MCFERRIN BOBBY

The vocalist's 1984 solo album has proven in many ways to be the blueprint for the iconoclastic career to come. Following his more mainstream debut, 1982's Bobby McFerrin, The Voice is a daring idea: an unaccompanied, live solo vocal album. Although there's little here that augers the explicit interest in classical music that would later be apparent, The Voice showcases McFerrin's remarkable vocal abilities, unabashedly optimistic personality, and willingness to take risky ideas to their logical conclusion. The son of opera singers, McFerrin is grounded in the vocalese style of King Pleasure, Jon Hendricks and Eddie Jefferson, but is only nominally a jazz singer. Rather, his omnivorous interest in music becomes obvious here with covers of James Brown's "I Feel Good," the Beatles' "Blackbird," Duke Ellington's "Take the A-Train," and a medley that manages to incorporate both Charlie Parker's "Donna Lee" and the Tin Pan Alley standard "We're in the Money." As a stylist, McFerrin makes bold use of effects to create a panoply of sounds that stands the notion of pop vocals on its head. --Fred Goodman