[ WEEKEND ]

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COURTESY OF BLUE NOTE RECORDS "I haven't performed that in about 15 years ... I don't hate it, I just got tired of doing it." --Bobby McFerrin, on his 1988 hit "Don't Worry, Be Happy"

Vocal inventions

Tim Ryan l tryan@starbulletin.com

Vocalist and symphony conductor Bobby McFerrin is a half-hour late for a telephone interview from his Philadelphia home, apologizing that "I got involved in something and just forgot."

In concert Bobby McFerrin with special guest Jake Shimabukuro Where: Blaisdell Concert Hall When: 8 p.m. tomorrow Tickets: $15 to $57 Call: 792-2000

Trying to break some of the long-distance tension, I joke, "Don't worry, be happy," mimicking the 1988 hit song that McFerrin is most associated with.

A long silence follows.

"I haven't performed that in about 15 years," McFerrin says. "I don't hate it, I just got tired of doing it ... "

OK, end of story, let's move on, McFerrin's tone suggests.

The Grammy Award-winning artist apparently doesn't suffer fools lightly, or let much grass grow beneath his feet.

He first made his musical mark for his distinctive approach to the concept of the one-man band, alternating upper and lower registers of his voice to create the illusion of multiple singers and using his hands, chest, and feet to create a rhythm section with his body.

Aside from winning Grammy Awards, recording a number-one pop single and becoming one of the most inventive vocalists around, McFerrin has also conducted many of America's greatest orchestras. But you're dead wrong if you believe McFerrin has ever tried to impersonate a musical instrument.

"I have never tried to master any particular sound or instrument," he says. "The voice has an amazing color palette just like every word has a different sound. There's a range and color in the voice you can't find anywhere else."

McFerrin will be doing a solo concert tomorrow night at the Blaisdell Concert Hall. Ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro will open for him, and will also join McFerrin for some inspiring improvisational duos.

SOLO performances came long after McFerrin formed the Bobby Mack Quartet in high school, followed by a cross-country tour with the Ice Follies, then a stint as a pianist in a lounge band.

A solo vocalist was going against conventional career-building wisdom in the music world, built on prepackaged expectations, McFerrin concedes. That direction began in 1983 when he did his first tour of Europe as an "unaccompanied vocalist," performing without any prepared material. Just before embarking, half the promoters bailed out.

COURTESY OF BLUE NOTE RECORDS.

"But the other half wanted me because my show was so unique," McFerrin said.

His inspiration for using that "voice palette" were recordings of Keith Jarrett's solo piano playing in the late 1970s.

"After hearing them, I thought it would be interesting to carry it into the vocal realm," said McFerrin, who has pretty much reinvented the voice as an instrument.

For instance, the lead instrument in the theme to "The Cosby Show" was McFerrin's voice. He also did the main theme to the film "Round Midnight" and has collaborated with Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Robin Williams and the Muppets.

(He also did an original score for the Japanese film "Hush!" which will screen at The Doris Duke at the Academy, Honolulu Academy of Arts, next Friday through Sunday, March 28 to 30.)

"But I'm a singer first; that's how I learn everything, how I relate to orchestras," he said. "When I'm in rehearsals, it's much easier for me to sing a part to them than to explain it. Orchestras like as little talking as possible anyway.

"I sing what I want to hear from the instruments."

MCFERRIN grew up in a musical family to opera singer parents in New York. His father, Robert McFerrin Sr., was the first African-American male soloist at the Metropolitan Opera. The family moved to Hollywood in 1958 when McFerrin Sr. was hired to be the singing voice for Sidney Poitier in the movie "Porgy and Bess."

"There was always music in our house," he said. "All kinds of music."

McFerrin has developed his concerts into "audience interactions."

"The audience becomes my instrument, my band."

The technique varies with most concerts.

"If everyone has the sense that the performance happened because they were actively involved then it's more fulfilling for all of us," McFerrin said. "One time or another, everyone has dreamed of being on stage. I help them realize that dream."

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