Quotes by Al Jarreau - Page 2

I was age six or seven, and singing, "Jesus wants me for her son, beep, to shine for him," and people smiled and pinched my cheeks till the blood vessels broke, and I knew I was doing something right.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Jesus
Blood
Son
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I'm really looking forward to it because it will give me the opportunity to do the whole other kind of approach to the music live that I haven't had a chance to do. and I think is important for me to do.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Opportunity
Chance
Approach
Give Me
Looking Forward
Music Opportunity Me
Music Chance Me
Forward
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Once you discover that you can, then you must. And it's not easy. You have to take direct steps. You really have to count your blessings and you have to make a decided effort to not get seduced by the blues.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Blessing
Decided
Direct
Effort
Steps
Blessings
Blues
Count
Discover
Seduced
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I came along with that crowd of singer-songwriters who were able to make their own statements in such a personal way that it changed the industry: Laura Nyro, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Sly and the Family Stone.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Changed
Dylan
Industry
Laura
Sly
Statements
Bob Dylan
Joni Mitchell
Mitchell
Personal
Stone
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I tour a lot and interview a lot. I'm on the Internet and doing stuff. I go out and promote. I've got a bass drum and a sandwich sign and a washboard. You just have to shout louder and louder that you're still alive.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Drum
Interview
Louder
Promote
Sandwich
Shout
Sign
Tour
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There's a wonderful tradition of jazz people getting on stage and jamming and finding some feeling for music with audiences who may be fresh. For others, it might be just like a comfortable shirt they've been wearing.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Jazz
Tradition
Music People Jazz
Audiences
Finding
Fresh
Wearing
Jamming
Shirt
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I sat on the piano bench next to my mother in church. Something happened before I set foot on this planet. I was crawling around inside of her. She was a church pianist. My dad was a brilliant singer. I was hearing it.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Dad
Mother
Piano
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Obviously given good health, and a continuing audience and a record company that allows me to do music. So given those things yes, I'm introducing some new music that people haven't really heard me do in quite this fashion.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Continuing
Fashion
Good Health
Heard
Introducing
New Music
People
Records
Record
Obviously
Yes
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Al and Tommy and I sharing the biggest laugh because it was predicted by everything we did in the first three or four records in my career. It was predicted in the grooves that we would be here sometime later on down the road.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Careers
Down The Road
Groove
Laughing
Records
Would Be
Al
Predicted
Sharing
Sometime
Tommy
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I kind of knew something was going on, and my older brothers and sisters were singing be-boppish kinds of stuff in the living room, and I was listening. I started singing, warmer than a summer night, at seven or eight years old.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Brother
Night
Summer
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Learn it well in your head, know it well, pick things you know and bring the old you and all the experience you have from singing these various kinds of feelings that are still related to what I have done in the rest of my career.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Related
Pick
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These songs are old friends I have entertained myself with when I'm washing the dishes, driving to the store and walking down the aisles. The ones that you sing when you're driving in the car and as a singer you always go back to them.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Car
Dishes
Driving
Old Friends
Song
Washing
Entertained
Singer
Sing
Store
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My eyes went blank, and I stared off, and the music started. It was raining, and the sun was shining at the same time, and there were these big bay windows, and there was the blue in the sky, and the sun on the trees, and it was drizzling.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Blank
Blue
Eye
Rain
Shining
Sky
Sun
Bay
Raining
Same Time
Stared
Trees
Windows
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I had five brothers and sisters. Four of them older, and some of them played instruments, and we would get together and have family recitals and raise money for the church. I belonged to a wonderful church community that encouraged me to sing.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Family
Brothers And Sisters
Church
Community
Five
Get Together
Instruments
Together
Wonderful
Played
Belonged
Brothers
Sisters
Encouraged
Older
Raise
Sing
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I'm a little bit nervous for us with all of this electronically generated new hyper-space that we've moved into, where not only people but also economies and systems, like banking, are left to zeros and ones. I want to be more than a zero or one.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Zero
Banking
Little Bit
Moved
Nervous
People New More
Where People New
People New Where
Economies
Systems
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That's Tommy, this great producer who comes in contact with people and must have a mental library of personnel who are great for this and great for that, and he brought this whole group of musicians to the project that I'd never worked with before.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Contact
Personnel
Great People Never
Project
Mental
Producer
Musicians
Tommy
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I have this image in my head of me in the house I grew up in, and hearing this incredible music on the television show, going over to it, and there's Jon Hendricks, Dave Lambert, and Annie Ross. It knocked me out of my socks, and I'm still in flight.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Annie
Dave
Flight
Hearing
Jon
Socks
Television Show
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I grew up the son of a Seventh Day Adventist minister, so I was really close to the church and sang church music between sips at my bottle, you know? I sat on the piano bench next to my mother. She was the church organist, so that music is deeply inside of me.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Music
Church
Grew
Mother
Next
Son
Inside
Mother Me Day
Music Me Day
Adventist
Music Mother Me
Bench
Between
Bottle
Close
Music Me Know
Day
Deeply
Sang
Minister
Organist
Seventh
She
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I tour Europe a lot. They still have a love and a fascination with the basic thing about music - how it feels and that being the focus. I've got people bringing their kids. And their kids bring their kids. The grandchildren are getting selfies with their Uncle Al.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Fascination
Feels
Focus
Grandchildren
Love Music People
Al
Basic
Bringing
Tour
Uncle
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I want an audience that we might call a pop audience. Cross over to pop. Cross over to R&B. And bring those people to Brubeck and Chick Corea, you dig? A lot of people found Dave Brubeck and Chick Corea because they came to hear 'We're in This Love Together' and 'After All.'
Al Jarreau / Singer
Dave
Love Together People
Chick
Cross
Dig
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I'm not sure it's a better music world of appreciation and performance. I think the listener is a different guy, and listening is something he does in passing, with other stuff going on. There's less care and understanding of the relationship between the song and the listener.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Appreciation
Passing
Understanding
Relationship Music World
Performance
Listener
Music World
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I'm a Buckeye at heart. I spend more time giving concerts in Ohio than I do in any other state - perhaps more time than I spend performing anywhere else in the world. I have a great relationship with the people of Ohio, and it's great to be near the OSU when I come to Columbus.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Columbus
Concerts
Great Relationship
Ohio
Performing
Time Relationship Great
Anywhere Else
Near
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Jazz should be recognized as music of the people, based in a lot of accents and melodies. What is jazz but music that people danced to? Jazz has the dynamic thing. I don't think you have to be playing only Charlie Parker licks on your horn or whatever the new version of that is.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Accents
Charlie
Jazz
Music Your People
Music People New
Based
Version
Danced
Dynamic
Horn
Melodies
Parker
Recognized
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When you do a lyric for 'April in Paris,' those who have heard it before can hear it in a different way now. It can add perspective to a great piece of music that does not have a lyric and may be inaccessible to lot of ears because people don't deal with complex music very well.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Add
April
Different
Ears
Inaccessible
Perspective
Before
Music Great People
Complex
Deal
Different Way
Hear
Lyric
Piece
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Music - special magic that communicates feelings and sensitivities that are human and what is so wonderful about the art. Let your kids get involved in the arts and study this workshop of human sensitivities, sadness, joy, happiness and aware of sadness and joy and happiness in their lives.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Sadness
Workshop
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I was singing doo-wop on the corner under the streetlight with four other guys when it wasn't called doo-wop. We just got together and sang, so that music is inside of me. It's a lot of stuff that has been rolling around in here and becoming this compost and has made me who I am as a singer.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Rolling
Music Together Me
Corner
Sang
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I don't know how much more what I've done is any more important than what Ella Fitzgerald did. Ella crossed those lines, as did George Benson before me. There've been lots of people who brought a pop audience to jazz because they were able to link the two and give people easy access to the world of jazz.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Easy Access
Jazz
Done World Me
World Me People
Crossed
Ella
Fitzgerald
George
Link
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I still have a pretty lively audience in German and across Europe. And I continue to say, 'Thank you, God,' for making me smart enough to avoid getting hit by trucks and going out and finding myself an audience abroad. Which includes Asia - from Jakarta to Japan. Working hard at finding an audience abroad.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Thank You
Asia
Europe
Japan
Lively
Smart
God Myself Me
Abroad
Across
German
Avoid
Hit
Finding
Thank
Trucks
Working Hard
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I'm touched by the Beatles. I want some of the music I do to reflect that. Here I am. I love Sly Stone and James Brown and Stevie Wonder, and I want my music to reflect some of that. Here I am. I'm touched by Jon Hendricks. I want some of my music to reflect that. And when I write, you're going to hear it.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Sly
Touched
Love Music I Am
Jon
Stevie
James
Reflect
Stevie Wonder
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The Metropole Orchestra is like Count Basie or Duke Ellington with strings... it's strings that swing. Strings that swing like Dizzy Gillespie... keep swinging, baby. And when you have all of that special excellence of the Metropole Orchestra, then your music just flies - it soars in a way that's really magical.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Dizzy
Excellence
Orchestra
Strings
Count
Duke
Magical
Soars
Swing
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I work 'cause I have to pay the bills. But I also work 'cause I love it. I don't know what I'd do with me if I didn't have this work. It's what I've done all my life. It's my motivation. It's my satisfaction. It's my joy to stand in front of an audience to sing, to come back home and write songs. Man, it's amazing for me.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Bills
Satisfaction
Life Love Work
All My Life
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Since the beginning of my recording career in 1975, I have had a little difficulty because the pop stations think I'm a jazzer who doesn't have a feeling for pop, so it's hard to get my records played. Similarly, black urban radio doesn't understand that with my R&B roots, I am more than a jazz singer. So I get pigeonholed.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Difficulty
Jazz
Roots
Stations
Urban
Jazz Singer
Pigeonholed
Recording
Similarly
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What I try to get beyond is playing music at people and, instead, to play music with people because audience members are constantly part of the experience. What they say in their body language, what they say in their eyes, what they sing with me... it's an 'us,' and there's a communication that's like... it's like church, man.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Communication
Body Language
Audience Members
Play Music
They Say
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I think being a little older and a little more determined and being a little more evolved in my case and maturity in the kind of music I was doing and how I was doing it really helped to keep me grounded and with an audience that could appreciate what I was doing, who grew with me and evolved with me and kept me alive and around.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Determined
Grounded
Maturity
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You pray for things and accept the blessings when they come, you know? And it is about how you talk to yourself and what you say morning, noon and night about what you want to happen in your life. Some folks call that creative visualization. Other people call it prayer. But it is about that message that you send out there to yourself.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Creative
Folks
Night
Noon
Visualization
Pray
Talk
Accept
Blessings
Call
Happen
Pray For
Send
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It's joyful in that there's another point of view on all things, you know, not just mine. That's why I like to write and collaborate with people. There's another point of view, and when those two things come together, and people work at it really hard, they get something that is the whole is more than the sum of - is that how you say that?
Al Jarreau / Singer
All Things
Joyful
Point Of View
Sum
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I discovered is that I have a couple of valves that were leaky and had been giving, gave me a problem then. But I hadn't noticed anything up until then.A couple of incidents of shortness of breath and checked myself into a hospital, but that one in France really sat me down for a few minutes - a very few minutes, because seven days later I was in the studio, and eight days later, I was no the stage.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Couple
Eight
Giving
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Let that get you up in the morning and put the light in your eyes. I'm telling you, it makes you a better husband, mother, father, neighbor, citizen, when you have that light in your eye, that you feel so good, and you're a pleasant person to be around. "Good morning, sir. Did you find everything that you need? Oh, that's over in aisle seven. I'll come help you as soon as," that's the stuff. Find something. It could be planting flowers, especially if you can watch it.
Al Jarreau / Singer
Morning
Husband
Mother
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Al Jarreau Quotes - Page 2

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