Jazz vocalist Al Jarreau – best known for his 1981 hit “We’re in This Love Together” – died on Sunday in Los Angeles, just days after retiring from live performances, his team announced. He was 76.
“(Jarreau) passed away this morning,” according to the singer’s Twitter account.
“He was in the hospital, kept, kept comfortable by his wife, son, and a few of his family and friends.”
The seven-time Grammy winner abruptly cancelled a string of concerts on Tuesday, saying he was hanging up the microphone on advice of doctors.
“We’re in This Love Together” topped at No. 15 on the Billboard charts in November 1981.
He also sang the theme to the TV show “Moonlighting” which reached No. 23 in July 1987.
That show, starring Cybill Shepherd, went on to become a smash hit and launched the career of Bruce Willis.
He also sang on the 1985 charity song, “We Are the World.”
Screen legend Billy Dee Williams tweeted lyrics from Jarreau’s “My Old Friend,”
“But from the beginning you’ve been,” Williams posted. ”Always there my old friend True until the end of time.”
He added to Jarreau: “I will miss you.”
Alwin Lopez Jarreau was born on March 12, 1940 in Milwaukee.
The Grammy winner got his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Ripon College and the University of Iowa, in 1962 and 1964 respectively, before taking a job as a counselor for the disabled in San Francisco.
Jarreau moonlighted, singing in jazz clubs, before deciding in 1968 to make music his full-time gig.
“His second priority in life was music. There was no third,” according to a statement on Jarreau’s website on Sunday. “His first priority, far ahead of the other, was healing or comforting anyone in need.”
Jarreau is survived by his wife, Susan, and a son, Ryan.
They’ve asked that, In lieu of flowers or gifts, that fans donate to the Wisconsin Foundation for School Music.