bobby mcferrin and cantus

I went to see Bobby McFerrin and Cantus last night at Orchestra Hall and it was unbelievable. Cantus is one of our local treasures--the only other full-time, classical vocal chamber ensemble in the US other than Chanticleer--and I relish every time I get to hear them (or go caroling around Minneapolis with them and some other friends every December). But we're here to talk about Robert McFerrin, Jr.

The man's instrument is the vocal equivalent of a Stradivarius. I tried multiple times to describe it while writing this entry but, after a few aborted thoughts, there's no other way to do it than this:

His range is incredible! And how he puts the song together is genius. It's a fully-formed, multiple-part song in his mind and, using his voice, he gets little snippets of each as it advances. Because of this technique your mind can essentially hear all the parts at once even though he's only able to physically sing one note at a time (although you get the sense that he could sing all of them simultaneously if he wanted to). How the hell does he do that? Unbelievable.

But the truly jaw-dropping part of the concert was when he sang the first prelude from the Bach cello suites while the audience sang Gounod's Ave Maria over the top. What the hell. Who does that! I'm so glad YouTube had this.A cellist friend of mine was there with me and, afterwards, he just leaned over and whispered a four-letter word in amazement. The audience at Orchestra Hall put up a pretty good rendition of the Ave Maria as well.

And just because I didn't talk about his collaborations with Cantus during the program enough in this entry, here's a video of them singing McFerrin's Psalm 23 (Dedicated to My Mother). I love this town.