Bobby McFerrin’s new disc is a complete revamp of a capella in jazz, dragging it away from the finger clicking parodies of the Swingle Singers, via Manhattan Transfer into something edgier, larger and more contemporary. McFerrin is universally known for Don’t Worry Be Happy and, occasionally, for his version of McCartney’s ‘Blackbird’. But since those quite early pieces he has established an incredible record of moving around in both the classical and jazz traditions to work them both into a new synthesis. Of course it helps if you have a four octave range, immense charisma, and the general demeanour of a genially mischievous beat-boxer.
On this disc, McFerrin explores the range of unaccompanied choir from church traditions through ‘African’ call and response, to the glee club. The standout track here is the lovely ‘Say Ladeo’, in which a traditional ballad moves between a gentle tapping beat through exquisite slow passages in which solo soprano voices float over repeated bass patterns to return to the beat. McFerrin is an inveterate explorer of dynamics and knows exactly where and when to lower the volume and move the basses against the higher voices. Nor is he afraid to move from the large ensemble to focus more closely on one or two voices.
The third track, Wailers, is the most ‘African’ of the pieces here. The voices scat a range of syllables with the tenors answering the more open-throated calling of the altos. The bass lines are far more percussive and a driving pulse is kept up through the whole track. On this track, the singers are pushed along by Weather Report’s Alex Acuna on percussion, not that they need it. Just when you feel that this might be the sound track to ‘Big Cat Africa’, there is a lovely modulation into something more Middle Eastern helped by the presence of the duduk – a Middle Eastern oboe. The track was accomplished with the help of ‘2,500 Audience members from Bergen, Norway’. They must have had huge fun that night – and all had perfect pitch, it seems.
This exotic feel is further developed on ‘Message’ an eleven minute piece that takes in Latin, Sanskrit, Mandarin, all moved through melodies that are both poised and thrilling. McFerrin’s take on the story of Adam and Eve comes in ‘The Garden’, and a jollier versoin of the Fall, it would be hard to imagine. The disc ends with the beautiful ‘Brief Eternity’ which is closest to the European classical choir tradition, but with a warmth and swing all of its own.
Ian Pople