The new millennium finds Al Green back in the spotlight as prominently as he has been since he redefined Southern soul in the Seventies. This Wednesday he promises to light up New York City's Central Park as part of the Bell Atlantic JazzFest. "I used to sing jazz," Green says of his presence at a festival that has expanded well beyond the realm of avant-jazz to include dashes of soul, latin, rock, blues and other assorted musical threads. "I forgot to tell the people up in Central Park that I used to sing jazz: [begins singing] 'The shadow of your smile, when you are gone/all gone . . .' OK, minor [key]: 'The shadow of your smiiiiiile . . ." That's it!"
Green speaks with an over-the-top enthusiasm, and why not? His life had previously been divided into two distinct halves, and today they're as close to fused as possible. After he interpreted a 1979 stage accident as a sign from God to abandon soul music, the Reverend Green took to his ministry and only issued sporadic gospel releases. In recent years, Green has flirted more with the soul music that made him a star thirty years ago. And an upcoming autobiography offers an additional look back.
"Plenty of girls, champagne, jet planes and limousines," Green says of the early days captured in Take Me to the River (due September 5). "We [Green and author Davin Seay] get into what takes you into the nightclubs. You meet all kinds of people: There's working girls, there's players, there's schemers, there's con artists . . . It's a pretty real account of that era."
The first volume brings Green up to the point at which he starts his ministry in Memphis, where he still preaches today. "It's a two-part series, man," he says. "Get the two-part series! You gotta be like those Catholics is what they tell me. You got to pass the basket and get that second offering [laughs]."
Green, who released Greatest Gospel Hits back in March, is also hoping to drop a new soul album in the near future, his first since Your Heart's in Good Hands in 1995. "I've cut a few things with other artists," he says. "If things work out, then we can get some of this music out. I started an album about two or three years ago and they sent me on a whirlwind tour and I never got to finish it. But I'm definitely working on some new material so we can get it out on the marketplace. That's what I want."
ANDREW DANSBY
(June 7, 2000)
