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What would the world be like without music?
Perish the thought, said Al Jarreau, the five-time Grammy Award winning jazz, pop, and R&B singer who was at USC Feb. 23 and 24 to help spread the word about the importance of the arts.
"Music and the arts define a special part of us as human beings that is parallel to our concerns for each other," said Jarreau, who performed a concert at USC's Koger Center Feb. 24 and spoke to students in a Feb. 23 music master class following a press conference at the School of Music.
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| Al Jarreau |
Jarreau was in Columbia for the third annual Legends Of Concert sponsored by the Auntie Karen Foundation, a non-profit global organization based in South Carolina. The foundation was formed in 2001 to empower and educate people through community outreach arts programs.
"The most important thing we can do is to help each other," Jarreau said. "A society that doesn't have art doesn't have people who give a damn about each other. I think they parallel each other."
Jarreau said his appearance was an occasion for him to speak up for the arts to "help Auntie Karen do the job that government ought to be helping us do a little bit better.
"We've lost arts programs in the schools," he said. "Show me a kid with a paint brush, ballet slippers, or a music book in his hand and I'll show you somebody who will be less likely to be carrying a gun."
Despite what Jarreau said was the government's tepid backing of arts education, which he likened to Washington's response to victims of Hurricane Katrina, he added, "Corporate America can and has stepped up to help out. I think it's important that we find private resources for making instruments available for kids in schools, for making dance available in schools, and for making theatre available."
During the master class for students from USC and area middle and high schools, Jarreau told the fledgling musicians that if they pursue music they should do it for their love of it. "Don't do it for girls, don't do it for limousines, don't do it for big money," he said. "I do it because I love it, and if you do it because you love it, you'll do it well.
"It's important that we talk about these kinds of things and I encourage you to be artistic and to make something where there's been nothing before," he said. "It's a fountain of youth, and what will keep you young."
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Al Jarreau speaks to a class of music students at USC Feb. 23.
