Gig review: Bobby McFerrin

Published on Tuesday 19 January 2010 18:02

BOBBY MCFERRIN ***** GLASGOW ROYAL CONCERT HALL

SENSATIONAL. Bobby McFerrin strolled on in the most casual of entrances, sat on the solitary chair on stage, fiddled around for a few moments, and launched into a vocal improvisation that covered so much stylistic ground in such powerful, finely nuanced fashion that it almost seemed there could be little left to add.

Not a bit of it. Over the next two hours, the American singer (although that hardly seems an adequate description) held the Glasgow audience spellbound, whether on his own or in the slightly less compelling company of some guests mustered for the occasion, including Eddi Reader, the excellent instrumental pairing of Angus Lyon and Ruaridh Campbell, and the Women In Harmony trio, culminating in a 30-plus choir of acolytes from his workshop earlier in the day.

The audience were also recruited to join in, sounding almost rehearsed in the process, and eager individual volunteers were given a chance to sing or dance with the maestro. These were sideshows to the main event, but did serve to underline McFerrin's uncanny ability to bring out musicality in others.

The highlights, though, came when he held the stage on his own, whether in wordless improvisations in which he reeled off compelling and endlessly inventive melodic ideas while creating his own rhythm section with voice, chest and throat, or in his own inimitable take on songs.

Those getting the treatment included a ride on Ellington's A Train, a flight with the Beatles' Blackbird, an excursion into Bach combined with Gounod, and a chance to obey Chaplin's injunction to Smile. I was certainly smiling, and I suspect everyone else in the auditorium was too. A magical version of Over The Rainbow closed a masterclass from a genuinely unique artist.