Jazz vocalist Al Jarreau celebrates his 75th birthday today, not letting age get to him as he performs at events such as the forthcoming International Jazz Day celebration being staged by UNESCO in Paris. Jarreau is one of those greats who has stood the test of time yet doesn't get nearly enough attention because he rose to prominence just after the genre started to lose its popularity. Herbie Hancock released Head Hunters, the second best-selling jazz album of all time, in 1973, while Jarreau didn't release his first solo LP until 1975 with We Got By (despite having been working in music since the early '60s). It's never too late to get familiar however. Music Times assembled five points of reference to start with.
Six No. 1 Jazz Albums
Perhaps jazz as a whole had lost some of its luster on the mainstream charts, but that's why genres get their own charts: to show us who's hot within individual branches of music. Jarreau landed six no. 1 jazz albums during his career, including a hot stretch from 1978-'84 where every album he dropped fell into the no. 1 or no. 2 slot. His self-titled Jarreau would become the highest placer on the actual Billboard 200, coming in at no. 13 overall. Any one of these is worth looking up, but we personally pull for his earliest trio of no. 1 records: This Time (1980), Breakin' Away (1981) and Jarreau (1983). Other albums that reached the peak are Heart's Horizon (1988), Tomorrow Today (2000) and his 2006 collaborative effort with guitarist George Benson, Givin' It Up.
"Moonlighting (theme)" (1987)
One of the ways more mainstream listeners discovered Jarreau during the '80s was thanks to his work on the television program Moonlighting, for which he wrote the lyrics for and performed the show's theme song. The detective show hit the air during 1985 and quickly became popular as one of the first "dramadies," a combination of drama and comedy, thanks to the now unbelievable cast of Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd. The show became so popular that ABC opted to finally release the theme as a single during 1987, where it peaked at no. 23 on the Hot 100 and at no. 1 on the Adult Contemporary chart. The latter achievement is relevant because it would be the only time any one of Jarreau's song performances would reach the top spot on any chart.
"We're In This Love Together" (1981)
Jarreau's first track to break the threshold of the Hot 100 would also end up being the highest he ever managed to get a song to chart on that list, peaking at no. 15. Jarreau came to fame during the "crossover jazz" period, where performers from the jazz fusion age grabbed listeners by running parallel to other, more popular genres such as R&B and funk. You can hear the jazz in the trumpets of Chuck Findley and Jerry Hey, but you don't expect them to diverge into a hard-bop solo excursion. The influence of funk comes out, of course, in the bass. You can interpret what you want from Jarreau's vocals but it's no secret that his silk-smooth vocals make for the best romantic soundtrack, regardless of what genre you tie it to.
"So Good" (1988)
Having listened to a few tracks from Jarreau now, you can understand why some listeners might consider Jarreau as primarily an R&B performer, and there's no reason to blame them. It helps their argument that there's no real chart for tracking jazz songs, so prior to Jarreau landing on the Hot 100 for the first time with "We're In This Love Together," his first six singles had landed exclusively on the R&B chart. The highest he ever got with the rhythm 'n' blues crowd was during 1988 with another romantic smash, "So Good," which peaked at no. 2 on the chart. Part of the appeal in that song and its album Heart's Horizon were the tenets of "quiet storm" that featured prominently in the vocalist's music. Anita Baker and others rode the subgenre to no. 1 on the Billboard 200 during 1988.
"Mornin'" (1982)
Jarreau has always been known for his sunny disposition versus his bluesy delivery, so it's not so surprising that "Mornin'" was one of his biggest hits, and not just in the United States. At this point he had gotten across the pond (to the UK...easy to get confused considering he lived in San Francisco at the time of recording). This was his second-highest charting song on the Official Charts Company's UK Singles Chart, landing at no. 28. The only number that would ever beat that was, again, "Moonlighting," which came in at no. 8 during the show's peak popularity.
