Al Jarreau Quotes

“Once you discover that you can, you must.”

— Al Jarreau

“Before I get out of bed, I am saying thank you. I know how important it is to be thankful.”

— Al Jarreau

“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

“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

“Music is such a balm. Always has been. It's such a heartbeat, like blood thrumming through the womb. That's why music appeals to people.”

— Al Jarreau

“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

“The work must be its own reward. I got that early on. And I'm blessed by meeting my own standards of excellence.”

— Al Jarreau

“It's a wonderful thing to have life and to look at all this creation and say thank you. I even say it on stage.”

— Al Jarreau

“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

“I want to give the audience the whole package, and for me, the whole package is to give them something fresh as well. It's not as much fun resting on your laurels.”

— Al Jarreau

“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

“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

“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

“I've been saying for almost 20 years that I need to do a jazz project and it ought to be either big band or I should do some jazz songs with a trio or quartet.”

— Al Jarreau

“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

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

“We are just fanatics about using the technology to make it all wonderful. We laughed at the fact that we were having such a great time working this way.”

— Al Jarreau

I really do see it as the start of the second half of my career.

— Al Jarreau

“I was really learning my craft as a jazz singer and working with some great players and all, really growing and feeling my wings.”

— Al Jarreau

“Jazz told people about the special music that came out of America and about America in general and this kind of liberty and freedom that we have.”

— Al Jarreau

“More live recording. I have missed the boat over my career by not doing every second or third CD live because things happen onstage that don't happen in the studio.”

— Al Jarreau

“That's the way I try to live. I think it's the only way for human beings at this point in our evolution as souls, where everyone in their lifetime is going through stuff.”

— Al Jarreau

“I am inspired by all kinds of players and singers.”

— Al Jarreau

“I can't imagine a more ideal life.”

— Al Jarreau

“I have been with the record company and Tommy was there doing records with other people.”

— Al Jarreau

“I love connecting with the audience, and there's more ways than one to do that.”

— Al Jarreau

“I love Sly Stone and James Brown and Stevie Wonder, and I want my music to reflect some of that.”

— Al Jarreau

I'm saved every day by the intrinsic value of the work I do, which I truly enjoy.

— Al Jarreau

“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

“I don't know where we got the notion that God wants us to suffer. Every living thing tends toward the good or we would have been gone a long time ago.”

— Al Jarreau

“It's always been about making music. I've never gotten caught up with the trappings. You can't get caught up in the limousines and the chicks. The most important thing is the music.”

— Al Jarreau

“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

I say what's on my mind and have a good time. I try to give people a show. It's all about giving people a good time once you get out under those lights.

— Al Jarreau

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

“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

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

“I know more polkas than Frankie Yankovic. I grew up next door to the Polka Tavern in Milwaukee. I can sing some polkas. And proud of that.”

— Al Jarreau

“To sing the ballad with a knowingness about what you are talking about. If it's somebody else's lyric, and the message is a little unusual for you, it requires that you learn that new message.”

— Al Jarreau

“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

“Every day is Thanksgiving.On this stage you're going to hear God and none of them other words, and I ain't going to touch my stuff.”

— Al Jarreau

“My dad graduated seminary there, and so did (sounds like) Mark Kimball's grandfather. They sang in a quartet together, my dad and Mark Kimball's grandfather.”

— Al Jarreau

I watched Elvis Presley become - I listened to Elvis Presley. I watched Chuck Berry become. I listened to Little Richard. I heard that music, and it was part of my upbringing.

— Al Jarreau

“It's all background experience and listening and exposure. That's why it's so important for people today and during any time to expose your children to lots of different kinds of things.”

— Al Jarreau

“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

I did a concert at five years old in the garden of one of the church members, and we raised some money to buy a new piano in our little church.

— Al Jarreau

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

“I came here with something in me that I inherited from my folks. So I'm going to do something called life and times.”

— Al Jarreau

“I'm walking every day and just staying kind of fit, and try not to have too many bad habits. Keep it minimal.”

— Al Jarreau

“I think a singer is an athlete. I've always tried to stay fit. Until my knee said, "Uh-uh," I was jogging. Then I started walking. They don't like walking a lot, but I'll push them.”

— Al Jarreau

“Jazz brought this sense of democracy where four guys come together and your name may be on the marquee, but in this moment, when you're the soloist, it's you, and we follow you. We follow you.”

— Al Jarreau