Al Jarreau - Look To The Rainbow: Live In Europe - A Vinyl Classic

The Record Store presents Al Jarreau - Look To The Rainbow

Finding these vintage 1976 live films of a highly inspired Al Jarreau is reason for celebration. These are legacy gems from an era of greatness for Warner Bros. Records and producers of the record, Al Schmitt and Tommy LiPuma.

The album was titled "Look To The Rainbow: Live in Europe". This album can take a long time to explore with all of it's intricacies.  It sounds great turned up loud.

When it was released in 1977, my mom bought the 2 record set on vinyl, the songs of which were pulled from these 1976 filmed performances featured below. We must have played these vinyl records hundreds of times. I was exposed to all kinds of music, but this record was really different. It was a style of jazz that felt really fresh. Had never heard anybody scat sing like this, blending lyrics and scat with such fluid soul backed by a super burning jazz groove band.  It's an amazingly big sound for just three players: Tom Canning on keys, Nigel Wilkinson on drums and Jerome Rimson on bass guitar.

The films below were shot with the audio beautifully recorded in front of a live audience in Hamburg, Germany in 1976. 

One of the most popular songs on the record was Jarreau's unique version of the Paul Desmond classic, Take 5, that was already made famous by The Dave Brubeck Quartet on their 1959 album Time Out. Jarreau's take on the song was a major departure, like a blast off to another planet. Be patient, the song does not really take off until the 2:20 point of the first video below. One of my favorite songs is the sixth one down the list, titled You Don't See Me. But every single one of these is fantastic.

Al Jarreau - Take Five (live)

Al Jarreau - Letter Perfect

Al Jarreau - We Got By

Al Jarreau - Lock All The Gates

Al Jarreau - Your Song

Click here to source out collector copies of the original Vinyl two record set of Al Jarreau's Look To The Rainbow: Live in Europe

Connect direct with Al Jarreau at AlJarreau.Com and Facebook.com/AlJarreauOfficial and at Twitter.com/AlJarreau

Al Jarreau's past catalogue is with Rhino Records/Warner Bros. Records

Presently, Al Jarreau is signed to the Concord Music Group, home to numerous historical and current imprints/labels, and home to hundreds and hundreds of the most legendary established and well picked emerging artists, groups and songwriters.