Apr 2, 2025
The awesome Al Jarreau!
seen from China
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Netherlands
seen from United States
seen from Iraq
seen from Malaysia
seen from South Africa
seen from India
seen from Maldives
seen from Mexico
seen from Sweden
seen from Sweden
seen from Germany
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Sweden
seen from Kuwait
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from United States
The awesome Al Jarreau!
The awesome Al Jarreau!
Al Jarreau - We're In This Love Together
Breakin' Away | ‘81
June 30, 1981 - Al Jarreau released his fifth studio album, Breakin' Away. It remains Al Jarreau's most popular album. It spent two years on the Billboard 200 and peaked at No.9. It also hit No.1 on both the Jazz and R&B charts. Breakin' Away is not only a great follow-up to This Time, it all but perfected the effort. With an amazing batch of songs, producer/artist chemistry, and top-level players, Breakin' Away became the standard bearer of the L.A. pop and R&B sound. "Closer to Your Love" comes off as a tougher, more confident version of the songs from the previous album. However, in short order, Breakin' Away assumes its own identity with brilliant results. Everything works so well here that the hit, the pleasing "We're in This Love Together," comes off as the weak link. "Easy," with its gorgeous and subtle Latin flourishes, has Jarreau's purposeful delivery coming off oddly poignant in its joy and beauty. The bittersweet "My Old Friend" has him giving a charming and understated reading with gorgeous synth signatures that speak volumes. Most of Breakin' Away has Jarreau in great spirits and giving one great performance after another, like the powerful and melody-rich title song. Like his best albums, this gives Jarreau plenty of room to exercise his chops. He struts through the funky and elegant "Roof Garden," and on the impressive "(Round, Round, Round) Blue Rondo a la Turk" he offers great scats and whimsical lyrics. For the final track, Jarreau brings new life to "Teach Me Tonight" and it has a sweeping, dreamy arrangement. Produced by Jay Graydon, Breakin' Away is a great album and informed a lot of Jarreau's subsequent efforts. Three single charted: "We're in This Love Together" (No.15 pop, No.6 AC, No.6 R&B), "Breakin' Away" (No.43 pop, No.30 AC, No.25 R&B), and "Teach Me Tonight" (No.70 pop, No.19 AC, No.51 R&B). At the Grammys in 1982 the album won for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male, while "(Round, Round, Round) Blue Rondo à la Turk" won for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Male. The album was nominated for Album of the Year. Jarreau died of respiratory failure, at the age of 76, just two days after announcing his retirement on February 12, 2017.
"Ooh Breakin' Away..." Our Boxed Mug & Coaster set featuring the Breakin' Away lyrics from Series 1! Get yours: www.auf.pet #aufwiedersehenpet #breakinaway #mug #mugs #geordie #geordiegifts