Bobby McFerrin: Beyond Words : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Bobby McFerrin's twelfth album is about as excellent an opera-gone-bust as you'll hear. The vocalist's first new effort in five years is a collection of sixteen pieces that were initially conceived during writing sessions for an opera, no doubt inspired by McFerrin's more recent pursuits as a conductor. As is the songs form a beautifully diverse spread of music that, as is often the case with McFerrin, doggedly resists categorization. The opening, seven-minute "Invocation" sets that tone immediately, as it segues from a soothing classical-minded intro into a calypso-tinged swinger riding a tempo-shift wave instigated by Chick Corea's always tasteful acoustic piano work. And that m.o. is sustained throughout, as McFerrin crafts a global kitchen sink, skipping from continent to continent and fusing styles with a gleeful disregard to genre rules. Be it American ("Ziggurat"), European ("Mass") or Far Eastern ("A Silken Road") traditions with which he paints, McFerrin's voice is a malleable instrument like no other in music.

ANDREW DANSBY
(April 2, 2002)