Al Jarreau, one of the greatest singers in the world and a stylist of songs who challenged the category for decades, passed away 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 struggled with respiratory and heart issues in recent years.
“We feel very fortunate to have worked with Al, one of the most distinctive and extraordinary vocalists in music,” says Concord Records president John Burk. “He was truly a force of nature and a beautiful human being who will be fondly remembered and deeply missed by all of us.”
Since the mid-1970s, he applied his distinctive and instantly recognizable vocal style – a unique combination of lyrical swing and captivating vocals. With this eclectic approach, he achieved significant 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 on August 5, 2014, on Concord Records, a division of Concord Music Group. The album, which reinterpreted some of Duke’s famous post-bop, jazz fusion, R&B, and Brazilian jazz catalogs, spent two weeks as the #1 album in Contemporary Jazz, Jazz, and Current Jazz on the Billboard charts.