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LEGENDARY SINGER AL JARREAU DIES AT 76
FEBRUARY 12, 2017 – Al Jarreau, one of the world’s great singers and a song stylist who defied categorization for decades, died today in Los Angeles at the age of 76.
The seven-time GRAMMY winner had recently announced his retirement from the entertainment business after being hospitalized for exhaustion. Jarreau had fought through respiratory and cardiac issues in recent years.
“We feel very fortunate to have worked with Al, one of the most distinctive and extraordinary vocalists in the music,” says Concord Records President John Burk. “He was truly a force of nature and a beautiful human being that will be fondly remembered and deeply missed by us all.”
Jarreau had little interest in boundaries or preconceived limitations. Since the mid-1970s, he applied his distinctive and instantly recognizable vocal style – a unique combination of lyrical swing and captivating vocalese – to a broad spectrum of musical genres. With this eclectic approach, he earned much success along the way – enough to position him as the only vocalist in history to claim GRAMMY Awards in the three distinct genres of jazz, pop and R&B.
Jarreau’s final recording, My Old Friend: Celebrating George Duke, was released August 5, 2014 on Concord Records, a division of Concord Music Group. The album, which re-interpreted some of Duke’s renowned catalog of post-bop, jazz-fusion, R&B and Brazilian jazz, spent two weeks at #1 on Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz Albums and Current Jazz charts.
Concord Music Group
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