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Al Jarreau Says Positive Attitude Helped Him Recover From Back Surgery
05/22/2003 5:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
LAUNCH Radio Networks
(5/22/03, 5 p.m. ET) -- Vocalist Al Jarreau said that he has healed well from his emergency back surgery last September, but things were a little tentative at first. He's still trying to re-arrange his tour schedule for 2003 after having canceled dates last year.
Still, things are going well for the headliner of this year's Verizon Music Festival, who is also Verizon's Literacy Champion. Jarreau managed to tour Japan in March, appear at this year's New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in April, and will be part of the Playboy Jazz Festival in Hollywood this June.
Jarreau said that he resumed his performance schedule just five weeks after surgery, thanks to some intensive therapy. However he was still shaky during some of those first weeks of touring, though the audiences were frequently unaware of his physical condition until he told them.
"I got to the place where I was going: 'I think I can, I think I can.' And down around week four I was going, 'Aw, I know I can. I'm gonna be OK,'" Jarreau said. "But it was very tentative with small baby steps and not the same strength in my legs that I've had and my balance not so good. But even with that limited movement that I noticed, there was an audience of people that didn't recognize anything."
Jarreau added that the support of his fans and making music was extremely helpful to his recovery--but that his recovery also depended on his own positive attitude.
"That is very supportive, and the doing of the music itself is very healing," Jarreau said. "Being involved in this process that puts you in a place where the door is open to all the healing stuff that exists, because you are in the right frame of mind."
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