What: An Evening with Bobby McFerrin
Where: Royal Theatre
When: Saturday night
Rating: 4 1/2 (out of 5)
The casual listener knows Bobby McFerrin mostly for his lighter-than-air ditty, Don’t Worry, Be Happy.
However, it was the spiritual side — well, the lighthearted spiritual side — of the American singer that we witnessed Saturday at TD Victoria International JazzFest. (Sorry, pop fans — McFerrin hasn’t sung his greatest hit in concert for years.)
Black spirituals reflect the faith and the experience of Africans enslaved in America. McFerrin, an unorthodox jazz singer, focused on spirituals in his latest album, spirtityouall. On this warm summer evening, we were treated to some of these — and a good deal of McFerrin-esque whimsy as well.
Like Kurt Elling or Ella Fitzgerald, McFerrin scat-sings in the manner of a jazz instrumentalist. He opened the concert a cappella, rapping his upper chest with his right hand, sometimes seeming to hit two tones simultaneously. To hear this live is rather amazing.
“We just had to get that off our chest right away,” joked the dreadlocked McFerrin, dapper-casual in a black T-shirt and faded jeans.
Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit followed. It’s a low-key number, with the drummer offering a rambling, shuffling beat.
McFerrin then offered an impromptu song about Victoria, spelling out each letter. “I just call it as I see it,” he said. “We have set lists, but we ignore them totally.”
We heard a buzzing, acoustic version of Can’t Find My Way Home, a song made famous by Blind Faith. Adding to the feel-good thrum, the drummer played bass drum and guitar simultaneously.
McFerrin briefly reminisced about his father, Robert McFerrin, an African-American singer who sang with the Metropolitan Opera. Spirityouall is dedicated to this man, who in 1957 cut his own record of spirituals, Deep River.
McFerrin is a very playful singer. He joked about a dull airplane seat companion on his way from Toronto to Victoria and then impersonated a pompous politician.
He got the audience singing along to a sparsely accompanied song that turned out to be He’s Got the Whole World in his Hands. For a few lines, McFerrin pretended to be a falsetto-voiced toddler. Then he transmogrified into a falsetto-voiced funkster, with the singer cheerfully dispatching a few dance steps worthy of Soul Train.
He loves off-the-cuff improvisation. No doubt his musicians have to keep their wits about them, as it’s hard to know what the boss will come up with next. “The stage, to me, is a platform for adventure,” McFerrin explained, genially.
When he launched into a swinging version of Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho, McFerrin instructed the band not to look at his female backup singer, his daughter Madison, who’d gotten a fit of the giggles.
Overall, it was a warm-hearted, revelatory experience. McFerrin’s superb band included keyboardist Gil Goldstein, multi-instrumentalist David Mansfield, guitarist Armand Hirsch, bassist Jeff Carney and drummer/guitarist Louis Cato.