April 5, 2005

Musical phenomenon Bobby McFerrin, ten-time Grammy Award winner, will give a spectacular solo performance at UCSB Campbell Hall

Summary Facts:

• Bobby McFerrin
• McFerrin is one of the world’s best-known vocal innovators and improvisers
• His recordings have sold over 20 million copies
• Sunday, May 15 / 7 pm
• UCSB Campbell Hall
• General public: $50 / UCSB students: $20
• Tickets/information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535

Ten-time Grammy-winner Bobby McFerrin, one of the natural wonders of the music world, will perform a solo concert on Sunday, May 15 at 7 pm at UCSB Campbell Hall. McFerrin is an incredibly talented vocal innovator and improviser, a renowned classical conductor, and the creator of one of the most popular songs of the late 20th century. With a four-octave range and a vast array of vocal techniques, McFerrin is no mere singer; he is a vocal explorer who has combined jazz, folk and a multitude of world music influences—choral, a cappella, and classical music—with his own ingredients. The Los Angeles Times writes, “Bobby McFerrin’s greatest gift to his audience may be changing them from spectators into celebrants and transforming a concert hall into a playground, a village center, a joyous space.”

McFerrin, who first became enamored of the idea of working solo after watching Keith Jarrett’s solo piano shows, explains, “I don’t particularly care for straight jazz blowing anymore. I’ve gotten into the music of Africa and other countries: folk tunes. In fact, I’d rather be called a folk singer than a jazz singer because it’s the music I listen to, music of the folk villages. There’s simplicity, there’s brevity, there’s sincerity. I like giving my listener something to hang into. Something that they can easily slip into. I’m more attracted now to simplicity. I’m not a tenor sax. I’m not a jazz singer. I’m a singer who loves folk melodies and simplicity.”

Born to opera singer parents in New York in 1950, where his father, Robert McFerrin, Sr. was the first African-American male soloist at the Metropolitan Opera, Bobby and his family moved to Hollywood when McFerrin Sr. was hired to be the singing voice for Sidney Poitier in Porgy and Bess. McFerrin’s first love was the clarinet, but he switched to the piano when braces forced the aspiring reedman to abandon his first beloved instrument. McFerrin went on to form the Bobby Mack Quartet in high school followed by a stint as a pianist in a lounge band.

In 1977, McFerrin started to test his skill as a vocalist, and in 1978, he started singing with the group Astral Project and then toured with jazz vocal pioneer Jon Hendricks. He also met jazz vocalist turned music entrepreneur Linda Goldstein, who has been his manager and often producer since 1979. McFerrin and Goldstein conspired to develop his innovative and decidedly non-conventional career as a solo vocalist. Bill Cosby arranged for his 1980 performance at the Playboy Jazz Festival, and a year later McFerrin made a triumphant appearance at the Kool Jazz Festival in New York. Shortly after that, McFerrin released his first album. In 1983 he did his first tour of Europe as an unaccompanied vocalist, performing without any prepared material. Tapes of those concerts were made into the album The Voice that served notice of the arrival of a major musical talent the German critics called “Stimmwunder,” which means “wonder voice.”

With a comedian’s sense of timing, an unrestrained zany streak, and an infectious love of every genre of music, McFerrin created a new kind of concert—not a “performance” but a communal sharing and celebration of music. At the same time, he began a wide range of collaborations, winning his first Grammy in 1985 for “Another Night in Tunisia” with the Manhattan Transfer. Further Grammy Awards came for Bernard Tavernier’s ’Round Midnight (1986) and How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin, with Jack Nicholson in 1987.

By 1988, he had taken his unaccompanied improvisations from the Hollywood Bowl to Carnegie Hall. He then released Simple Pleasures, his homage to the music of the 1960s. A joyous ditty created in the recording studio became the phenomenal hit “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” Simple Pleasures was nominated for a Grammy for Album of the Year, while the single won both Record of the Year and Song of the Year awards. It might just as well have been named Song of the Decade, as “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” hit the #1 spot on pop charts around the globe.

Given this taste of superstardom, McFerrin seemed to suddenly switch gears. Instead of seizing upon the deluge of offers for concerts, he decided to begin a serious study of conducting, including lessons with Leonard Bernstein, Gustav Meier and Seiji Ozawa. The enthusiasm, infectious joy, and virtuosity that characterize his solo performances have made McFerrin a successful communicator in the classical music world as well. In 1990, Bobby McFerrin was given the opportunity to conduct the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. By 1994, McFerrin had been named creative director of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

In recent years, he has combined his love of improvisation with his conducting skills, extending his vocal journeys to larger groups of singers—whether trained or not. McFerrin’s solo concerts have always included audience participation; McFerrin sees them not as “sing-alongs” but as a genuine collaborative process of making music in the moment. He’s also developed that idea in more sophisticated settings with his longtime vocal ensemble Voicestra on the albums Medicine Music and Circlesongs.

Bobby McFerrin is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and sponsored by the Goleta Valley Voice, KCBX Public Radio and the Best Western—South Coast Inn. Tickets are $50 for the general public and $20 for UCSB students who must show valid ID at ticket purchase and the evening of the show.

For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.

Editor: For photos, please call
Susan Gwynne at (805) 893-2098.