AL JARREAU & NDR BIGBAND

DROP ME OFF IN HARLEM

Act 1 Records

Al Jarreau, vocals; Wolfgang Haffner, drums; Christian Diener, Electric & acoustic bass; Peter Tiehuis, electric & acoustic guitar; Hans Vroomans, piano/Fender Rhodes; TRUMPETS/ FLUGELHORNS: Thorsten Benkenstein, Ingolf Burkhardt, Nicolas Boysen, & Reiner Winterschladen. SAXOPHONES: Fiete Felsch, Bjorn Berger, Christof Lauer, Frank Delle, Tini Thomsen. TROMBONES: Dan Gottshall, Gunter Bollmann, Klaus Heidenreich, Stefan Lottermann.  Ingo Lahme, trombone/tuba; Joe Turano, vocal arranger. Jorg Achim Keller, conductor/arranger NDR Bigband.

It sounds like a busy street, then we hear Al Jarreau’s voice singing “Taxi” at the top of his lungs.  This is followed by the entrance of the NDR Bigband with horns blasting. This project was recorded in November of 2016 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. It continued at the Opera Garnier in Monte Carlo, Monaco a few days later.  I love the part on “I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart” when Al Jarreau comes back into the song after the orchestrated solos, adlibbing confidently.  At that concert, no one knew that in only three short months Al would pass away on February 12, 2017. This is a historic recording of one of Jarreau’s last concerts.

On “Lush Life” he takes quite a few liberties with the melody. There were notable and inspired solos by Fiete Felsch on flute and Christof Lauer on tenor saxophone.  If I didn’t know better, I might assume that Al had not rehearsed these songs with this wonderful band.  He is a master improviser, so he could easily have sung these familiar Duke Ellington songs without a rehearsal. The problem with that type of improvisation, when you have structured charts, the musicians of a large ensemble don’t veer from those written scores, unlike a smaller jazz group might do.

“Come Sunday” is a favorite of mine that Mahalia Jackson put her mark on many years ago.  Al sounds more comfortable on this arrangement, but still colors way outside the lines on the fade of the song, as always, improvising freely.

During “In A Mellow Tone,” I could tell that he knew the arrangement quite well.  The band swings hard and Ingolf Burhardt offers a mean flugelhorn solo.  Jarreau scats a little bit, but I can tell he’s not in the best of voice or health. I have listened to Jarreau for many years. Even on his worse day, he still sounds amazing. The German audience obviously loves him too. They encourage him throughout his concert with warm applause.

Tini Thomsen is terrific on baritone saxophone during their arrangement of the famed “A-Train.” Al Jarreau sounds relaxed and energetic.

Siggi Loch, the founder of Act Records, first heard and experienced the brilliance of Al Jarreau in 1974, at the Troubadour in Los Angeles.

“… I was instantly hooked by his voice and his stage presence.  The next day I went to see Mo Ostin, President of Warner Brothers Records, to convince him to sign Al Jarreau,” Loch recalls in the press package I received.

From this meeting, Jarreau’s debut album titled, “We Got By” was released in 1975.  Loch quickly offered Al work in Germany and brought Jarreau to Europe before his success in the United States blossomed. In Germany, he performed at the popular club, Onkel Po in Hamburg.  Loch convinced Michael Naura, the head of Jazz at NDR, to record the third night for ‘live’ TV broadcast and that show made Al Jarreau famous in Germany overnight.  His debut record, “We Got By” won the German Record Critics’ Award and his first German tour was sold out everywhere.

This is a piece of history not to be missed.  It’s a celebration of the NDR Bigband, of the music of Duke Ellington, and the brilliance and uniqueness of the legend, Al Jarreau.

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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