Al Jarreau, the legendary jazz artist and seven-time Grammy winner, has died. He was 76.
The singer died on Sunday at a Los Angeles hospital surrounded by family and friends, his agent said. His death came two days after he announced his retirement from touring and was admitted to the hospital for exhaustion.
Known as the "Acrobat of Scat" for his vocal delivery and admired by fans for his imaginative and improvisational qualities, Jarreau's career spanned five decades and 20 albums. His biggest single was We're in This Love Together from 1981. He also sang the theme song for TV's Moonlighting.
He was the only Grammy vocalist to win in the jazz, pop and R&B; categories.
A statement on his website read: "His 2nd priority in life was music. There was no 3rd. His 1st priority, far ahead of the other, was healing or comforting anyone in need."
He was born Alwin Lopez-Jarreau in Milwaukee in 1940. His father was a minister, and his mother was a piano teacher. Jarreau began singing in a church choir at age 4 and later counted jazz scat artist Jon Hendricks and ballad singer Johnny Mathis among his greatest influences.
He earned a bachelor's degree in psychology in 1960 from Wisconsin's Ripon College, where he performed on weekends with a group called the Indigos. He went on to the University of Iowa, earned a master's degree in vocational rehabilitation and later moved to San Francisco to begin a brief career as a social worker.
But his call to singing persisted, and he realised rehabilitation counselling would not be his life's work.
By the late '60s, Jarreau moved to Los Angeles and began to sing in clubs such as the Troubadour and the Bitter West End.
He released his first album, We Got By, in 1975 at the age of 35. Within two years, he won his first Grammy. He began attracting a wider following with his 1981 album, Breaking Away, which included the Top 20 hit We're in This Love Together. The album won Grammy awards in the jazz and pop vocal categories.
Despite his many TV appearances and touring schedule, Jarreau often lamented the recording business.
"I'm this strange kind of fusion of jazz, pop and R&B;," Jarreau said. "Since the beginning of my recording career in 1975, I have had a little difficulty because the pop stations think I'm a jazzer who doesn't have a feeling for pop, so it's hard to get my records played. Similarly, black urban radio doesn't understand that with my R&B; roots, I am more than a jazz singer. So I get pigeonholed."
Los Angeles Times