For those unaware, the Spirit of Jazz vocal gymnast Al Jarreau has now been revived in these rare lost live recordings from 1976 in Washington, D.C., and have been newly titled “WOW!”

It is being released as a limited-edition 2-LP vinyl set for Record Store Day Black Friday event on November 29th, 2024 and CD & Digital on December 6th, 2024.

These once-lost recordings include 5 songs never before on any live Jarreau recording and includes James Taylor’s “Fire and Rain,” Count Basie’s “Shiny Stockings,” and early takes on “Take Five” and “You Don’t See Me.”

This deluxe set also includes an overview by acclaimed music writer A. Scott Galloway, new Interviews with longtime Jarreau keyboardist Tom Canning, plus Nile Rodgers, Dionne Warwick, Will Downing, Dee Dee Bridgewater and more!

1. Letter Perfect (5:44)
2. Rainbow In Your Eyes (5:31) – L. Russell
3. Fire and Rain (6:33) – J. Taylor
4. Improvisation / Intro to Take Five (2:02)
5. Take Five (7:24) – D. Brubeck
6. Lock All the Gates (6:00)
7. Gimme That Wine (1:14)
8. Shiny Stockings (5:33) – F. Foster
9. Aladdin’s Lamp (5:23)
10. You Don’t See Me (8:37)
11. We Got By (7:51)

On a recording that captures a still-developing Jarreau captivating an audience on a hot August Saturday night in Washington, D.C. at the city’s intimate, historic, and cherished Childe Harrold Club, he opens on the golden sound of Letter Perfect and then brings us the scat-imbibed Rainbow In Your Eyes, the fancy free funk of Fire and Rain, and after Improvisation / Intro to Take Five, he brings forth the immersively rhythmic scat that accompanies Take Five.

Along next is the amazingly serene Lock All the Gates and the short, but sweet Gimme That Wine and they are in turn backed seamlessly by his version of Lambert, Hendricks & Bavan’s version of Count Basie’s thrilling Shiny Stockings, an ornately subtle Aladdin’s Lamp, with the album rounding out on the timelessly-grooved You Don’t See Me, coming to an all-too-soon close on a track where he manages to describe all the seasons of life in one song, the lovely We Got By.

Al Jarreau – the only singer to win Grammy® Awards in the Jazz, R&B and Pop categories – passed in 2017. In his lifetime, he recorded 6 live albums: Look to the Rainbow: Live in Europe (1977), In London (1985), Tenderness (1994), Live at The Half/Note 1965 with George Duke, Vol. 1 (2011), Al Jarreau and The Metropole Orkest Live (2012), and Live at Montreux 1993 (2016).

The inclusion now of the scintillatingly intimate and loose WOW! – featuring every note of the music plus much of the master’s onstage repartee, reveals further excellence fans and connoisseurs will instantly clamor to add to their record collection.

Official Purchase Link