PARIS – Grammy-award winning singer Al Jarreau was in intensive care in a French hospital Friday after suffering breathing problems in the Alps, forcing him to cancel four concerts.

Jarreau’s manager, Joe Gordon, said the 70-year-old singer “is awake and he’s concerned” about missing concerts. When he said he wanted to eat, the doctors did a little dance, Gordon said.

Additional Photos

Seven-time Grammy Award winner Al Jarreau performs at Festival Jazz des Cinq Continents in Marseille, France, a day before he had breathing problems. The Associated Press

“He’s only canceled one concert (due) to his health in his entire career,” Gordon, who was at Jarreau’s side, told The Associated Press in New York. But he also said, “It was life threatening” and “he’s doing well, considering.”

Gordon said the Thursday concert at a jazz festival in the French mountain town of Barcelonnette, in the southern Alps was canceled in the middle of his warmup routine.

“We canceled the concert as a precaution because he wasn’t feeling good,” the manager said.

The director of the jazz festival, Xavier Fribourg, told The AP that Jarreau was evacuated by helicopter just before the start of the concert.

A note on Jarreau’s official website said the world-acclaimed singer was in “good spirits” and “looking forward to getting back out on the road.” The note said he would perform in Nuremberg, Germany, next Thursday as scheduled.

“We hope to be able to do that,” the manager said.

Jarreau “decided to take precautionary measures and admit himself into the hospital after his body did not adjust normally to mountain altitude,” the Web site note said.

He was taken to the intensive care unit in the city of Gap, the hospital said Friday.

“Upon medical advice, (he) was advised not to perform to allow him time to recover,” Marshall Arts Ltd., his British agent, said in a statement.

The Grammy Award winner was conscious and breathing without assistance Friday but was still in intensive care receiving treatment for respiratory problems, said Maurice Marchetti, deputy director of the hospital.

Marchetti said doctors weren’t certain what went wrong, but they believe fatigue as well as the altitude may have played a role in Jarreau’s health problems. The singer is on a lengthy overseas tour.

Lohan’s father accused of threatening ex-fiancee

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. – Actress Lindsay Lohan’s father faces a harassment charge in New York after his former fiancee says he kicked and threatened to kill her.

Michael Lohan is due in a Southampton courtroom on Aug. 18.

His fiancee, 27-year-old Kathryn Major, told police that she and the 50-year-old Lohan argued on Monday over a missed cell phone call at the home they shared in Water Mill on Long Island. Major says Lohan kicked and threatened her.

Lohan’s attorney, Lisa Bloom, says her client denies all the charges. She confirmed in an e-mail that the couple, who were engaged in April, have split.

Lohan was in Los Angeles this week to watch his daughter surrender to begin a 90-day jail term for violating terms of her probation.

Bloom, Aussie model tie the knot

SYDNEY – Actor Orlando Bloom and model Miranda Kerr have married, her employer said Friday. Upscale Australian department store David Jones, which employs the 27-year-old Australian model as a fashion ambassador, said she will not attend a Spring season launch on Aug. 3 because she was honeymooning with the 33-year-old British star of “Lord of the Rings” and “Pirates of the Caribbean.”

Kerr first met Bloom backstage at a Victoria’s Secret lingerie fashion show in New York in 2006.

Related Stories