![]() ![]() He won the 1982 Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for Breakin' Away. One of Jarreau's most commercially successful albums is Breakin' Away (1981), which includes the hit song " We're in This Love Together". In 1978, he won his first Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance for his album, Look to the Rainbow. A second Echo Award would follow with the release of his second album, Glow. On Valentine's Day 1976 he sang on the 13th episode of NBC's Saturday Night Live, that week hosted by Peter Boyle. Soon he released his critically acclaimed debut album, We Got By, which catapulted him to international fame and won an Echo Award (the German equivalent of the Grammys in the United States). In 1975, Jarreau was working with pianist Tom Canning when he was spotted by Warner Bros. Also, roughly at the same time, he began writing his own lyrics, finding that his Christian spirituality began to influence his work. During this period, he became involved with the United Church of Religious Science and the Church of Scientology. He expanded his nightclub appearances, performing at The Improv between the acts of such rising stars as Bette Midler, Jimmie Walker, and John Belushi. Television exposure came from Johnny Carson, Mike Douglas, Merv Griffin, Dinah Shore, and David Frost. In 1969, he and Martinez headed south, where Jarreau appeared at Dino's, The Troubadour, and Bitter End West. In 1968, Jarreau made jazz his primary occupation. This success contributed to Jarreau's decision to make professional singing his life and full-time career. The duo became the star attraction at a small Sausalito night club called Gatsby's. In 1967, he joined forces with acoustic guitarist Julio Martinez. Jarreau also worked as a rehabilitation counselor in San Francisco, and moonlighted with a jazz trio headed by George Duke. Two years later, in 1964, he earned a master's degree in vocational rehabilitation from the University of Iowa. He graduated in 1962 with a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology. Jarreau went on to attend Ripon College, where he also sang with a group called the Indigos. Jarreau was student council president and Badger Boys State delegate for Lincoln High School. Jarreau and his family sang together in church concerts and in benefits, and Jarreau and his mother performed at PTA meetings. His father Emile Alphonse Jarreau was a Seventh-day Adventist Church minister and singer, and his mother Pearl (Walker) Jarreau was a church pianist. Jarreau was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on March 12, 1940, the fifth of six children. Al Jarreau during a concert in (West Germany) in early 1981
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