Al Gore, Come on out. Al Gore, Come on out....”
The whole audience starting singing with you. By the time Al Gore came
out, he was smiling and singing himself. What you did relaxed everyone,
and when the vice president started to speak, we were with him and grace
was in the room. How does music do that?
Bobby:
I don’t know. It’s pretty great, though. Music and play can take people
out of their everyday worries and remind them of freedom and joy.
Elizabeth: Do you think music can heal us emotionally or physically?
Bobby:
Yes, I do. When I was a kid, my mother took that very literally. When
we got sick, she’d put us to bed and put music on to make us feel
better. Even now, if I’m getting ready for a concert and I have a
headache or I’m worried about something, I can usually sing my way
through it. When I come off stage, I feel better.
Elizabeth:
I’m a grandmother now. My grandson is two-and-a-half years old and is
singing about everything. In his world, everything can be turned into a
song. Everything has its own tune and lyrics. Each of his toy trucks has
its own voice and accent and tone. You seem to live in a similar world.
How are you able to teach that?
Bobby: You
know, I don’t teach it. If I stand there, appreciating the world around
me as full of amazing sounds and the possibility of new ones, I think
that invites other people to see the world that way, too. I love sharing
the experience of singing with people, and I love sharing my stories.
But when it comes to teaching, I have a lot of help. At Omega, I
surround myself with amazing singers and teachers who are each masters
at helping students find their voice.
Elizabeth:
There’s a nakedness to your music and to the way you perform—you are
being exactly, unapologetically, purely who you are. Why is it so hard
for us to be ourself? It’s what we’re drawn to in artists, it’s what we
want from each other, that authenticity, but we keep ourselves hidden.
How can we liberate ourselves from the fear of being who we are?
Bobby:
I’m not a scholar or a psychologist, so I don’t really think about why.
But I do think about what it means to sing to and with people, to offer
music to them, and to ask them to spend time with me. I try not to
“perform.” I try to come on stage and be myself, to sing the way I would
in a room by myself, to interact with the audience the way I would
relate to them if we were in my kitchen drinking tea and making up silly
songs. Maybe the way to get past the fear of being ourselves is simply
to try it more often.
In Celebration of the Human Voice - The Essential Musical Instrument
On
the 11th of March, 1950, Bobby McFerrin was born. His parents were
classical singers and he began to study music theory early on in his
life. His family then moved to Los Angeles. During high school and then
in College, UCSC, he focused on the piano. Once he finished college,
Bobby McFerrin toured with numerous bands including the Ice Follies.
However, it was only in 1977 that Bobby McFerrin decide to become a
singer. At one point he met Bill Cosby who arranged for him take part in
the 1980 Playboy Jazz Festival. It was only two years later where he
released his firm album called "Bobby McFerrin" in 1982. It was in 1983,
that Bobby McFerrin started converting without a band. This eventually
led him to make a solo tour in Germany. It was in Germany that he
recorded his album "The Voice". From that point on, he continued to make
solo tours in the most prestigious locations. It is also important to
realize that Bobby McFerrin worked with several important people like
Garrison Keillor, Jack Nicholson, and Joe Zawinul. On "Another Night in
Tunisia", Bobby McFerrin won two Grammies.
McFerrin was also featured in TV commercials for Levi's and Ocean
Spray and also ended up singing the theme song for the Cosby Show and
the movie Round Midnight by Bertrand Tavernier which got hum another
Grammy. By now, Bobby McFerrin had achieved a great deal of success as a
vocal and had released his platinum album Simple Pleasures which
included the hit "Don't Worry be Happy".
As an Orchestrator, Bobby McFerrin demonstrated his skills in 1990
when he released Medicine Music. He appeared on Arsenio Hall, Today and
Evening at Pops. Beyond that, he recorded Hush with Yo-Yo Ma in 1992.
The Hush album stayed on the Billboard Classical Crossover Chart for two
years until he went gold in 1996. In 1992, Bobby McFerrin also released
a new Jazz album called Play which earned him his 10th Grammy award. He
is without a doubt one of the greatest Jazz Artists of all time.
McFerrin also worked with classical music. In fact, his first
classical album named Paper Music was recorded with the Saint Paul
Chamber Orchestra. His symphonic conducting included the convert-length
version of Porgy and Bess. This very album remains on the Billboard
chart of classical bestsellers.
There is another important aspect of McFerrin's life. He was part of
the artistic leadership of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and in 1994
he joined as the creative chair. Among his numerous other activities,
McFerrin he developed a program called CONNECT which is an education and
outreach program. In 1996, he was recognized for his work with bringing
the youth into classical music as the ABC Person of the Week. Also, he
was given a 60 minutes feature with Mike Wallace.
His most recent works has been his album Bang Zoom which was released
in January of 1996. Also, his latest work Circle Songs he focussed on
his tremendous vocal talent. He continues to conduct symphonies. Indeed,
he has conducted in practically all the great orchestra including the
New York Philharmonic. Over the years, Bobby McFerrin has been an
inspiration to millions and a musician who has evolved the music he so
passionately works with.
Awards 1986 - Grammy Winner - Best Vocal Arrangement for Two or More Voices - Night in Tunisia 1988 - Grammy Winner - Song Of The Year - Simple Pleasures 1989 - Grammy Winner - Record of the Year - Don't Worry, Be Happy 1989 - Grammy Winner - Song Of The Year - Don't Worry, Be Happy 1992 - Grammy Winner - Best Jazz Vocal Performance - Mouth Music
Bobby McFerrin’s ‘Circlesongs’ and the Politics of Play
by Alexander Ullman
Bobby
McFerrin, pictured here onstage in Hollywood, has been leading
participatory Monday-afternoon performances at Freight & Salvage in
Berkeley.(Chris Weeks/WireImage)
Do you remember the last thing you said aloud?
No? That’s ok. Try saying this: “Wow.” Pucker up. Let the lips widen
and whip around a small ball of air before returning to their pursed
shape. “W-O-W.” Now do it again. See that coworker looking at you
strangely? Invite them to join you. “Wow.” Keep it up, until it loses
all sense and becomes pure sound.
If you’re still with me, you’ve already enacted the core principle of
Bobby McFerrin’s performance practice: playful repetition. For
McFerrin, there’s a thin line between spoken word and song. A simple
“wow” from the crowd becomes a bebop solo or a chorale in four-part
harmony.
“As musicians,” McFerrin told me last week, “we say, ‘Okay, ready, set, play.’ And I take that literally. The stage is a platform for adventure…Everything is game.”
You might know McFerrin as the voice behind the 1988 hit “Don’t
Worry, Be Happy,” or even as one of the inspirations for Key and Peele’s
“Kings of Mouth Noise”
sketch. But scratch the surface of celebrity, and you’ll realize that
McFerrin is one of the most inimitable musicians of the past 40 years: a
virtuosic solo performer with a four-octave range, conductor of St.
Paul Chamber Orchestra, and 2020 NEA Jazz Master.
Now in his seventies, McFerrin has returned to the stage, performing his Circlesongs
at Freight and Salvage each Monday through the end of May. It is the
best kept secret in Berkeley right now. Playing the audience as his
second instrument, McFerrin is clearly still an unparalleled creative
force, a peaceful warrior of song.
PHOTO: McFerrin leads a recent'Circlesongs' performance at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley. (Courtesy Freight & Salvage)
A Communal Jam Session
McFerrin released Circlesongs as an album in 1997, but the
term describes something much bigger: a completely improvised collective
performance. The project began in the late 1980s, first as “Voicestra,”
then “Hard Choral” in the nineties, and, until the pandemic, “Gimme 5.”
The latest group, “Motion,” is aptly named.
“The simplest definition of improvisation is motion,” says McFerrin.
“Play one note, then you play another one, and then another. And
everyone can do that. It's just like following words on a page.”
If improvising is like reading a book, it’s one we’re all writing. McFerrin leads Circlesongs,
playing the microphone like a piccolo, his longtime soundman Dan Vicari
adding just the right amount of reverb to turn the wooden paneled room
into a European cathedral. But like any great improviser, McFerrin knows
how to foreground others. Bryan Dyer sings a rubber-band bassline to
every figure, accompanied by the uncanny realism of Dave Worm’s vocal
percussion. Destani Wolf harmonizes above and below, while Tammi Brown
takes us into heavens of the higher registers. If you’re a vocalist or
instrumentalist, don’t forget your axe: you may find yourself onstage.
Circlesongs
is a communal jam session, but it’s also a very personal affair. This
is especially true for Dave Worm, who was a theology student in Berkeley
in the 1980s when he discovered McFerrin’s music at Leopold’s Records.
As Worm recalls, “I just thought, if I could ever sing like this guy …
that would be the thing.”
Worm changed career trajectories, and later that year, when he was
singing at a Christmas party at the Newman Center, in walked McFerrin.
The chance encounter led to a series of auditions, and the two have now
been performing together for nearly 30 years.
“I’ve done some concerts, and [beforehand] I felt physically lousy,”
he explains. “And then I do the gig and find out that 90 minutes later, I
feel so much better.”
McFerrin sings at a recent 'Circlesongs' performance at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley. (Courtesy Freight & Salvage)
Democratic Principles at Play
I’m usually wary, as a secular Jew in a Christain society, of any
whiff of organized religion. But to become part of McFerrin’s communal
canvas is to come as close to a religious experience as I’ve ever had. Circlesongs unsettles the distinction between the spiritual and the secular: it all comes full circle.
If you’re not “wow-ed” or easily moved, you’ll definitely learn
something. McFerrin often tells stories about his father, Robert
McFerrin Sr., who was the first African American to sing at the
Metropolitan Opera. As he tells it, “I used to hide under the piano as a
kid. And so I heard some of his voice lessons.”
When he described these lessons to me, they sounded painstakingly
detailed. But “Papa would take a mediocre singer and turn them into a
really fine instrument.” With Circlesongs, McFerrin revises his
father’s method by making play the most powerful pedagogy, teaching us
that we are in fact our own best teachers.
Though singing collectively is an ancient practice, McFerrin’s Circlesongs
gives it new meaning today. “I've been thinking a lot about musicians’
role during this time,” he told me, “the political unrest that's going
on in the world, on the planet. The threats to our everyday lives and
the role that singing can have.”
Because we’ve spent the past five years fearing the rise of fascism, and the last two terrified of each other’s breath, Circlesongs
is paean to the democratic principle of shared air. The performance
reminded me of the etymological meaning of inspiration: to allow
yourself to be breathed into. Even though the audience is vaccinated and
masked, it’s still the first time—in a long time—where everyone
laughing and singing around me felt less like a burden and more like a
blessing.
Thus, McFerrin’s Circlesongs offers play as not just an
aesthetics but a politics, a way not of escaping the problems of the
world but a way of shaping them. “This might sound really naïve,” he
says “but the first thing the politicians should do is sing. Talk later.
They should first become acquainted with each other’s songs and dances
and rituals.” Singing for him is not simply a celebration of victory nor
a palliative for defeat, but a practice, something you do to
instantiate change in the world everyday.
It's no coincidence, then, that the show starts at 12pm. People are
hungry for incorporating improvisation into their daily lives, and Circlesongs
offers that nourishment weekly. If you can make it, but especially if
you can’t, pay attention to the last thing you said—because every breath
has the potential to take flight into song.
Bobby McFerrin performs ‘Circlesongs’ each Monday, at noon, at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley. Details here.
As
the popular and classical musical cultures pull farther apart, crossing
back and forth has become, for some reason, that much more intense.
Bobby McFerrin -- the vocal explorer whose "Don't Worry, Be Happy" swept
the nation in 1988 and buoyed (to Mr. McFerrin's displeasure) George
Bush's Presidential campaign -- will set aside his four-octave singing
range and arsenal of naturally produced sound effects for a while on
Thursday to conduct the Beethoven Seventh Symphony and five other
pieces.
Mr. McFerrin's foray into the
jaws of the New Jersey Symphony at the Garden State Arts Center in
Holmdel will include some familiar items by Bizet, Faure, Vivaldi and
Bach. He will also do some of the improvisational singing for which he
is best known.
There is a lot Mr.
McFerrin does not know about conducting, and he says he is not afraid to
ask. "If I want to get a certain sound from the orchestra," he said by
phone from the Berkshires the other day, "I ask the concertmaster and he
shows me how to do it. Sometimes musicians ask me questions I have to
get translated. Jazz musicians just speak English to each other. I'm
less used to this terminology."
"Remember,
I only have one rehearsal for six pieces," he said. "One thing I have
found out watching other people rehearse is that the less you say the
better. You either do it with gesture or, better yet, you sing it the
way you want it to sound. I'll get up there and see what happens. You
never know. I believe in being prepared but not over-prepared."
Separation of Traditions
Such
a transfer of talents could have been transacted more easily 100 years
ago, when barroom ballads shared the harmonies, singing techniques and
melodic styles of Brahms and Dvorak. Since then, the enormous influence
of African-American culture -- with its sophisticated rhythms and less
flexible metric style -- has separated pop from a European tradition of
phrases that flex and contract like breathing and human speech.
Whether
the twain meet on Thursday will depend a lot on how good a conductor
Mr. McFerrin is. He first tried it, after some private study, at the San
Francisco Symphony a year ago. He also comes to the repertory
naturally. His father, Robert McFerrin, sang at the Metropolitan Opera,
and the younger Mr. McFerrin was improvising at the piano at the age of 3
and studying at Juilliard at 6. His childhood was dotted with piano
lessons, harmony and counterpoint and a distaste for practicing.
He
found his permanent connection to jazz and popular music as a college
student in California, using Miles Davis and Keith Jarrett as models.
From there Mr. McFerrin developed an unusual skill for using his own
body surfaces, cavities and appendages for timbral effects. His 1988
compact disk, "Simple Pleasures" -- which includes the famous "Don't
Worry, Be Happy" -- is largely a one-man effort: vocal solos, vocal
support and quasi-instrumental accompaniments laminated together from
separate sound tracks.
The singing
style is light and agile, a good distance from the monolithic certitudes
of Beethoven's A-major Symphony. Yet his 11-member singing group,
Voicestra, includes voices and techniques from all along the musical
spectrum. A la Mode
Mr.
McFerrin has a chance on Thursday to say something interesting about
concert music's current war of styles: Do we go back and do it
Beethoven's way, with the sound of his instruments and his era's
approach to style in our ears? Or do we transmute the past to meet the
needs of the present? "I guess I would choose the latter side," said Mr.
McFerrin. "I need to get in the composer's mind, but I'm a composer,
too, and I'm also an improvisational artist. When I'm up there in front
of an orchestra I might do something slower or faster; spontaneously try
something new."
THE MUSIC OF BOBBY MCFERRIN: AN EXTENSIVE VIDEO OVERVIEW, A CROSS SECTION OF RECORDINGS, MUSICAL ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY, PLUS VARIOUS INTERVIEWS
Kofi Natambu, editor of and contributor to Sound Projections, is a writer, poet, cultural critic, and political journalist whose poetry, essays, criticism, reviews, and journalism have appeared in many literary magazines, journals, newspapers, and anthologies. He has written extensively about music as a critic and historian for many publications, including the Black Scholar, Downbeat, Solid Ground: A New World Journal, Detroit Metro Times, KONCH, the Panopticon Review,Black Renaissance Noire, the Village Voice, the City Sun (NYC), the Poetry Project Newsletter (NYC), and the African American Review. He is the author of a biography Malcolm X: His Life & Work (Alpha Books) and two books of poetry: The Melody Never Stops (Past Tents Press) and Intervals (Post Aesthetic Press). He was the founder and editor of Solid Ground: A New World Journal, a national quarterly magazine of the arts, culture, and politics and the editor of a literary anthology Nostalgia for the Present (Post Aesthetic Press). Natambu has read his work throughout the country and given many lectures and workshops at academic and arts institutions. He has taught American literature, literary theory and criticism, cultural history and criticism, film studies, political science, creative writing, philosophy, critical theory, and music history and criticism (Jazz, Blues, R&B, Hip Hop) at many universities and colleges. He was also a curator in the Education Department of Detroit’s Museum of African American History. Born in Detroit, Michigan, Natambu currently lives in Berkeley, California with his wife Chuleenan.
