The Collection

In 1988, American vocal wizard Bobby McFerrin conquered the world with the infectious, upbeat Don’t worry, be happy. The chart breakthrough wasn’t planned; the song was born in moments of anxiety that needed a way out. In situations like that, Bobby always turns to music. The Collection serves up some of the brightest moments of McFerrin’s career. He was born in 1950 in New York into a family of singers and musicians. His father, Robert McFerrin Senior, was even the first Afro – American to perform at the Metropolitan Opera. Young Bobby planned to become a priest, but he soon felt that music was his true love. He only cut his first records in the seventies, but with the second one, Spontaneous Inventions, he already nailed down his signature style: mostly a cappella singing (no accompaniment), using his hands, drumming on his chest, imitating instruments (real singers treat their voice as an instrument anyway) and gliding smoothly between falsetto and his regular voice. Imitating rhythm with the voice (beat box) is of course no stranger to him either. Along the way McFerrin got a helping hand from Jon Hendrikcs, one of the great masters of “scat” singing, and later from Al Jarreau and others. This compilation shows Bobby in all of these guises, and a few tracks were recorded live, where the interaction with the audience is truly unbelievable. At his gigs Bobby drifts off somewhere else, adding a much-needed touch of magic to what he does.  The tracks span the period from 1985 to 1992; five of them are McFerrin’s own, while the rest are inventive takes on jazz standards. Besides the vocal numbers, the collaborations with prominent instrumentalists are well worth a listen. Two tracks feature pianist Chick Corea (known from Return to forever) and saxophonist Wayne Shorter (from Weather Report). As a quick look at McFerrin’s wardrobe, the record is of course welcome, but considering how much room a CD has, there could easily have been at least twice as many tracks. Around here, the ones who’ve come closest to him are Oto Pestner, New Swing Quartet and, a few times, members of the Perpetuum Jazzile choir.