McFerrin finds joy in spirituals.
10-time Grammy winner feels the urge to sing spirituals his baritone father sang
PREVIEW Bobby McFerrin What: Edmonton International Jazz Festival When: Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. Where: Winspear Centre Tickets: $60.25 to $81.25 through the Winspear box office, winspearcentre.com
Even before his 1988 breakout hit Don’t Worry Be Happy, one-ofa-kind vocalist Bobby McFerrin was trying to lift people up with his music. The 10-time Grammy winner tells Peter Hum that for him, singing and spiritual rejoicing are inseparable.
Faith and family gird the concert that Bobby McFerrin will give at the TD Ottawa Jazz Festival.
The genre-defying vocal innovator will draw on music from his 2013 release, spirityouall — his take on the American spiritual tradition. Among the album’s songs are versions of Swing Low Sweet Chariot, the Bob Dylan song I Shall Be Released, and the McFerrin original Jesus Makes It Good.
McFerrin, 64, has said that the spark to perform spirituals has been with him for decades. In fact, when McFerrin was barely seven years old, his father, the renowned baritone Robert McFerrin Sr., released his album, Deep River and Other Classic Negro Spirituals.
“I always thought that some day I’d sing these songs, and that I’d have to find a way of doing it that was completely different from my father’s approach,” says McFerrin.
And yet, the family connection is still borne out in McFerrin’s choice of band personnel. Singing backup vocals at the June 29 concert will be McFerrin’s daughter Madison, one of his three children.
Below, McFerrin describes the path he’s taken to become such a singular artist. You came from a musical family and studied clarinet and piano from an early age. Was there ever any question in your mind about what you would do with your life?
Music was such a big part of my life: playing, practicing, listening singing with my family and with the church choir. But for a while I thought I might consider a monastic life.
I read that you did not realize that your voice was your main instrument until you were 27. What happened?
I was just walking down the street. I’d just been playing piano for a dance class, and I was hearing music in my head. Suddenly I realized that I was hearing what I could do with my voice, that I had been a singer all along. I went home and got out the phone book and called the local hotel bar and set up an audition, I think I sang them a Blind Faith song. Anyway, I got the gig. After that it took me a lot of hours, years of sitting and singing and singing some more to be able to do everything I heard, but I got there. I performed solo for 10 minutes, then 20, then 45, then full concerts. How much of a priority was it to become as distinctive an artist as you are?
I think any artist has to be true to their own impulse, their sense of purpose. I never thought of myself as trying to be different or as trying to be a great singer. I just try to sing what I hear. I do have a strong sense of my purpose in life, to make the music I hear in my head and to bring a sense of joy and play to audiences. Tell me about the connection in your life between spirituality, religion and music-making. Now and in the past, to what extent has music-making been a spiritual activity?
I feel like all music is prayer. To me you can’t separate it out. Making recordings is one thing, and making music in real time for an audience is another. Tell me how both activities appeal to you and satisfy you? What do you get from them?
They are both great, but for me there’s no contest. I’ll take live music every time. Regarding jazz, when and how did the jazz bug bite you? What is it about jazz that appeals to you as a listener and as a musician?
I grew up in a house full of music, classical and jazz and everything else under the sun. So some of the great jazz musicians and singers I heard a lot as a child. It’s a funny thing to talk about, because jazz and jazz musicians have been incredibly important and influential for me — I’ll never forget hearing Herbie Hancock and the Mwandishi band, Miles Davis and his electric band, these experiences changed me at a molecular level, changed who I am. I’m an improviser first and foremost, it’s central to what I do. And I try to respect and honour all music that I do, and I often do jazz tunes. Do you self-identify as a jazz musician or do you think of yourself and your art in more eclectic terms?
But I don’t really identify as part of any genre. I’ve always loved all kinds of music, and I’ve never been one to separate things. For me it’s all music. Sometimes when people ask I say if I have to choose I’m a folksinger, because we’re all just folks trying to talk to each other. What is your take on the artistic and commercial future of jazz music?
I don’t have one! I just can’t think about those things; they make my head hurt. I make music, and listen to music, and get joy from music. I hope to do more of that in the future. A final question about the range of genres and styles that can be presented at jazz festivals — What do you think is the right mix of music at an event that calls itself a jazz festival?
Thank goodness I’m just some guy who loves to sing and not the programmer or presenter of a jazz festival. I have no idea.