Jazz singing great Al Jarreau dead at 76

76Al Jarreau, the affable jazz singing great who reached new audiences by seamlessly merging styles and through television, died Sunday days after announcing his retirement. He was 76.

The seven-time Grammy winner — a rare artist to win in jazz, pop and R&B categories — died in a Los Angeles hospital where he had been treated for fatigue, his manager said.

Jarreau, who grew up in Milwaukee where he heard his parents play music in church, is best known for the singles “We’re in This Love Together” and “After All.”

Many also heard his voice, even if they did not know it, in the theme to “Moonlighting,” the hit 1980s television series that brought Bruce Willis to prominence.

His manager, Joe Gordon, in a tribute to Jarreau described the singer as the ultimate gentleman who never stopped appreciating his listeners or the myriad people who worked for him directly or indirectly.

His second priority was music but “his first priority, far ahead of the other, was healing or comforting anyone in need,” Gordon wrote on Jarreau’s website.

“Whether it was emotional pain, or physical discomfort, or any other cause of suffering, he needed to put our minds at ease and our hearts at rest.

“He needed to see a warm, affirming smile where there had not been one before. Song was just his tool for making that happen.”

While his cause of death was not revealed, he announced last week that he was finished with touring due to exhaustion.

Jarreau had suffered health issues in recent years and was hospitalized in 2010 for respiratory problems when touring in France.

Jarreau died months after being honored at the White House when then president Barack Obama celebrated International Jazz day.

Growing up in Milwaukee, Jarreau began to sing at church and at school. His mother was a piano teacher who played the organ in church, where his father was a preacher and would sing.

But raised in a city with a large German and Eastern European community, Jarreau recalled that he lived near a tavern that played polka and that the radio would play everything from classical to the blues.

“How lucky we were as musicians to have those influences which were really present in our lives. There were no walls then; there are so many walls today,” he told Jazz Times last year.

His family requested that mourners make contributions to the Wisconsin Foundation for School Music, which supports young people in his hometown and recently honored Jarreau with a lifetime achievement award.