[Woody’s [rating: 5]
Bobby McFerrin
Not everything Bobby McFerrin does musically is a 10. Once in a rare while he descends to a nine and a half.
In 1984, my wife heard a solo cut from his second album on jazz radio. She rushed out to buy “The Voice,” then made me listen.
I became an instant acolyte.
Soon, we caught him live in a Noe Valley church.
He vocalized unusual but pleasing sounds I hadn’t heard and, adding depth and texture, rhythmically pounded his chest in what I didn’t know would be recognized as beatboxing.
Humor was his sidekick.
Later we heard him reimagine all the “The Wizard of Oz” sounds and voices, and later yet watched him during a San Francisco rehearsal of Garrison Keillor’s “Prairie Home Companion.”
Clearly we’d found a musical magician, a guy with a four octave vocal range able to transform his environment with improvisational genius.
Through the years he stretched his talent, his genres and his venues.
He won 10 Grammys and, with “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” reached the top of the pop charts. He collaborated with classical superstar Yo-Yo Ma and jazz hall-of-famer Chick Corea. He assembled an improv vocal troupe, Voicestra. And he conducted the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony and the Vienna Philharmonic.
His conducting debut, with the San Francisco Symphony, took place on his 40th birthday, 25 years ago.
I watched him conduct that orchestra (which is always splendid) and sing George Gershwin this month.
His hair and dreadlocks now are tinged with white. But his talents haven’t aged; they have, rather, expanded exponentially.
His concerts include frolicking galore. He likes to tell people he’s a graduate of MSU — “Making Stuff Up”
McFerrin bent his “Porgy and Bess” set, for instance, to include “I Got Rhythm,” a Gershwin tune that was never part of the jazz opera score; and an improv medley with “A Horse with No Name,” a countrified falsetto duet featuring him and his bassist, Jeff Carney, and a free-form “I Want to Thank You for Letting Me Be Myself Again,” none of which bore any resemblance to Gershwin.
He also playfully superimposed a British accent on “A Foggy Day.”
Periodically switching between registers to create polyphonic effects, McFerrin ultimately managed to saturate the set with “Porgy” tunes based on Gil Evans’ arrangements for Miles Davis: “Summertime,” “It Ain’t Necessarily So” and “A Woman Is a Sometime Thing.”
His superb backup trio, functioning sans symphony, showcased pianist-arranger Gil Goldstein, who’d been an Evans’ protégé, and drummer Louis Cato.
McFerrin, who fingered the mic as if playing the clarinet (his first childhood instrument), also injected a screechy comedic voice that reminded me of Flip Wilson’s character Geraldine.
But “Porgy and Bess” has a special place in the singer’s heart.
His father, a baritone, was first African-American man to sing New York City’s Metropolitan Opera. The senior McFerrin also sang the “Porgy” role in Otto Preminger’s 1958 film, for lip-synching actor Sidney Poitier.
As a child, Bobby McFerrin was inundated with the music of Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Marvin Gaye, Led Zeppelin and Sergio Mendes, then the Beatles and Miles Davis — all overlaid with Verdi and other classical strains.
Plus Gershwin.
So it figures that using his voice as a multi-faceted instrument on “Rhapsody in Blue” might feel natural.
Ditto his conducting “An American in Paris.”
McFerrin’s audience was diverse in ethnicity. And age.
Within seconds, I spied an old man hobbling on crutches and a young girl hobbling on what obviously were her first high heels.
The gender split seemed equal.
I know not what occurred in the ladies room, but several guys were singing his encore — “Our Love Is Here to Stay,” Gershwin’s final composition — at the urinals after the two-hour show.
McFerrin’s been quoted saying, “I try not to ‘perform’ onstage. I try to sing the way I sing in my kitchen.”
He pulls it off.
Onstage at Davies Hall, he appeared at ease. And because he was having fun, his attitude spread over the audience.
Which gave him a standing ovation.
Of course.
Upcoming pop performance at Davies, Grove Street (between Van Ness and Franklin), San Francisco, will include “A New Year’s Event with Seth MacFarlane” Dec. 31, and “Patti LuPone: Far Away Places”(without symphony) Feb. 23. Information: (415) 864-6400 or www.sfsymphony.org.
