“Every voice has its place”

As Corinthia Peoples sat front row at Bobby McFerrin's weekly Circlesongs performance at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, she didn't seem to be someone lacking in confidence.

The San Francisco resident got here to sing along, elegantly wearing flowing white and wearing silver and stone jewelry she designed herself. She also wore a brilliant smile – even after McFerrin encouraged her to divulge to the remaining of the audience that she was frightened of singing in front of individuals when she was a young girl due to an offhand comment from a relative. After sharing her story, Peoples was given the possibility to beat her fears herself with the assistance of the 10-time Grammy Award-winning virtuoso.

“We can sing together,” McFerrin, 74, told Peoples, gently coaxing her to perform a fantastic, improvised duet with him based on the lyric “Sister” within the song “Miss Celie's Blues” from the 1985 film. “The colour purple.”

Such moments of healing, community and celebration of life through music are commonplace at McFerrin's Circlesongs. Every Monday at noon, the jazz artist and his a cappella group Motion — consisting of Destani Wolf, Tammi Brown, Bryan Dyer and Dave Worm — present vocal jam sessions on the downtown Berkeley venue. They use their voices like instruments to replay well-known lyrics and create spontaneous, scat-like harmonies and vocal percussion. Most importantly, they invite everyone within the audience to affix in, no matter their musical experience.

“Every voice has its place in the circle,” McFerrin said.

Peoples attended her first Circlesongs on February twenty sixth. During a break in music that day, McFerrin, who gained worldwide fame for his four-octave range and his 1988 hit “Don't Worry, Be Happy,” told the audience of 200 in attendance: “I need to know what you are feeling. Tell me what’s in your mind!”

That's when Peoples spoke out and explained that she once dreamed of becoming an entertainer before being told she would never be ok.

“What is music?” She asked.

As the slender McFerrin left the stage to interact directly with Peoples, he almost gave the impression to be playing the role of a sensible man offering healing words. In fact, some audience members referred to him as a shaman or said attending Circlesongs was like going to church. With “Peoples,” McFerrin delivered what seemed like a sermon on the character of music, explaining that it has many dimensions and expressions and a limiteless influence on the soul and imagination.

“Music is playful! Music is dangerous! Music is spiritual,” McFerrin said with some playfulness. When Peoples and others within the audience also suggested that music was “power,” “community,” and “vibration,” McFerrin nodded and added, “It’s B!” It’s a language that everybody can understand.”

After McFerrin encouraged Peoples to start their duet, the primary words that got here to mind were “The Color Purple.”

“Sister,” she began. “I thought of you.”

McFerrin repeated “sister” and started humming. As their voices grew louder at the identical time, they looked as if it would lose themselves. The motion crew worked their way in, with Wolf and Brown providing stirring vocals and Dyer and Worm providing a bass line and vocal percussion, and the audience joined in too.

After their duet, McFerrin told Peoples, “I don't know if you know this, but we sang about five different keys. Everything you sang was surprising. I love surprises.”

“It’s our birthright to sing just for ourselves,” Wolf said. “Each of us has our own unique voice and we can use it however we want.”

McFerrin, who has been open about living with Parkinson's disease, has hosted Circlesongs all over the world for the reason that release of his eponymous album in 1997. In 2021, he and Motion brought the practice to Freight & Salvage, where the quintet celebrated its one centesimal performance in early March.

As soon as McFerrin picked up the microphone that afternoon, the audience began singing along, tapping their feet or shifting of their seats. A couple of people danced within the aisles, and McFerrin and the motion solid invited 2-year-old Runa Nayak of Oakland to take the stage before the little girl returned to the arms of her mother, Io Nayak.

Regular Daniel Bowman Simon said it was common for McFerrin and his crew to include children's screams or other noises into the music. This performance, like many others, was attended by a college group, on this case ninth graders from Marin Academy.

It's considered one of the “most beautiful, joyful and completely surprising ways to spend 90 minutes,” said Simon, a Berkeley resident. “People may not know the name Bobby McFerrin or what circle singing is, but they definitely know the song 'Don't Worry Be Happy'.”

It's hard to not burst into song on the miracles, big and small, unfolding within the room. When a Circlesongs regular presented Brown with a portrait made in her honor, the Santa Cruz-based singer revealed that she was in remission from stage 4 cancer. It had metastasized to her lungs, causing her to have difficulty respiratory and singing. But Brown said, “Talk about the power of singing and healing: Circle songs were an essential part of my healing. Bobby called me every day. (And) with your prayers, your support, your thoughts and the mercy of God, I am here.”

And Peoples felt like she had experienced her own Circlesongs miracle when she finally sang in front of individuals again. “It was like something inside me had been trapped in a bottle, but the lid was lifted,” she said, “and the genie came out of the bottle.”