Wait! Was that really Bobby McFerrin holding open the door to the Dakota Jazz Club just before 7 p.m. Wednesday?
Yes it was. Why not? McFerrin did just about everything else during his first show Wednesday at the Dakota.
The vocalist extraordinaire played percussion, trumpet, bass, guitar, saxophone, flute, synthesizer, you name it — all with his voice. He made up musical ideas on the spot and taught them to his four singers and, like a maestro, conducted them. He did a similar thing with the sell-out audience, which proved to be populated with remarkably good singers. And he told a few jokes.
In short, McFerrin amazed during his 70 minutes onstage.
None of it was scripted. It was all improvised a cappella. Usually, McFerrin does this with his 12-member ensemble known as Voicestra. For his four-night, eight-show engagement at the Dakota, the group was trimmed to four. And spontaneously named the Give Me Five, according to a number ad libbed by bass singer Joey Blake.
Most of the pieces consisted of wordless sounds. McFerrin would typically improvise a few sounds that would evolve into a pattern and then the singers would pick up on it, sometimes repeating, harmonizing or finding a groove; other times they'd interweave their voices to create an intricate tapestry of sound.
This approach was reminiscent of McFerrin's 2004 duo concert with tap dancer Savion Glover at the Orpheum Theatre. That was different in that those two artists had met only two weeks earlier. These Voicestra collaborators have been with the 68-year-old 10-time Grammy winner for years. With Glover, it was pretty much call and response between the partners.
With Give Me Five, the improvising had more potential to be complicated — or to fail. Well, nothing really failed; some pieces were more compelling, especially when they became conversations.
