Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 15, 1992 TAG: 9203130194
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: J.D. CONSIDINE THE BALTIMORE SUN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
That question has been tormenting people - music fans in general and record store clerks in particular - for years now. Given his Grammy awards for jazz singing, it's tempting just to put him in that pigeonhole, and let his reputation rest on albums like "The Voice" and "Spontaneous Inventions."
But that overlooks the pop success he had with "Simple Pleasures," the album that produced the chart-topping (and also Grammy-winning) "Don't Worry, Be Happy." And now with "Hush," a collaboration with cellist Yo-Yo Ma that finds McFerrin singing "Flight of the Bumblebee" and Rachmaninoff's "Vocalise," the singer seems to be moving into the classical market.
Or is he?
"I was at a record store today here in New York," he said on the phone the other day, "and they had `Hush' in the jazz section of the store. Which is kind of interesting. I understand in some stores they have it in the pop bins, and of course it's in the classical bins."
Isn't that kind of confusing? No, answers McFerrin, "It just means that more people will see the record."
Besides, categories don't mean much to this singer.
Perhaps that's why it's so easy for him to distance himself from the extreme reactions - positive and negative - that sprang up in the wake of "Don't Worry, Be Happy," a song that was embraced by George Bush (over McFerrin's objections), and attacked by Public Enemy (in the single "Fight the Power").
"It was just a very simple tune that I wrote one day out of the blue," he said. "It took off. People latched onto it; it was played to death. Most people don't think of me beyond that.
"Certainly there's been some backlash," he acknowledged. "But what amazes me the most is the backlash I get from people who think that I have too much fun onstage. They can't take me seriously, because I have too much fun."
Fun, to McFerrin's way of thinking, should be at the heart of music-making. That's not to say that all music should be light-hearted and frivolous, of course. Far from it. But what, he asks, is wrong with actively enjoying the act of making music?
"I talk about Mozart along these very lines," McFerrin said. "I say, `How can you say that, when you listen to Mozart and this guy's having so much fun with music?' It's amazing. He's just beside himself with joy in his music. You're saying I'm having too much fun? You should go check Mozart."
McFerrin's interest in Mozart goes beyond that. The singer has spent the last several summers at Tanglewood, studying conducting.
"The conducting came about just out of a desire to try it," he said. "It was a fantasy. I did it the first time for my 40th birthday, and I loved it. So I've been doing some guest conducting, and I decided that if I can conduct about 15 to 20 orchestras a year I'd be happy."
McFerrin admits that he doesn't have a lot of time to devote to studying orchestral scores.
"If I was conducting exclusively, I could," he said. "Right now I'm working on Tchaikovsky's 6th Symphony, which is, wow, what a piece of music that is.
"Even in the conducting, I like to have fun," he said.
by CNB