Al Jarreau is Positive 'Accentuate The Positive' album

On August 3, 2004, the Verve Music Group will release premier R&B/pop vocalist Al Jarreau's new recording, Accentuate the Positive.

The five-time Grammy winner's third release for the label and thirteenth overall, Accentuate the Positive signals his long-awaited return to his jazz roots and is his first album to appear under the Verve Records imprint.

Accentuate the Positive is Jarreau's first jazz release in 27 years and reunites Jarreau with legendary producer Tommy LiPuma and master engineer Al Schmitt - the prolific team that produced his Jazz Vocal Grammy-winning album Look To The Rainbow (1977). To accompany Jarreau, LiPuma recruited eleven of the finest musicians in today's jazz scene: Larry Williams; keyboards and arrangements, Christian McBride/David Carpenter; bass, Peter Erskine/Mark Simmons; drums, Anthony Wilson; guitar, Luis Conte; percussion, Keith Anderson; saxophone, Larry Goldings; Hammond B-3, and Tollack Olestad; harmonica, Russell Ferrante; piano.

Clearly inspired by his supporting cast, Jarreau has selected an eleven-song program that eschews the easy familiarity of oft-covered standards for lesser-known fare like Eddie Harris' "Cold Duck Time". Originally a barn-burning instrumental performed by Harris and Les McCann, this opening track now features lyrics by Jarreau. A high-energy blend of roiling piano vamps, funky bass-drums-percussion-guitar, honking sax and Al's bumptious croon 'n scat, "Cold Duck" leaves no doubt that he's in it to win it. On "The Nearness of You", AJ's mellifluous tenor goes low and slow, sublimely whispering-caressing-sighing every verse. "Beginning to See the Light" is a delicious slice of breezy vocal/organ swing. On "My Foolish Heart", Jarreau's warmdaddy vocals are wedded to a sensual bossa nova groove.

Jarreau channels Ben Webster on the languidly romantic "Midnight Sun", romancing every note and syllable with all the seductive charm of a great sax player. Johnny Mercer's "Accentuate the Positive" gets reinvented as a hip, jazzy-soul bop. "Betty Bebop's Song" is a loverly jazz waltz homage to the late, great Betty Carter written by Jarreau and pianist Freddie Ravel. Jarreau's interpretation of Bill Evans' immortal "Waltz for Debby" is every bit as timeless as quintessential as the original. "Groovin' High" is the album's tour-de-force, with Jarreau's all-out scatting and bubbling patter lyrics to Dizzy Gillespie's bebop classic. Jarreau's lyrics and a soft samba groove reinvent Don Grolnick's "Lotus" as a Jobim ballad. The funkily scatting Jarreau/Ferrante-penned "Scootcha-Booty" ends Accentuate the Positive on a joyous high note.

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Al Jarreau is Positive - Accentuate The Positive