At 60, Bobby McFerrin finds his music just flows effortlessly - San Jose Mercury News
sound design and formal composition. It's the
At 60, Bobby McFerrin
finds his music just flows
effortlessly
By Richard Scheinin
rscheinin@mercurynews.com
Posted: 04/03/2010 12:00:00 AM PDT
The music on vocalist Bobby McFerrin's new CD,
"VOCAbuLarieS," is dream-world stuff. It floats and
spins, a choir of voices as a chiffon sound tapestry,
blowing about, shimmering and shimmying —
delicate and complex, beating like a heart, or
glowing like a jellyfish in the dark.
The music has been meticulously sculpted in the
studio; exactly how McFerrin will re-create its
intricacies for live audiences is hard to say. Still, the
one-time San Franciscan — he now lives in
Philadelphia — is taking it on tour, beginning
Saturday at the Masonic Center in San Francisco,
where he performs his new music with the voices of
the Berkeley-based Pacific Mozart Ensemble: "It is
difficult, but doable," he says, laughing. "Whatever's
written down on paper is going to be what we do."
McFerrin, a 10-time Grammy winner, turned 60 in
March, and "VOCAbuLarieS" encapsulates much of
what he has been about through the years. It offers
the spontaneity of jazz, the gloss of pop, the
extended compositional techniques of classical
choral music. It oozes through R&B and samba
grooves, African chant and raga, as well as lyrics
sung in Latin, Sanskrit, Zulu, Spanish, Hebrew,
Gaelic — even a language invented by McFerrin.
What's different here is that the music — years in
the making — is essentially an exercise in studio
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antithesis, really, of the improvised solo events that
are at the heart of McFerrin's art.
"I'm used to hearing a piece only once," he says, by
phone from Toronto, where he had performed a
cappella the night before. "It's like a firefly or a
butterfly that lives for 24 hours — or like those sand
paintings that the Tibetan monks do. They create
this meticulously time-consuming thing, and then
it's completely destroyed. That's what a solo concert
is like."
"VOCAbuLarieS," on the other hand, is an act of
artifice: One hears McFerrin's improvisational DNA
pulsing through its seven lengthy tracks, but that's b
ecause there are some tricks involved. Elegant
tricks, intricate and beautiful, but, still — tricks.
The magician behind the curtain is Roger Treece, a
bass singer in McFerrin's 12-member vocal
ensemble known as Voicestra. Also a composer and
arranger, he was charged with poring through
hundreds of hours of archival recordings of that
group and of McFerrin singing in other
circumstances.
Treece searched out the essential musical cells that
crop up in McFerrin's improvised performances: the
recurring melodic threads, vocal gestures and
inflections that are true "McFerrinisms." Gradually,
he embellished, varied and layered them, using
them as building blocks for his own extended
arrangements and compositions.
He had help in the studio, including from R&B
singers Lisa Fischer and Bernard Fowler; Brazilian
jazz singer Luciana Souza; Janis Siegel of Manhattan
Transfer; the New York Voices; members of the
Voicestra — and McFerrin. "I'd just go in the studio
and improvise on a lot of things," he remembers.
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At 60, Bobby McFerrin finds his music just flows effortlessly - San Jose Mercury News
"And Roger would say, 'I'm looking for a new bass
line in this section,' and he'd put 36 bars on a
loop."
The album emerged from more than 1,000 hours of
studio time, with Treece editing and sculpting the
finished performances from more than 1,400 vocal
tracks.
"Meticulous work," McFerrin calls it. "It's one of the
reasons it took eight years to finish. Plus, the two of
us are a couple of goofballs. We spent a lot of time
laughing."
The completed works "are going to demand serious
attention, in performance and in listening," he says.
"San Francisco is the first performance" — the show
is presented by SFJazz, as part of its spring season
— "and then we'll take it on tour, using a different
choir each time."
Don't be surprised if McFerrin finds a way to have
the audience participate in the show. An
experimenter, not a script follower, he follows his
instincts and interests. He has scored pop hits (i.e.
"Don't Worry Be Happy," from 1988), conducted
major orchestras (San Francisco Symphony, London
Philharmonic) and collaborated with the likes of
cellist Yo-Yo Ma, jazz pianist Chick Corea and
comedian Robin Williams.
He knows how to have serious fun and, probably
because of that, his audience is "6 to 96, and all
colors, shapes and sizes," he says. "I think it's
because I do so many kinds of things. I don't just
sing classical music all night, or I don't just sing
jazz pieces."
The son of singers Sara Cooper and Robert
McFerrin, a baritone with New York's Metropolitan
Opera, Bobby McFerrin has often spoken about his
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lifelong immersion in voice and song.
His own three children, all born in San Francisco,
have been similarly immersed: "I just did a concert
in Princeton, N.J., and my daughter" — Madison, age
18 — "was in the audience. And I always ask for
singers to come up and join me, and she flew down
and came up on stage with me. We did a Beatles
song together, 'I Want You (She's So Heavy).' The
stage is like my second home. I'm very comfortable
up there, and I can see that that's starting to happen
for her, too."
McFerrin notices his own evolution, as well.
"I'm noticing that I'm singing softer and softer. My
voice is getting quieter. I still have the four-octave
range, but I'm finding that I don't have to push
anything out anymore. It just comes out on its own."
And he finds that his art has "gotten better over the
years. In the beginning, improvisation was
completely frightening, and I would try to
manipulate things. Now I just basically watch things
more as they develop.
"I listen to old tapes of myself now, and I barely
recognize myself," McFerrin continues. "Things
sound a little bit more thought out, logical. And
now I allow myself to be messy; it's OK if my voice
cracks. I just let it be. I just kind of leave it alone
and wait for something else to happen.
"I used to react too quickly. I would worry that the
audience would think I was staying on one thing too
long, and so I'd force it to another place."
McFerrin is rolling along now, in storytelling mode.
"You know, I was just in New York, and my friend
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At 60, Bobby McFerrin finds his music just flows effortlessly - San Jose Mercury News 4/3/10 9:14 AM

Chick, Chick Corea, was playing with Roy Haynes,

the drummer, at the Blue Note. So I went and sat
during the sound check with Roy and the band, and
I was marveling at the ease with which Chick plays.
It's just astounding.

"And I was beginning to recognize something about

myself in that — I just turned 60 a few weeks ago,
and I'm getting to the point where there's just such a
casualness about everything. And that's a good way
to be.

"It's very relaxed, a very relaxed entry into music.

There's nothing disturbing. There are no troubled
waters. It's like a morning mist on a pond."

Contact Richard Scheinin at 408-920-5069.

Bobby McFerrin
Performing "VOCAbuLarieS"
With the Pacific Mozart Ensemble
When: 8 p.m. Saturday
Where: Nob Hill Masonic Center, 1111 California
St., San Francisco
Tickets: $25-$85; 866-920-5299, www.sfjazz.org

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