Al Jarreau, celebrated vocalist, Milwaukee native, dies at 76
Al Jarreau has said his yellow brick road started in Milwaukee.
From singing songs as a child at church and PTA meetings, to his first paid gigs at the Pfister Hotel, the genre-blending jazz singer went on to tour the world, record 21 albums and earn seven Grammys. He remains the only vocalist in Grammy history to win in the jazz, pop and R&B categories.
But Jarreau’s heart was always at home.
“Practically every night from stage, he would say, ‘I’m from Milwaukee,’ ” said fellow Milwaukee native Joe Turano, a member of Jarreau’s band for 17 years and his musical director since 2008.
When they met, Turano said, Jarreau asked, “‘You’re from Milwaukee? I never had a guy from Milwaukee in my band before.’ And he gave me a big hug.”
Jarreau, 76, died in a Los Angeles hospital early Sunday morning, with his wife, Susan, their son Ryan and a few friends and relatives by his side.
On Wednesday, Jarreau announced through his website that he would have to retire from touring on medical orders, due to “exhaustion.” A cause of death was not immediately known.
"He was just a great human and talented and wonderful to be around," said friend Greg Marcus, CEO of the Marcus Corp. "He made you feel good. The world has lost someone special."
Jarreau’s parting request: that mourners consider helping other children from his hometown, in lieu of flowers and gifts.
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The Wisconsin Foundation for School Music honored Jarreau with a Lifetime Achievement Award last October, and established an endowment in his name, to provide financial assistance to Milwaukee Public Schools students in need to participate in music programs. (Donations can be made at foundation4schoolmusic.org.)
“He loved getting into schools and motivating kids to follow their dreams,” said WFSM Executive Director Tim Schaid. Last fall, Jarreau came to Milwaukee three days ahead of receiving his award, so he could meet with music students at the Lincoln School of the Arts and the Milwaukee High School of the Arts. “He was just a tremendous man,” Schaid said.
The fifth of six children — his father a minister, his mother a piano teacher — Jarreau began singing when he was 4 or 5 years old, he told the Journal Sentinel last fall.
As a student at Lincoln High School, Jarreau said his “love of music and singing really deepened. I began to have ideas of taking this as far as I could. And I kept dreaming that dream and nourishing that dream.”
“He was just a wonderful student, good at everything,” including sports, said Ron DeVillers, the high school band director at Lincoln when Jarreau was a student.
In a short documentary produced for last fall’s WFSM award ceremony, Jarreau credited DeVillers and other teachers for inspiring him.
“There were a bunch of us from the other side of the tracks who weren’t expected to do anything,” Jarreau said. “And amongst us are a bunch of accomplished people because (our teachers) said, ‘Oh yes you can, oh yes you can.’ ”
Jarreau became student council president and governor of the Badger Boys State program. After graduating in 1958, he attended Ripon College, where he played basketball, studied psychology and formed his first vocal group, the Indigos.
After graduating in 1962, he attended the University of Iowa, where he earned a master’s in vocational rehabilitation. He worked as a rehabilitation counselor in San Francisco, performing at clubs at night, and becoming a full-time musician in 1968.
His career took off in 1975 when he was signed by Warner Bros.’ Reprise Records. The label released his debut studio album, “We Got By,” and Jarreau also performed on the the inaugural season of “Saturday Night Live” that year. Jarreau adopted an affectionate nickname, the “acrobat of scat,” thanks to his nimble vocal prowess, and in 1978 received his first Grammy, for Best Jazz Vocal Performance.
His biggest album was 1981’s “Breaking Away,” thanks to signature ballad, “We’re in this Love Together.” The album hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Jazz and R&B charts, and went platinum. He also wrote and sang the titular theme song for the TV series “Moonlighting,” starring Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd, which aired on ABC from 1985 to 1989.
Jarreau frequently released albums from there, all the way through a 2014 tribute to his former bandmate and friend, the late jazz artist George Duke. And he collected golden gramophones in the ‘80s, ‘90s and 2000s, taking particular pride that his mix of styles “made him hard to categorize,” Turano said.
“I never knew a time when music didn’t make him smile, when he wasn’t being creative,” Turano said. “He retained this childlike wonder, and was frequently calling me up with new ideas. I always had to have my iPhone ready to record.”
High honors continued in the 2000s, in Jarreau’s home state and beyond. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2001; an honorary doctorate of fine arts from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2004; and was inducted into the Wisconsin Performing Arts Hall of Fame in 2006.
He was slowed by health issues in 2010 and 2012, but in recent years was still performing about 50 concerts annually.
Last year, that included a show at the White House, for the UNESCO International Jazz Day Celebration in April, and his first concert in Muscat, Oman.
His last performance in Milwaukee was at Potawatomi Hotel & Casino’s Northern Lights Theater in August 2015, where his exuberant pride for his hometown “rivaled Ebenezer Scrooge on Christmas morning,” according to a Journal Sentinel review.
“We know some things that are very valuable and important because we come from Milwaukee,” he said at one point during the show.
Jarreau has said his most important work was promoting music education for children, emphasizing this passion in a Journal Sentinel editorial last March.
“I am very concerned that, today, children in my hometown of Milwaukee, and across our country are not getting the same exposure to arts that I had,” Jarreau wrote. “This is largely due to extreme cuts in funding for education, and the decision by our leaders that the fine arts are expendable.”
“For the sake of our own sane and healthy survival here on Earth, we must learn to understand each other better,” Jarreau continued. “And the arts are a common language for communicating toward this goal.”
Around the world Sunday, fans and fellow accomplished artists took to social media to pay respect to Jarreau.
“RIP to this wonderful vocalist,” John Legend wrote on Twitter. Oscar-winning actress Octavia Spencer praised Jarreau for his “mellifluous voice. Soothing, beautiful.” Chaka Khan tweeted, “U Were EVERYTHING Jazz & beyond with an unrivaled improvisational genius.”
And at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards from Los Angeles Sunday night, Kevin Olusola from a cappella quintet Pentatonix took a moment to acknowledge the passing “of a voice for the ages, seven-time Grammy Award winner Al Jarreau.”