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or years hes sung mostly songs without words, or in improvised languages o his own invention, as i mere words wereinadequate to express what was in his head and heart. Now, 11 years afer releasing an album titled Beyond Words

and afer many albums in which ormal lyrics were the exception, Bobby McFerrin has returned to singing the type osongs in which the lyrics are as essential as the music, with words that express his deepest yearnings: spirituals.

On the exhilarating new album spirityouall(Sony Masterworks), he has reinvented seven clas-sic Negro spirituals and composed ve new songs.Tere is also one cover, a moody, searching versiono Bob Dylans I Shall Be Released. Te songs,McFerrin writes in the albums liner notes, arebased in my Christian aith but acknowledge andreect the spirit oYOUALL, wherever your partic-ular aith and journeys may take you.

Te album represents another signicantdeparture: Afer many discs in which McFerrinexpanded his musical palette to incorporate styles

beyond jazz and pop, including classical, MiddleEastern, Arican and Indian, his new oering is, inthe truest sense o the word, Americana. It embrac-es olk songs, country blues, swampy blues rock,and church music o both the Arican-Americanand Anglo variety. And there are two bluegrass-a-

vored tunes, including Rest, an irresistible hoe-down in 11/8. Despite plenty o jazzy grooves andchanges, as well as some typically inventive andacrobatic scat-singing, this album is not about jazz.Its about the songsthe aith, courage and wis-dom embodied in the spirituals, which are, afer all,a uniquely American invention. McFerrin exploresthis tradition with joy and reverence.

Te album also honors the legacy o his ather,

the great baritone Robert McFerrin Sr., the rstArican-American to sing a leading role at the

Metropolitan Opera House; he also dubbedthe singing voice o Sidney Poitier as Porgy inHollywoods version o Porgy And Bess. In 1957,the elder McFerrin recorded Deep River, an albumo classic spirituals that he learned rom the amedchoral conductor Hall Johnson.

Bobby McFerrin has previously recorded andperormed with Chick Corea, Yo-Yo Ma andYellowjackets, among many others. But or thisproject he has assembled a band he can call hisown, with the help o arranger and co-produc-er Gil Goldstein, who plays keyboards and accor-

dion throughout. Actually there are two bands,one on the album and one or the tour, both led byGoldstein and both impressive. On the recording,the group includes Esperanza Spalding, who singsand plays bass, alternating with Larry Grenadier;Ali Jackson and Charley Drayton on drums; andLarry Campbell, who delivers exceptional peror-mances on acoustic and resonator guitars, ddle,pedal steel, mandolin and cittern.

Te touring band, meanwhile, includesGoldstein and other top-shel players: DavidManseld on assorted strings, Armand Hirsch onacoustic and electric guitar, Louis Cato on drumsand percussion, and the 30-year McFerrin veteranJe Carney on upright bass. McFerrin, who started

out in 1979 as a singer/pianist, plays keyboards onone track and, as the spirit moves him, in concert.

Beore McFerrin arrived on the scene, therewere jazz singers, there were singer-songwriters,there were scat singers and there were band sing-ers. But when he rose to prominence in the early80s, his our-octave range and uncanny ability tosing all the parts o a tune simultaneouslybass,melody, harmony and percussioninstantly puthim in a category by himsel. Stil l, he was mostly a

jazz phenomenon until 1988, when Dont Worry,Be Happy became the rst a cappella song ever toreach No. 1 on the op 40 charts, winning threeGrammys, including Record o the Year. What may

have struck some initially as a kind o jazz vocalnovelty actthe beatboxing, radio dial ddling,backwards guitar eects, muted trumpet, gargling,and kazoo sounds, all o which were in evidenceon his 1984 solo tour de orce Te Voicewas justthe initial ash o an exploding talent that has sincethen radiated more proound musical inventionand joy in singing.

Goong around at a soundcheck at LongIslands Adelphi University recently, the athlet-ic McFerrin, 63, bounds around the stage like akid in a playground. Dressed in jeans and a char-coal sweater, he looks like a man in his orties. Agrandmaster o microphone techniques, he scatsand makes various sound eects (cars, trains, toy

trumpets). He uses his torso as a drum, requent-ly striking his upper chest just below the claviclea

Bobby McFerrin

By Allen MorrisonS Photography by Adam McCullough

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ostge tthe adelphiuiversitPerformigarts ceteri Grdecit, n.y.,o april 16

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trademark percussive technique that accompanieshis vocals. Warming up with the great gospel songEvery ime, he interrupts himsel to emit a high-pitched bark at a little dog sitting in a visitors lap inthe ront row. He goes back to scatting, his ngersplying imaginary holes in the microphone.

Backstage in his dressing room, eating a plateo strawberries and kiwi slices, he reected on hismusical journey, speaking in quiet, even tones so asnot to tax his voice beore the nearly two-hour con-cert he would deliver.

DowBet: Spirius r vius vr ipr- pr f ur i usi ii.t u ur risip i s sgs, i bi.

Bobb MFerri: My ather had a deeper rela-tionship with them. But I love these pieces, and Ilove what these songs say. Tey say it simply, beau-tiully. Sometimes its very dicult to sing them

because a lot o them came rom slavery. But a songlike Every ime I Feel Te Spirit is a wonderulreminder or me to pray. Sometimes I use them asprayers. And when I sing them, I mean them. Imnot just being a singer singing a song, trying toentertain people. In act, the diculty or me is try-ing to get the ocus away rom me and onto the piec-es. Being a perormer on stage, everybodys lookingat you and thinking about you as a perormer. A loto times, they dont think about what youre actual-ly singing about. So my diculty with these piecesin a concert setting is making sure that God gets theglory and I dont.

Teres always a special moment or me inevery perormance thats unique and authen-tic. Te spirituals are authentic pieces o music. Ican remember when I was a kid, probably about8 years old, my ather was studying these spiritu-als with Hall Johnson, who did arrangements osome o them. His grandmother was a slave. So he

heard them sung in the genuine renditions: howthe phrasing went, the pronunciation o the words,stretching and singing over the bar lines. I can seeHall Johnson leaning over my ather at the pianoand teaching him how to sing these pieces. So myather got the authentic sounds down into his voice,the authentic eeling. He sang them with deep, deepeeling. He meant every single word that he sang.He always ended his recitals with a set o spirituals.I went to many o them, and at some o them mymother was my dads accompanist.

Is r fi rrigs f ur fr sig-ig spirius, u is sigig surk fPorgy and bes gifi.

Best baritone ever, as ar as Im concerned. Richtone, very round. Whenever I work with choirs, Ialways go or his sound. I try to get them to singwith that rich, warm tone that my ather had.

as i, i u r u su?

No, I dont think I ever tried to sound like mydad. In perormances I do sing in an operatic voice

rom time to time, just as a orm o entertain-mentsing the baritone, the soprano.

di u v fig r f prs ur r?

Oh, I knew it right o. Instinctively, I justthought, Oh, this is lovely, its wonderul, my dadsgreat at it, but its not or me. I knew that in myteens. I started playing in bands when I was 14, andgot into jazz when I graduated rom high school.

w ki f sgs r u pig gs 14 18?

Wed do op 40 things at high school dances;anything that was on the radio. We played 96

ears [imitates organ rif] Dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee. We played House O Te RisingSun by Te Animals; we even did Bob DylansLike A Rolling Stone. I was in three bands. I hadmy own jazz quintet, Te Bobby Mac Jazz Quintet.And two rock bands that played the op 40, TeViscounts and Te Fascinations. Ive been a work-ing musician since I was 14 years old; were talkingalmost 50 years.

di ur prs v pii u u -ig usii?

Just be a good one.

yu i fr is u f spirius 20rs g.

Oh, at least 20 years ago. But at the time, Iwasnt thinking about including the spirituals. Iwas thinking basically about doing original mate-rial o mine. I did dierent experiments, going intothe studio with various musicians to try things out.But it just never panned out.

w?

It seemed like something was blocking it, orsome other gig opportunity would come up andmess with the timing. And also, I was just experi-mentingI think I wasnt quite ocused enough tocomplete the idea o [what became] spirityouall.

w i u g i iu sgs,

MakingspirityouallBobby McFerrinsspirityouallis an album of spirituals old and new. Co-produced by thesingers manager/producer Linda Goldstein and arranger/keyboardist Gil Goldstein (no re-lation), the album contains inventive arrangements of historic Negro spiritualssuch asJoshua Fit The Battle Of Jericho and Swing Low, Sweet Chariotalongside McFerrins original

compositions, like Gracious and Jesus Makes It Good. McFerrin, who sings much of the material

in his soulful baritone register, went into the studio with a brilliant, handpicked acoustic band that

covers a wide variety of Americana styles, including blues, folk and Appalachian fiddle sounds.

Gil Goldstein recalls that McFerrin had very specific ideas about what he didnt want. We

metBobby, me and Lindaand did a quick session together about a year before we recorded. I

had already done a couple of arrangements. I played one of them for Bobby, and he said, Um I

dont think so. Too jazzy. This is not a jazz record. I said, I just thought these would be nice changes

for you to solo on. And he says, I dont want any nice changes to solo onthats jazz. This has to

come more from the material. He also wanted everything to sound made up. I had to arrange

with an open-ended spirit so that it could seem improvised.

A mainstay of the spirityouallband is multi-instrumentalist Larry Campbell, famous for hiswork with Bob Dylan, Levon Helm and many others. McFerrin remembers an experimental first

session with the band. Theres a solo piece I wrote called 25:15. Its something I came up with

when I was trying to memorize this Bible verse. Most times, when Im trying to memorize anything,

Ill sing it. Thats how Dont Worry, Be Happy came about: I saw this phrase while walking down the

street one day in New York, and I just started singing it. Same thing. So I went into the studio and

started singing [sings], You know my eyes are ever on the Lord. Larry was there, and his ears are

incrediblehe just picked it up right away. For folk and blues, hes theguy.

The Recording Academy, which has given McFerrin 10 Grammy awards, might have a difficult

time categorizingspirityouall. Linda Goldstein says, With the previous album, VOCAbuLarieS, the

[Recording Academy] didnt know where to put it. The New Age people wanted it, and the jazz

people wanted it. Eventually they decided to put it in Best Classical Crossover. This one could be

[categorized as] Americana, it could be Folk. He is all music and every music. And he has extraordi-

nary freedom. With a lot of jazz singers, you can sort of map their licks. With Bobby, you never know

where hes going to go. He loves to play with expectation and surprise. Allen Morrison

Gil Goldstei (left) performigwith MFerri o april 16

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spirius u r grig up?

About a year ago . Im always trying to thinko the next thing that I want to do. Spirituals wasalways on the list. Ten I thought, maybe I should

just take some o the spirituals my dad did on hisrecording and just re-interpret them with a band,and see what thats like. And thats when it justseemed to work.

a s sgs vr ff i iri I vr u g fr.

Well, theyre songs with words, or one thing,which I rarely sing. I rarely spend most o the time[singing] in my chest voice, my baritone voice; itstaken me a little time to get used to that. Im stilllearning how to sing this way.

o ur 2010 u VOcaulries, sg Sl is s ris: ti fr kig rs/ t i sr. t -u is ur firs r psiz ris.

Someone once asked me why most o the time Idont sing songs with words. And I said I I sing

a song with words, everyone has the same experi-ence. But with songs without words, people bringtheir own stories to the song. And I love to impro-

vise, and with my technique, its a lot harder to singthat way with lyrics, than without. With spirituals,Im telling a story but every night I change them alittle. I like to play with the orm.

yu v ur i f ur sir i ur rr. h r u jig i?

I like it. Its un. One o the best things about itis that everybody gets a chance to play, and I getto sit back and listen or a while. You know, whenyoure onstage by yoursel, and all you hear is your-sel, its nice to add other colors. Te band providesanother color palette.

w s i ik rkig i Gi Gsi s urrrgr is u?

I gave him carte blanche: I said, Arrange themthe way you hear them. And he would. Hed comeup with something, and wed go into the studio.Hed play the arrangement, Id sing along and say,Yeah, this works, I like it. But there were otherthings I didnt like, and Id say, Gil, I dont likethis [laughs]. No, I didnt say I didnt like it; Id sayI donteelit. And he was totally easy to say that to.

wr s ari v ugrss i-fu u fr?

I wanted something like that. I wanted anall-acoustic band, a little olksy, bluegrassy, jazzycombination. I wanted a steel guitar, I wanted slide,

I wanted ddle, and Gil knew that when he was put-ting this together. Tis is the rst band o this sort Iveever worked with, with this kind o sound palette.

yu irvir ur s fiprvisi s ir ifu piisKi Jrr.

I was really moved by what Keith was doing inhis solo concerts. It was so vulnerable and so com-plete. He was going on the most private journey,

trying to stay absolutely true to the music he washearing in his head, to share that with us. I want-ed to do that, too.

S riis s prpx u vurusi s f sir jzz,i u rgur. ovius u psvr, u u ik s riis r fus-ig rg igs?

Hey, thats their job. I leave it to them to thinkand talk about what ts where, whats worthwhile,and how it all relates to each other. My job is tomake music, and the only way I know to do that isto stay true to what I hear. Ive been inuenced byall kinds o music. I I have to choose a label it wouldbe olkIm inuenced by all the olks around me,all the music Ive heard.

But o course some o my most powerul listen-ing and collaborative experiences came out o the

jazz tradition. Te rst time I heard Miles live, Ielt like my whole body had changed at a molecularlevel. Seeing Herbie Hancock and the Mwandishiband changed me, changed my whole idea o what

improvisation could be. Playing with Chick Coreais one o the joys o my lie. And I still like to playrhythm changesits exhilarating. I know there aremusicians who eel that their mission is to honorthat tradition, move it orward. Mine is somethingelse. Its not about genre at all. Its not even abouttechnical virtuosity or using the voice to map outharmonies and rhythms in ways that people didntexpect. Its about communicating. Its about joy andreedom and making stu up. DB