By Levi Wright
Today, the world mourns the passing of renowned jazz/R&B/pop talent Al Jarreau. Jarreau, 76, won seven Grammy Award-winning songs from a career that spanned across genres.
The University of Iowa alum may have been best-known for the album Breakin’ Away. His unique jazz style delivered a passionate feel through sound, crafting a kind of music that stirs up hope. Listening to his music creates a feeling like you know who he is. He never felt like he was performing in a booth, even on recording — each time you listened to one of his songs, it was its own performance, from him, for you.
“When he did sing straight through a ballad, Jarreau emotionally inhabited a song,” wrote Aaron Cohen in the Chicago Tribune. Jarreau’s music embodies the very essence of who he was. His performances were one of a kind and will be greatly missed around the world.
At 76, Jarreau was still active touring up until a few weeks ago, when he was hospitalized for exhaustion, the New York Times wrote.
Jarreau began singing at the age of 4 at local events in his hometown and performed with his family in church concerts. He went on to study psychology at Ripon College in Wisconsin, where he graduated with a B.S. While at Ripon, Jarreau sang with a group called the Indigos, unable to give up his passion for music.
Jarreau had a passion for helping others, as well, which can be seen throughout his career.
Before he fully pursued a musical career, he obtained a master’s in vocational rehabilitation at UI, to which he returned over the years for vacation and performances — the most recent of which in 2014 as part of the Iowa Soul Festival.
After graduating and leaving Iowa, he arrived in Los Angeles pursuing a career in rehabilitation counseling.
Finally, in the late-60s, Jarreau made music his primary focus when he took up a job at Dino’s, a well-known LA nightclub. He never stopped helping people, though, as his music became the medium through which he administered his own brand of therapy.
“Look, look, look to the rainbow. Follow it over the hill and stream. Look, look, look to the rainbow. Follow the fellow who follows a dream. Follow the fellow, follow the fellow, follow the fellow who follows a dream,” Al Jarreau writes in “Look to the Rainbow.”
“[Al Jarreau’s] second priority in life was music. There was no third. His first priority, far ahead of the other, was healing or comforting anyone in need,” Jarreau’s media team wrote on his website. “Whether it was emotional pain, or physical discomfort, or any other cause of suffering, he needed to put our minds at ease and our hearts at rest.”
