{"id":909,"date":"2014-05-03T06:32:17","date_gmt":"2014-05-03T06:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/?p=909"},"modified":"2014-05-03T06:32:17","modified_gmt":"2014-05-03T06:32:17","slug":"grammy-winner-bobby-mcferrin-at-the-norton-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/2014\/05\/03\/grammy-winner-bobby-mcferrin-at-the-norton-center\/","title":{"rendered":"Grammy-Winner Bobby McFerrin at the Norton Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

By ADAM FALLUJI<\/strong> –\u00a0STAFF WRITER<\/em><\/p>\n

On April 17, for the final performance of the Norton Center\u2019s season, Bobby McFerrin offered a performance like no other. McFerrin, a world-famous vocalist and musician, gave a show that dazzled his audience and exceeded their expectations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went because my friends were going, and it wasn\u2019t what I expected,\u201d first-year Ryland Atkins said. \u201cThe noises he made with his body and voice were unexpected.\u201d<\/p>\n

McFerrin\u2019s techniques include making percussion sounds and large leaps in pitch in an improvisational manner similar to scat singing. His abilities extend to multi-phonic singing \u2013 singing two pitches at once while maintaining a melody \u2013 and creating sounds by thumping his chest. His a capella abilities allow him to perform and record as an unaccompanied vocal artist.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think out of all of the convocations we\u2019ve had, this was one of the prime opportunities to see improv at its finest,\u201d first-year Kaylind Batey said.<\/p>\n

The son of operatic baritone Robert McFerrin Sr. and singer Sara Copper, McFerrin didn\u2019t release his first recorded work until he was 32, after spending six years developing his distinct musical style. He spent the first two years trying not to listen to any other artists so he could focus solely on developing his personal sound.<\/p>\n

\"First-year<\/a>
First-year Riley McCormick improvs alongside Bobby McFerrin at a demonstration before McFerrin\u2019s performance at the Norton Center<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been a big fan of his music and I knew he was going to have an awesome show, but I didn\u2019t realize he was going to be that amazing,\u201d Batey said. \u201cHe was much more engaging and personable than I thought he\u2019d be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bobby McFerrin is best known for his 1988 hit song \u201cDon\u2019t Worry, Be Happy,\u201d the first a capella song to reach number one in the Billboard Hot 100 chart, which brought him widespread fame around the world. He has also earned ten Grammy awards including \u201cSong of the Year,\u201d \u201cRecord of the Year,\u201d and \u201cBest Pop Vocal Performance by a Male Artist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taking its name from a common quote by Indian mystic and sage Meher Baba, the song\u2019s message of a happy perspective has been integrated into American pop culture. It was used as George H. W. Bush\u2019s 1988 U.S. presidential campaign song without McFerrin\u2019s permission or endorsement, an event which McFerrin reacted to publicly, and he has since removed the song from his performance repertoire in protest.<\/p>\n

Following his success, McFerrin effectively ended his career in releasing music, and began pursuing other musical opportunities in recording studios and on stage, such as his performance at Centre.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was really amazing that such a famous guy came here,\u201d first-year Max Prah said. \u201cI knew I had to go see him.\u201d<\/p>\n

His performance had a specific list of songs to go through, but McFerrin immediately established that he wouldn\u2019t be performing in any particular order. Rather, he whimsically leapt from song to song, talking and joking in between each and often performing quick improvisations and voice impersonations. His energy invigorated his crowd, often earning reactions and shouts. McFerrin made use of his audience\u2019s enthusiasm by inviting several audience members to sing with him on stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really liked when he asked people from the audience to go up and sing with him. Not a lot of people do that,\u201d Atkins said.In addition to his performance at night, McFerrin also hosted a lecture and demonstration earlier in the day in which he discussed his musical techniques in improvisation and encouraged aspiring musicians in the crowd to come on stage and improv with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people were hesitant to come down at first, but he made them feel really welcome,\u201d Batey said.<\/p>\n

McFerrin\u2019s presentation left students with a new perspective on music, opening their minds to possibilities they hadn\u2019t considered before.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very different in comparison to the other Norton Center appearances we\u2019ve had this year,\u201d Prah said. \u201cI thought it was cool how laid back it was and how personable he was. I felt like I knew him and he knew us after seeing it. It was more than just a show you watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Norton Center will be announcing their 2014-2015 online soon at www.nortoncenter.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By ADAM FALLUJI –\u00a0STAFF WRITER On April 17, for the final performance of the Norton Center\u2019s season, Bobby McFerrin offered a performance like no other. McFerrin, a world-famous vocalist and musician, gave a show that dazzled his audience and exceeded their expectations. \u201cI went because my friends were going, and it wasn\u2019t what I expected,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":910,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-leisure"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}