"We are just fanatics about using the technology to make it all wonderful. We laughed at the fact that we were having such a great time working this way"
About this Quote
There is something disarmingly radical in Jarreau calling himself and his collaborators "fanatics" not about fame or perfection, but about process: using technology as a route to joy. Coming from a singer who made virtuosity feel conversational, the line reframes studio gear from cold machinery into an instrument of play. "Make it all wonderful" is deliberately plainspoken; it resists the audiophile fetishism that can turn tools into status symbols. The wonder is the point, not the specs.
The subtext is a quiet defense of experimentation in an era when "technology" often gets cast as either savior or villain. Jarreau lands somewhere more human: tech as a permission slip. It lets musicians try stranger harmonies, layer voices, chase textures that live between jazz, R&B, and pop without having to justify themselves to purists. That he emphasizes laughter matters. Laughter is the opposite of the anxious, clenched studio myth where genius is forged through suffering. He's telling you the work didn't just produce delight; it was delight.
Contextually, this tracks with late-20th-century recording culture, when synthesizers, multitracking, and emerging digital tools expanded what a voice could be. Jarreau's music thrived on that borderland between live improvisation and studio craft. The quote reads like a manifesto for a certain kind of musicianship: serious about feeling, unserious about ego, and eager to treat technology as a collaborator rather than a threat.
The subtext is a quiet defense of experimentation in an era when "technology" often gets cast as either savior or villain. Jarreau lands somewhere more human: tech as a permission slip. It lets musicians try stranger harmonies, layer voices, chase textures that live between jazz, R&B, and pop without having to justify themselves to purists. That he emphasizes laughter matters. Laughter is the opposite of the anxious, clenched studio myth where genius is forged through suffering. He's telling you the work didn't just produce delight; it was delight.
Contextually, this tracks with late-20th-century recording culture, when synthesizers, multitracking, and emerging digital tools expanded what a voice could be. Jarreau's music thrived on that borderland between live improvisation and studio craft. The quote reads like a manifesto for a certain kind of musicianship: serious about feeling, unserious about ego, and eager to treat technology as a collaborator rather than a threat.
Quote Details
| Topic | Technology |
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