Jarreau Lets His Feeling Known in OCPAC Debut

COSTA MESA — One word pretty well describes pop-jazz-R&B; singer Al Jarreau: wizard.

There’s not much that Jarreau can’t do with his voice, or his body, for that matter. The youthful 56-year-old proved this once again Saturday, during his first appearance at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

He soared from basement baritone to treetop tenor in the space of a beat, offered fat, expansive notes that soon became tiny, compressed ones, wordlessly scatted like a sax player, then a bassist, then a drummer, and more.

Jarreau also cavorted about the stage, exhibiting skilled dance moves, and chatted easily with the audience between tunes. Indeed, if in his versatility and charisma he resembles any current artist, it would be Bobby McFerrin, though Jarreau has deeper jazz roots while lacking the former’s operatic training.

The singer drew his material from such albums as “Jarreau” and “Tenderness” and was backed empathetically by a tight five-piece band directed by keyboardist Neil Larsen. He opened with Elton John-Bernie Taupin’s “Your Song.” This number set the tone of the show as Jarreau revealed what a diverse, sometimes over-the-top artist he can be.

“I’m crazy,” he admitted later to the crowd of about 2,700. “I know. I do what I do.” And on “Your Song,” he did it, suddenly reducing long, expressive notes to thin strands, flawlessly shifting registers, offering a nasally voice that could have belonged to Bob Dylan and singing a few phrases in a proper English accent. There were moments of overkill, but Jarreau’s focus remained on the lyric, so that the ultimate result was not flash, but feeling.

For emotion, it was hard to top his reading of Lennon-McCartney’s “She’s Leaving Home.” Jarreau’s rendition--at first intimate, then demonstrative--communicated the drama of the song’s young protagonist (and her parents’ anguish) and the joy that would come from her “leaving home after living alone for so many years.”

On the choruses, where the song’s title is slowly stated, Jarreau’s tenor lead was surrounded by a winsome choir from bassist Ricky Miner, guitarist Charles Johnson and saxophonist-keyboardist Scott Mayo. At points, Mayo also played some choice soprano saxophone phrases.

These two tunes accented a profound Jarreau strength: an affinity for lyrical, story-driven numbers that he can mold in his own manner.

Jeremy Lubbock’s touching “Not Like This,” a tale of lovers parting without really saying goodbye, was another example of the singer’s way with melody.

Jarreau also had a good time with Stevie Wonder’s upbeat “Don’t You Worry About a Thing,” which was outfitted with a Latin-rock groove supplied with zest by drummer Mike Baker and was one of several numbers in which the willing audience was invited to sing along.

The Milwaukee native aired his jazz side with “Secret Love” and the comical “Gimme That Wine”--both done essentially as duets with bassist Miner--and with a superb offering of Paul Desmond’s “Take Five,” long a staple in the singer’s repertoire.

He began the latter with a whispered counting of the numbers 1 through 5, then he accented different numbers as if he were a drummer. He then sang the lyrics with gusto, scatted while moving his left hand as if he were fingering a horn and made up some “Thank you for coming” phrases, as “Five” was the last of the pre-encore numbers.

The first encore, “Mornin’,” and two other songs offered earlier--”Burst in With the Dawn” and “Boogie Down”--were pop hits for Jarreau but provided the evening’s collective nadir. The band played too loudly, Jarreau belted out lyrics that were hard to hear, and choruses became repetitious. It all added up to boredom when compared with the vigor of the other numbers.

The singer came back to offer two a cappella pieces: a brief look at “Beauty School Dropout” from “Grease” (in which he recently had a three-month run on Broadway as Teen Angel) and the final “Goin’ Home,” the timeless spiritual that was a perfect way to close the evening.