An innovative vocalist, composer and conductor who has won ten Grammy Awards, Bobby McFerrin maintains a highly successful career while continuing to explore and challenge himself in a wide range of musical styles and forms. His creative relationship with Sony Classical reflects the reach of his imagination, skill and versatility. His most recent Sony Classical release, Circlesongs (SK 62734), is the result of solo and group vocal explorations that have evolved McFerrin's own version of chant and sacred music. Created with twelve highly accomplished singers from diverse vocal disciplines, it is steeped in an oral tradition that dates back centuries to tribal gatherings. For McFerrin, "One of the simplest and most direct ways of praying and meditating is through singing, and singing in community is exceptionally powerful."
McFerrin's debut album for Sony Classical, Hush (SK 48177), was recorded with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and released in 1992. The two artists combined to perform five original compositions by McFerrin and a unique arrangement of "Hush, Little Baby" for the title track, as well as several classical favourites. Hush was a mainstay on Billboard's Classical Crossover Chart for over two years and went gold in 1996. In June of 1995, McFerrin released his first classical album Paper Music (SK 64600), recorded with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and it immediately began a long tenure on the Billboard Classical chart. The album features McFerrin conducting (and singing) the music of Mendelssohn, Mozart, Bach, Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky, among others. Paper Music was followed in 1996 by The Mozart Sessions (SK 62601), McFerrin's second collaboration with pianist Chick Corea, this time presenting their distinctive interpretations of two Mozart piano concertos.
McFerrin's recent activities have included symphonic conducting, to which he devotes considerable time each season. He made his debut with the San Francisco Symphony on his fortieth birthday and has since gone on to repeat engagements, conducting every major orchestra, including the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic and many others. He has also conducted a concert version of Porgy and Bess with the Opera Carolina and at the Mann Centre, and he has appeared at the Ravinia, Aspen, Blossom and Verbier Festivals. His conducting schedule for the 1999-2000 season includes engagements with the orchestras of Baltimore, Chicago, Montreal, Oregon, Seattle and Toronto, as well as a Young People's Concert with the New York Philharmonic. In Europe, he leads the Munich Radio Orchestra on a German tour, returns to the Rotterdam Philharmonic and makes his debut with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.
In 1996 his efforts to bring new and younger audiences to classical music earned him media coverage unprecedented for a musician. He was honoured as the ABC News "Person of the Week" and with an entire Nightline programme devoted to his work, as well as a feature on 60 Minutes. The same year he appeared as host and performer in the PBS special Loosely Mozart, conducting the Orchestra of St. Luke's with pianist Chick Corea in a performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20, singing a selection from Hush with Yo-Yo Ma, and performing in a special contribution to pianist Marcus Roberts' interpretation of Rhapsody in Blue.
In addition to his numerous outside conducting activities, McFerrin is part of the artistic leadership of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, which he joined in April of 1994 as Creative Chair. His conducting activities with that orchestra include subscription series, tours and other special concerts, and he has been instrumental in the development of CONNECT, the orchestra's educational and outreach program.
Born to two classical singers in New York City on March 11, 1950, McFerrin began studying musical theory at age 6, shortly before his family relocated to Los Angeles. The piano was his primary instrument in high school and during his studies at California State University/Sacramento and Cerritos College. After completing his formal education, he began to tour, first with the Ice Follies and then with a series of "Top 40" bands, cabaret acts and dance troupes.
It was not until 1977 that he was inspired to become a singer. After a period in New Orleans with a band called Astral Projection, he moved to San Francisco where, among other important contacts, he met Bill Cosby, who arranged for McFerrin's debut at the Hollywood Bowl as part of the 1980 Playboy Jazz Festival. A triumph in New York at the Kool Jazz Festival followed a year later, and shortly thereafter, in May 1982, he released his debut album, Bobby McFerrin.
After touring with his own band and collaborating with such jazz artists as Herbie Hancock and Wynton Marsalis, McFerrin took a major step in 1983, when he began unaccompanied concertising. This led to a solo tour of Germany where the live album The Voice was recorded. This album showcased McFerrin's pioneering a cappella excursions. Throughout his career he continues to present solo concerts in the world's most prestigious venues.
Through the 1980s, he expanded his circle of collaborators and his award-winning discography, working with Garrison Keillor, Jack Nicholson, Weather Report's Joe Zawinul, Manhattan Transfer (on Another Night in Tunisia, which won two Grammies) and -- for Spontaneous Inventions (1986) -- Herbie Hancock, Jon Hendricks, Wayne Shorter and Robin Williams. He was featured in popular television commercials for Ocean Spray and Levi's, sang the weekly theme for The Cosby Show, created the ACE Award-winning longform video Spontaneous Invention, and sang the theme for Bertrand Tavernier's film 'Round Midnight, another Grammy-winning performance. He then achieved unparalleled commercial success as a one-man vocal ensemble with his multi-tracked multi-platinum album Simple Pleasures (1988), which included the worldwide, chart-topping single and video "Don't Worry, Be Happy."
The 1990 release of Medicine Music demonstrated McFerrin's skills as an orchestrator, especially in his work with the group Voicestra. It was with that ten-voice group that he appeared on Today, Arsenio Hall, and Evening at Pops (where, with the Boston Pops, he also made his television debut as a conductor). Also in 1992, the same year of his Sony Classical debut Hush, he released a new jazz album, Play, which featured McFerrin and pianist Chick Corea in a mix of standards and original collaborations and won McFerrin his tenth Grammy Award. His 1993 on-camera, five-voice a cappella rendition of Henry Mancini's "The Pink Panther Theme" won him wide acclaim and another Grammy nomination.
