Spirityouall--Bobby McFerrin (波比.麥非年: 靈魂之聲)

How do you describe something which is basically indescribable? Well, you don't. You can't. And when you need somehow to express something which is very close to your heart, like your spirituality, what do you do? You act out. You sing. And when you've got a tongue, a throat, a body and a pair of hands which can tap on it, you experiment with what you can do with them, in isolation and in combination. And when you've got some other talented musicians and perhaps an audience who are willing to go along with you and to help you do what you so very much want to do, you enlist their assistance. That's exactly what Bobby McFerrin tried to do in his latest CD album, called "Spirityouall" and that's exactly what he and his group did at the Cultural Centre last night.

In the Programme notes, Bobby McFerrin said, "“I couldn’t do anything without faith,” he says. “I couldn’t open up my eyes, I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t sing. What I want everyone to experience at the end of my concerts is . . . .this sense of rejoicing. I don’t want the audience to be blown away by what I do, I want them to have this sense of real joy, from the depths of their being. Then you open up a place where grace can come in."  and that "I try to sing the way I sing my kitchen, because I just can't help myself. I want audiences to leave the theatre and sing in their own kitchens the next morning. I want to bring the audiences into the incredible feeling of joy and freedom I get when I sing."


The blacks in America went through a lot from the early 18th century when they were brought in from West Africa  to the American South as slaves, as chain gangs, working in plantations and orchards as farmhands, domestic servants, miners, factory hands, construction workers, as cleaners, as bellboys etc to the late 1960s, when Martin Luther King began to fight against aparteid, for equal rights. They were never fairly treated. Many died. Yet many survived. They endured unspeakable sufferings through believing that one day, they will reach paradise, that they'd meet their Lord, after they die,  in heaven. Until that time, they sang their souls out in work songs, in their blues, in their spirituals . The music of the American blacks is part and parcel of American jazz history. That came out in what Bobby McFerrin and his group did last night. He employed a whole barrage of standard jazz instruments, the piano, the accordion, the mandolin, various kinds of guitars, the double bass, percussions and drums with his retinue of accompanist musicians like David Mansfield on the violin, mandolin, resonator guitar, lap steel, Armand Hirsch on the acoustic and electric guitar, Jeff Carney on the double bass, Luis Cato on drums, guitar and vocals and his daughter Madison McFerrin as additional vocal. Of all his accompanists, Luis Cato stands out heads and shoulders above the others: he not only played the drum well, he played the guitar well and sang as well and very often, Bobby McFerrin would deliberately walk towards him and tease him with his fingers to draw out the fire from which he knew was in him so that the two could interact to produce real musical resonance.


His concert last night included standards like Everytime I feel the Spirit, Swing Low Sweet Chariot, Fix me Jesus, Jericho, He's Got the Whole World in his Hands, Rest, Woe, Amazing Grace as well as some inventions or half inventions or improvisations which he made up on the spot. One of the things which make his concert so different is that often, he would sing a phrase or make some strings of sound and he would invite the audience to join into singing them with him and sometimes, he would clap his hands, and invite the audience to clap along with him and he prepared in advance a group of school children from a local school sitting in the balcony on the left side of the stage to sing along with him.

What I like about the concert last night is the palpable sense of freedom, the sense of participation of the audience and the feeling that we are not just spectators but part of the fun which Bobby McFerrin and his group are trying to elicit from us.  As he urges: ” Lift your voice, open your heart, and sing along." That's what many of us did last night .McFerrin has a kind of personal charisma and spontaneity which is truly one of a kind. I'm so happy that I got the chance to see him in action, live not 20 feet away from me, talking, making jokes, singing, gesticulating, clapping, tapping his chest, tick-tocking with his tongue, mixing with his group, introducing them, encouraging them to give the best of themselves and and inviting the audience to join him in creating a musical experience, not just by himself but with us. It's an unforgettable experience.