8/14/2019 An Interview With Bobby McFerrin About
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3/13/10 3:30 Pn Interview With Bobby McFerrin about VOCAbuLarieS
(and a ticket giveaway!) | A Cappella Music - The Contemporary A
Cappella Society
Page 2tp://www.casa.org/node/6487
AM: Very cool. Was it set out to be a recording and a live
performance, or was it just going to be the recording?
BM: No, we always targeted this towards live performance,
because whenever I would do a choral conference of some
kind, everyone would say, Well, when are you going to write
something for choir, or our a cappella group? And Id
think, Yeah, thats not a bad idea. Id like to do that. So, Roger
came along...and weve been working on this for at
least 6 years
AM: Yeah, [the promo materials] say it took 7 years to
write.
BM: Yeah, and another thing that was challenging to me was that
Id go into the studio and come up with like 40 ideas
or Roger would have a section for me to sing that could be 2
bars or 22 bars and Id sing over it and hed say, We got
it, and then 3 months later hed say, Wellwe dont have it. So Id
go back and do 20 more bars. So that was a real
challenge for me.
AM: So thats why it took so long!
BM: Yeah, but you know, his brain is just so open to things that
he would hear what I was doing and all of a sudden
hed hear something that would cause him to change directions.
Instead of going up, hed go down.
AM: So this will be commercially available, so other people can
do it?
BM: Yes, thats the point. We want other people to sing it. This
album is not about, Hey, look what I can do! Its about:
heres an opportunity for us to sing this music together and I
really really am eager to work with vocal groups, acappella groups,
choirs, of all shapes and sizes, and this is like my invitation for
everyone to come along and sing with
me. I do that in concert anyway, with audiences, just
spontaneously, but I never really had a chance though Ive been
working with orchestras and conducting orchestras I didnt really
get the chance to work with the choirs as much as I
wanted to. I mean, Im a singer, after all, and I wanted to work
with them! So this is my way of saying, Come on, lets
hang out. Lets sing together.
AM: Whats the difference between conducting a symphony
orchestra, and conducting a choir in a non-choral manner ,
which is really what youre talking about?
BM: Well, I dont think Id conduct a choir in a symphonic manner
unless that means that Ive got the score in front of
me and at bar 32, I tell the sopranos that theyre singing too
loud. Symphonic conducting is just something I happened
into. Now singing, though, singing is completely different. I
know singing. I grew up with one of the best baritone voices
on the planet [his father]. I watched him teach, l listened to
the things he had to say, I watched him study for rolesSo
I grew up with all these singers in the house and I know how to
sing and tell singers what I want. Im very confident in
that world, and so Im happy to get to spend some quality time
with I hope a whole bunch of different groups.
AM: Have you performed VOCAbuLarieS for an audience yet?
BM: No, the first one is at the San Francisco Jazz Festival in
April.
AM: Do you want to talk about The Sing-Off?
BM: It was interesting. I never spent any time in
television-land, so I didnt know how things were done. I had a
good
time, because I was just being asked to be myself, just do a
circle song. Get the groups that are left involved and just
do something with them, so I started off with a tune that I do
called Drive, and then I went into a circle piece.
Well, at the rehearsal, they said, Well, youve got up to 5
minutes. And then at the dress rehearsal, I had 4 minutes,and just
as Im walking out on stage for the actual performance, the guy
says, Youve got 3 and a half minutes, so ok,
fine. I said, Just put a clock somewhere where I can see it, and
when Ive got one minute left, just turn the clock on,
and we ended, I think, with one second left, or maybe got down
to zero. But I was really happy with how it came out.
And I hope this opens the door for a cappella groups to get some
notice. I thought the groups (on the show) were good,
but theres a lot more variety out there. So Im hoping its an
educational tool for people to hear and understand what a
cappella music really is, the whole range of it, as much as TV
is willing to allow. There are some wonderful groups out
there that are mind-blowingly good, and you go, Check that out!
And Im so happy to hear these people. Im so happy
to be involved with any a cappella setting at all. Any choir,
whether its high school, college, professional, whatever. I
8/14/2019 An Interview With Bobby McFerrin About
VOCAbuLarieS
3/4
3/13/10 3:30 Pn Interview With Bobby McFerrin about VOCAbuLarieS
(and a ticket giveaway!) | A Cappella Music - The Contemporary A
Cappella Society
Page 3tp://www.casa.org/node/6487
just love, love, love the sound of the human voice, and the
things that it can do. What amazing colors the voice has!
Think of all the languages the world has, and how many colors
there are in these languages.
AM: Do you feel like you often have to educate people as to what
a cappella is? I mean, you likely arent, because
people understand that youre sort ofbeyond, but a lot of people
who don't know what's out there think, Well, its
barbershop. The end
BM: Sure. Well, in a way, I might be educating. Ive started,
instead of doing encores at my concerts, Ive started
opening it up to questions and answers for like 10 minutes, so
that people get a chance to meet ME just as a person
and not as a performer, so at the end of the concert, Ill have
them turn all the house lights up and Ill just sit on the
edge of the stage and answer questions. So I get a chance to
tell them who I am, and why I love what I do so much,
and how many dogs do I have, and how long have I been growing my
dreadlocks.
AM: How many dogs DO you have?
BM: (laughs) I have two, and Ive been growing my dreadlocks for
20 years. And I get all kinds of questions.
AM: Well, thats very Carol Burnett of you!
BM: I think thats where that idea comes from, because she would
do that, yeah.
AM: Anything you want to say to the a cappella community in
general to wrap it up?
BM: Music is here, music is now. Thats the thing that I try to
instill in performers. I rebel against cookie cutter
performances. I dont like to hear the same things done the same
ways, so I try to instill in everyone a non-
performance attitude about things. People perform differently on
stage, and they shouldnt. They should sing the same
way they do when theyre getting out of the shower or walking
down the street.
I strive for that. To get to where Im not thinking, This is the
most important part of my day . Its not. Its part of my day
and Ive been singing all day, so I want to sing the same way (on
stage). So I just do that every day. Its a daily
discipline. I just sit and sing.
AM: So its totally integrated into everything.
BM: Thats right.
VOCAbuLarieS premieres Saturday, April 10, 2010 at 8pm
Presented by SFJazz
Nob Hill Masonic Center
1111 California Street (at Taylor)
San Francisco, CA
http://www.sfjazz.org/concerts/2010/spring/artists/mcferrin.php
866.920.5299
SFJazz has graciously offered 4 pair of tickets to CASA.org
readers for this concert. The first 4 people to correctly
answer the following question will get a pair of tickets to this
performance. Please do not submit unless you are
available to go to this show on Saturday, April 10 in San
Francisco. Send your answer, along with your name and
phone number, to [email protected] .
Q: For which Pixar short did Bobby McFerrin write the music?
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Amy Malkoff: www.amymalkoff.com/harmony ; Twitter: amalkoff
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