DCist Preview: Bobby McFerrin @ Birchmere
Bobby McFerrin, photo by Stewart Cohen
And a Bobby McFerrin performance is so much more than a concert.
"Joy. That's always what I hope for," McFerrin said of what he tries to bring to his live audiences.
The 60-year-old McFerrin's musical journey starts with the influence of his father, Robert McFerrin, Sr., the first African-American soloist with New York's famed Metropolitan Opera. The younger McFerrin spent the early part of his career in the family business as a journeyman pianist, and was captivated by keyboardist Keith Jarrett's entirely improvised solo performances. In the late 1970s, McFerrin began a six-year effort to create a method for improvised solo vocal performance, the format in which he began performing in 1983.
"I didn't really know what solo voice sounded like," McFerrin said. "My task was sort of to find a way of allowing the audience a way to hear the music, harmony, and rhythm."
Solo performance has become McFerrin's signature path of musical expression, and he will be appearing solo for two shows this week at the Birchmere. Using his body as a percussive instrument to support his four octave vocal range, McFerrin plays a mix of familiar tunes and improvisations, but does not plan anything in advance. He also invites the crowd to actively participate in his exploration.
"Everyone has a secret desire to be an actor, artist, musician, or whatever," said McFerrin. "I appeal to that part, that sense of adventure."
McFerrin feels that he has hit his stride as a solo performer. So while he continues his myriad collaborations, the majority of his appearances are now solo.
"Just in the last couple of years have I begun to understand what solo voice means to me," McFerrin explained. "Solo voice was the tree trunk of everything else I was doing."
His solo concerts are also leading McFerrin on a new path in terms of his recording career. VOCAbuLarieS, McFerrin's forthcoming release, is a collaboration with composer/arranger Roger Treece. Treece went through McFerrin's voluminous archival recordings to tease out improvised ideas around which he could base full-blown compositions. Dozens of vocalists, in a variety of genres, were then brought into the studio. Recorded one at a time or in small groups, Treece and McFerrin meticulously assembled a virtual choir of over 1,400 voices to create the soundscapes for VOCAbuLarieS.
"[The songs] represent sort of different cultural sounds," McFerrin said. "I wouldn't say one tune is Indian and another tune is Spanish, but they have different cultural languages."
Bobby McFerrin, with Sam & Ruby opening, will perform 7:30 p.m. shows at the Birchmere on Wednesday and Thursday, March 17 and 18, 2010. Tickets are $65 + fees. VOCAbuLarieS is due out April 6, 2010.