Bobby McFerrin’s Circlesongs: “Every voice has a place”

Moments of healing, community and celebrating life through music take place every Monday at Circlesongs, the Grammy winner's vocal jam sessions and sing-alongs at Berkeley's Freight and Salvage.

When Corinthia Peoples seated herself in the front row for Bobby McFerrin’s weekly Circlesongs performance at Berkeley’s Freight & Salvage, she didn’t look like someone who lacked confidence.

The San Francisco resident came to the communal sing-along elegantly dressed in flowing white and wearing silver and stone jewelry of her own design. She also wore a radiant smile — even after a prompt by McFerrin encouraged her to reveal to the rest of the audience that she harbored a deep fear about singing in front of people, due to an offhand comment made by a relative when she was a young girl. After sharing her story, Peoples got the chance to work through her fear with help from the 10-time Grammy award-winning virtuoso himself.

“We can sing together,” the 74-year-old McFerrin told Peoples, gently coaxing her into performing a gorgeous, improvised duet with him, based on the “Sister” lyrics in the “Miss Celie’s Blues” song from the 1985 film, “The Color Purple.”

Such moments of healing, community and celebrating life through music are commonplace at McFerrin’s Circlesongs. Every Monday at noon at the downtown Berkeley venue, the jazz artist and his a cappella group Motion — made up of Destani Wolf, Tammi Brown, Bryan Dyer and Dave Worm — present vocal jam sessions. They use their voices like instruments to riff off well-known lyrics and create spontaneous, scatlike harmonies and vocal percussions. Most importantly, they invite everyone in the audience to join in, regardless of musical experience.

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

Peoples attended her first Circlesongs on Feb. 26. During a pause in the music that day, McFerrin, who became globally famous for his four-octave range and 1988 hit, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” told the 200 people in the audience, “I wanna know what you’re feeling. Tell me what’s on your mind!”

That’s when Peoples spoke up, explaining that she once dreamed of being an entertainer before being told she’d never be good enough.

“What is music?” she asked.

As the slender McFerrin stepped off stage to engage directly with Peoples, he almost seemed to be playing the role of wise man, offering healing words. Indeed, some audience members referred to him as a shaman or said that attending Circlesongs is like going to church. With Peoples, McFerrin offered what sounded like a sermon on the nature of music, explaining how it has many dimensions and modes of expression, with an unlimited reach into the soul and imagination.

“Music is playful! Music is dangerous! Music is spiritual,” McFerrin said, with some of that playfulness. When Peoples and others in the crowd also suggested music is “power,” “community” and “vibration,” McFerrin nodded and added, “It’s B-flat! It’s a language that everyone can understand.”

After McFerrin encouraged Peoples to start their duet, the first words that popped into her head were from “The Color Purple.”

“Sister,” she began. “You’ve been on my mind.”

McFerrin repeated “sister” and began to hum.  As their voices rose together, they seemed to lose themselves. The Motion crew worked their way in, with Wolf and Brown offering soaring vocals and Dyer and Worm delivering a bass line and vocal percussion, and audience members joined in, too.

Their duet over, McFerrin said to 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 is our birthright to sing just for ourselves,” Wolf said. “Each of us has our own unique voice, and we get to use it however we want to use it.”

McFerrin, who has been open about living with Parkinson’s disease, has hosted Circlesongs around the world since he released his 1997 album of the same name. In 2021, he and Motion brought the practice to Freight & Salvage, with the quintet celebrating their 100th performance there in early March.

Almost as soon as McFerrin picked up the microphone on this particular afternoon, audience members began to sing along, tap their feet or shimmy in their seats. A few people danced in the aisles, and McFerrin and the Motion performers invited 2-year-old Runa Nayak of Oakland to wander on stage, before the little girl returned to the arms of her mother, Io Nayak.

Regular attendee Daniel Bowman Simon said it’s common for McFerrin and his crew to incorporate children’s cries or other noises into the music. This performance, like many others, had a school group in attendance, in this case, Marin Academy ninth graders.

“It’s one of the ​​”most delightful, joyous, completely surprising ways to spend 90 minutes,” said Simon, a Berkeley resident. “People might not know the name Bobby McFerrin or know what Circlesinging is, but they definitely know the song ‘Don’t Worry Be Happy.”

When Simon invites people to join him and sing “with Bobby McFerrin,” they often say, “I can’t sing!” Simon tells them, “You don’t have to sing, but I can’t guarantee you that you won’t.”

It’s hard not to burst into song, what with the miracles large and small unfolding across the room. When a Circlesongs regular presented Brown with a portrait she created in her honor, the Santa Cruz-based vocalist revealed that she was in remission from Stage 4 cancer. It had metastasized to her lungs, leaving her struggling to breathe and to sing. But, Brown said, “Talk about the power of singing and healing: Circlesongs was very much a part of my healing. Bobby called me every day. (And) with your prayers and support and thoughts and God’s mercy, I’m here.”

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