Bobby McFerrin is full of energy and innovation, whether he is conducting the Vienna Philharmonic or improvising pop songs, writes Arminta Wallace
Spot the odd one out in this sequence: podium, baton, dreadlocks. Or this one: Ravel's Bolero, Prokofiev's Classical symphony,Don't Worry Be Happy. Put it another way. What is Bobby McFerrin doing conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra? An American a cappella singer with a jazz background, fronting one of the most traditional ensembles in the bastion of conservatism that is classical music? Selling out concert halls all over Europe, is one obvious answer. But it's still a fair question. Superstar conductors are by no means a new phenomenon, but they tend to be superstars in classical, not popular, music. Few of them are household names. Very few have amassed almost a dozen Grammy awards in categories which range from jazz to children's records via mainstream pop. Even fewer are black.
McFerrin has never demonstrated much of a taste for the orthodox. He was born in New York in 1950. His father, Robert McFerrin Senior, was the first African-American male soloist at the Metropolitan Opera, and the family moved to Hollywood in 1958 when McFerrin Senior was hired to be the singing voice for Sidney Poitier in the movie Porgy and Bess. McFerrin Junior, meanwhile, was searching for a musical voice of his own. From the age of six he studied musical theory; he studied clarinet for a while, formed his own quartet during high school and played piano in a lounge band.
In the late 1970s he decided to become a singer. Mostly, at first, this meant jazz singing. He joined a New Orleans group called Astral Project in New Orleans and did gigs with Herbie Hancock and Wynton Marsalis. What fired his musical imagination most, however, were the improvised solo concerts of the jazz pianist Keith Jarrett. McFerrin was determined that what Jarrett had done for the piano, he would do for the voice, and in 1983 he set off on his first tour of Europe as an unaccompanied vocalist, performing without any prepared material. Audiences were wary at first, then bowled over.
Tapes from those gigs were released as the album The Voice. A cappella music had always been cheesy and often devoid of any meaningful artistic content; The Voice moved it into a whole new dimension. McFerrin pioneered what became known as the "percussive chest thump" and, from his studies of African and Indian vocal techniques, added a clutch of effects which literally opened the ears of Western audiences. As Newsweek magazine put it: "He sounds, by turns, like a blackbird, a Martian, an operatic soprano, a small child and a bebop trumpet." By 1988 McFerrin had taken his unaccompanied improvisations to the top concert halls of the US, Europe and Asia. Then he released Simple Pleasures, a homage to 1960s music. The simplest song on the album is a likeable little ditty that he made up, on the spot, in the recording studio. With stunning swiftness Don't Worry, Be Happy went to number one in pop charts all over the world - and stayed there, it seemed like, forever. Suddenly, McFerrin was a pop phenomenon with Grammy awards for Best Pop Vocal, Record of the Year and Song of the Year to add to his collection of Best Jazz Vocal awards.
What would he do next? Nine out of 10 singers would have released another pop album and cashed in on their moment of fame - but once again, McFerrin bucked the trend. He announced that he was going to take a sabbatical and study classical conducting. The reaction of his record company can only be dimly imagined - "Is this guy out of his tiny mind, or what?" - but having studied with such luminaries as Leonard Bernstein, Gustav Meier and Seiji Ozawa, McFerrin duly carved a more than respectable career. He was appointed creative director of the St Paul Chamber Orchestra and released a critically acclaimed classical album, Paper Music. He also embarked on a series of hugely successful collaborations, persuading the jazz pianist Chick Corea to record a playful improvisatory album of Mozart concertos, The Mozart Sessions, and recording an album called Hush, with the cellist Yo-Yo Ma, which colonised the Billboard classical charts for over two years and went gold in 1996.
Reviews of McFerrin's conducting suggest that he brings to it the same mix of innovation, thoughtfulness and sheer exuberance that he brings to jazz and vocal improvisation. "Conducting without a score, he drew from the orchestra elegant performances in which the harmonies were transparent, the string sound sang throughout, the tempos were crisp or lyrical without being rushed or languid, and the musicians played together precisely. While there were plenty of exciting moments, McFerrin achieved them without resorting to over-loud, pushed playing," was the verdict of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on a concert last July which featured one of the symphonies - Prokofiev's Classical - which he will conduct in Dublin.
But still, the Vienna Philharmonic? An orchestra which has been associated with many of the greatest conductors of the past two centuries: Richter, Mahler, Furtwangler, Von Karajan, Abbado? An orchestra which has, more recently, been embroiled in repeated controversies, with accusations of sexism and racism being levelled at its management over its policies on the recruitment of women, and players of non-European ethnic origin? Cynics might say that, under the circumstances and musical considerations aside, having a seriously cool black dude on the podium is a brilliant PR move.
What the Vienna Philharmonic would say, unfortunately, I don't know - a spokesman agreed to be interviewed, but being an understandably busy man, was unable to return my calls before our publication deadline expired. However, if you're lucky enough to have got hold of a ticket for the concert, you might just cast your eye around the orchestra as well as listening to its legendary sound, and draw your own conclusions.
At any rate, a concert which combines symphonies by Prokofiev and Mozart with a session of McFerrin's spectacular solo improvisations isn't something you'll be likely to forget in a hurry.
Bobby McFerrin conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, with cellist Tamás Varga, in a programme including Prokofiev, Vivaldi, Mozart, Dukas and Ravel at the National Concert Hall, Dublin next Saturday.