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FOXBORO - With four gold records, five Grammys and a following that reaches onto every continent, music fans have been good to Al Jarreau over the last 40 years.

And don't think he doesn't appreciate it.

Jarreau, the jazz and R&B legend who formally opens the Showcase Live! nightclub at Patriot Place on Saturday night, regularly takes time to chat up fans at his performances and delivers the music with the same ebullient, life-is-good attitude that has infused his records since the 1970s. He particularly enjoys encouraging young people to expand their musical tastes, and frequently makes note of it when teens turn up in his audience.

"It's great to see young people," he said in a phone interview last week. "When I see a young man in the front row I can't resist pointing him out, asking his name - and thanking his mom for bringing him to see and hear something he might otherwise not see or hear."

At 68, Jarreau still keeps up a frenetic touring schedule as he has since well before his theme song "Moonlighting" for the Bruce Willis-Cybill Shepherd TV series of the same name made him a household icon. In the fall, Jarreau jets to the Far East with old pal George Benson for a tour of Southeast Asia that includes his first visit to Beijing. "The way I look at it, we've got some fences that need mending," said Jarreau, none too big a fan of the Bush administration.

Raised in Milwaukee, Jarreau came to his profession of entertainer indirectly. Although he began singing at the age of 4, the young Jarreau set his sights on studying psychology and a career as a rehabilitation specialist. But that career choice was sidelined after he moved to San Francisco and began singing in jazz legend George Duke's trio. Appearances on the Johnny Carson and Merv Griffin shows followed, and before long Jarreau was signed by Warner Brothers records.

Jarreau turned out to be an A&R department's dream, winning critical acclaim for nearly every album he finished and entering the monster category with the million-selling "Breakin' Away" in the early 1980s. The singer also became a magnet for both U.S. and foreign Grammy awards. His five American statues include performances for jazz, pop and rhythm and blues - the only singer to score Grammys in three separate categories.

The durable jazzmaster says he's pleased to be opening Showcase Live!, an LA-style nightclub in the shadow of Gillette Stadium.

"This could be a great thing for live music and other art forms that need this kind of space," he said.

Tickets are $82 for the Saturday show, at which Jarreau will be accompanied by keyboardists Larry Williams and Joe Turano, guitarist John Calderon, bassist Stan Sargent and drummer Mark Simmons.

Despite the mileage and the decades, Jarreau is still infused with the love of rendering a tune - especially now that he has the experience to color it.

"It's still just as exciting," he said. "Over the years, you get a new perspective that you wouldn't have had if you hadn't traveled a road that's as long as the one you've been traveling."

Earlier this year, Jarreau sent a Valentine to loyal fans with "Love Songs," a compilation of his most romantic tunes. His first-ever holiday album, "Al Jarreau Christmas," is due out in October.

In the meantime, an older but no less enthusiastic Al Jarreau continues to entertain with a joyous approach to singing that threatens to break records for optimism. Jarreau couldn't do it any other way. "Hopeful? I'm hopeful," he says. "I may be mad as hell but I'm still hopeful. You know God never loses anything. I don't think of things being linear like a life beginning at birth and ending when you die. It would be like anything we know in the universe. I think we go on from there."

"God is standing guard."

RICK FOSTER can be reached at 508-236-0360 or at rfoster@thesunchronicle.com.