A sonic exploration and tonal analysis of contemporary creative music in a myriad of improvisational/composed settings, textures, and expressions.
Welcome to Sound Projections
I'm your host Kofi Natambu. This online magazine features the very best in contemporary creative music in this creative timezone NOW (the one we're living in) as well as that of the historical past. The purpose is to openly explore, examine, investigate, reflect on, studiously critique, and take opulent pleasure in the sonic and aural dimensions of human experience known and identified to us as MUSIC. I'm also interested in critically examining the wide range of ideas and opinions that govern our commodified notions of the production, consumption, marketing, and commercial exchange of organized sound(s) which largely define and thereby (over)determine our present relationships to music in the general political economy and culture.
Thus this magazine will strive to critically question and go beyond the conventional imposed notions
and categories of what constitutes the generic and stylistic definitions of ‘Jazz’, ‘classical music’, ‘Blues.’
'Rhythm and Blues’, ‘Rock and Roll’, ‘Pop’, ‘Funk’, ‘Hip Hop’, etc. in order to search for what individual
artists and ensembles do cretively to challenge and transform our ingrained ideas and attitudes of what
music is and could be.
So please join me in this ongoing visceral, investigative, and cerebral quest to explore, enjoy, and pay
homage to the endlessly creative and uniquely magisterial dimensions of MUSIC in all of its guises and expressive identities.
Saturday, May 16, 2015
Dee Dee Bridgewater (b. May 27, 1950): Outstanding singer, improvisor, actress, ensemble leader, and teacher
SOUND PROJECTIONS
AN ONLINE QUARTERLY MUSIC MAGAZINE
EDITOR: KOFI NATAMBU
SPRING/SUMMER, 2015
VOLUME ONE NUMBER THREE
CHARLIE PARKER
Featuring the Musics and Aesthetic Visions of:
DUKE ELLINGTON April 25-May 1 ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO May 2-May 8
Few entertainers have ever commanded such depth of artistry in
every medium. Fewer still have been rewarded with Broadway’s coveted
Tony Award (Best Featured Actress in a Musical The Wiz), nominated for
the London theater’s West End equivalent, the Laurence Oliver Award
(Best Actress in a Musical Lady Day), won two Grammy® Awards (1998’s
Best Jazz Vocal Performance and Best Arrangement Accompanying a Vocal
for “Cottontail” Slide Hampton, arranger “Dear Ella “), and France’s
1998 top honor Victoire de la Musique (Best Jazz Vocal Album).
Denise Grant was born in Memphis on May 27, 1950. Her father Matthew was
a trumpeteer and teacher; he exposed young Denise to his love of jazz
at an early age. The youngster enjoyed the many records her father
played her, especially those of Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis and
Cannonball Adderley. By the age of 16 she was in a vocal trio that
specialized in R&B and rock cover versions. The family had relocated
to Clinton, Michigan and naturally an audition with nearby Motown was
inevitable. But the label turned her down, not for her lack of talent,
but because of the groups’ young age. When Denise was 18 years old, she
attended Michigan State University and joined saxophonist Andy
Courtridge's group. Then in 1969, she transferred to the University of
Illinois, where she was noticed by John Garvey, the University's Jazz
Band Director who hired her for a tour. In 1970, Denise met and married
Cecil Bridgewater. After their marriage they moved to New York so Cecil
could play in Horace Silver's band. Around this time Denise became known
as Dee Dee.
Dee Dee made her phenomenal New York debut in
1970 as the lead vocalist for the band led by Thad Jones and Mel Lewis,
one of the premier jazz orchestras of the time. These New York years
marked an early career in concerts and on recordings with such giants as
Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Max Roach and Roland
Kirk, and rich experiences with Norman Connors, Stanley Clarke and Frank
Foster’s “Loud Minority.”
She jumped at the chance in 1974, to
act and sing on Broadway where her voice, beauty and stage presence won
her great success and a Tony Award for her role as Glinda the Good Witch
in The Wiz. This began a long line of awards and accolades as well as
opportunities to work in Tokyo, Los Angeles, Paris and in London where
she garnered the coveted “Laurence Olivier” Award nomination as Best
Actress for her tour de force portrayal of jazz legend Billie Holiday in
Stephen Stahl’s Lady Day. Performing the lead in equally demanding
acting/singing roles as Sophisticated Ladies, Cosmopolitan Greetings,
Black Ballad, Carmen Jazz and the musical Cabaret (the first black
actress to star as Sally Bowles), she secured her reputation as a
consummate entertainer.
In 1976 she landed her first recording
contract with Atlantic Records. Her first release was simply entitled
“Dee Dee Bridgewater.” “Just Family,” (’77 Elektra)was produced by
Stanley Clarke and featured a lot of musicians who had jazz backgrounds,
including Chick Corea, George Duke, Airto Moreira, and Bobby Lyle but
this is an R&B album first and foremost. But once again Bridgewater
had a difficult time finding an audience for this record. Here was this
magnificent jazz voice and record label executives kept trying to push
it into R&B and pop grooves, ironically no one knew how to market
her. “Bad for Me,” (’79 Elektra) did generate some interest, largely
because of the club play generated by the 12” single of the title track.
But Elektra still tried to push her as a pop princess and a third
album, 1980's “Dee Dee Bridgewater” fulfilled her contract and finished
her off for the American market, at least for the time being.
Thoroughly disenchanted with the American music scene and in search of a
broader acceptance Bridgewater moved to France in the early 1980's. She
discovered Paris while touring there in “Sophisticated Ladies” and
after high accolades she finally felt an acceptance she had not had in
the U.S. She played the role of Billie Holiday in the show “Lady Day” in
1986, again earning rave reviews. In 1987, Bridgewater released her
first album recorded in France. “Live in Paris,” her return to singing
jazz. The French public loved this album, and it opened up new
opportunities for Dee Dee in France.
Dee Dee appeared with Archie
Shepp in “Black Ballad,” in ’91 and in ‘92, she released a live album
titled “Live In Montreux.” Horace Silver, an old friend, contributed his
talent and songs to the ‘94 offering of “Love and Peace: A Tribute to
Horace Silver.” In 1997, Dee Dee released the album, “Dear Ella,” a
tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, the album garnered a worldwide audience and 2
Grammy awards.
1998 brought the highly acclaimed “Victim of
Love” album, followed by “Live at Yoshi’s” (2000) and “This Is
New.”(2002)These were on the Verve label.
Dee Dee went French in a
big way with her 2005 recording of “J’ai Deux Amours,” showing that a
change of venue and language is just what her audience ordered. She did
classy renditions of French flavored favorites, and transformed them
into her own.
Her 2007 release of “Red Earth,” is her ode to Mali
and Africa. Singing in the spirit that calls on her African ancestry
and with reverence for jazz tradition at its best, Dee Dee exudes the
artistic depth she is revered for around the world. Recorded in Mali and
featuring some of its most respected artists, this ambitious concept
recording explores Malian and other African jazz. An excellent endeavor!
For
her latest recording, “Eleanora Fagan (1917-1959)”: To Billie With Love
From Dee Dee, Bridgewater honors an iconic jazz figure, Billie Holiday,
who died tragically at the age of 44 a half-century ago.
“This
album is my way of paying my respect to a vocalist who made it possible
for singers like me to carve out a career for ourselves,” says
Bridgewater, who performed the role of Holiday in the triumphant
theatrical production, Lady Day”based on the singer’s autobiography,
Lady Sings the Blues”staged in Paris and London in 1986 and 1987. “I
wanted Eleanora Fagan to be something different: more modern and a
celebration, not a [recording] that goes dark and sullen and maudlin. I
wanted the album to be joyful.”
Instead of playing it safe and
recreating her performance in Lady Day, on “Eleanora Fagan,” Bridgewater
reacquaints herself with Holiday, shining a new ray of love on the
often-misunderstood jazz icon. “I wanted the record to be a collection
that would not be like the music of the show,” she says. That philosophy
is in keeping with Bridgewater’s approach to all of her projects: “I
want to move forward, just as I’ve done with each of my albums. To not
go backwards, but progress. Constantly.”
Contemporary Black Biography |
2002
| Manheim, James
|
Copyright
Dee Dee Bridgewater 1950–
Jazz vocalist
One of the many serious American jazz musicians who have found an environment hospitable for their talents in Europe, Dee Dee Bridgewater’s
vocals, steeped in the traditions of jazz, have extended those
traditions to form her own personal style. Bridgewater has sung jazz,
performed on Broadway, and made forays into the pop world. During a 15-year stint in Paris,
she combined all the elements of her long musical education into a new
level of jazz mastery and gained wide recognition for the first time.
Bridgewater was born Denise Garrett on May 27, 1950, in Memphis, Tennessee;
Dee Dee was her nickname from an early age. Her father was known as a
jazz trumpeter around Memphis, but when Dee Dee was three the family
moved to Flint, Michigan, so that her father could take a teaching job there. As a teenager in Michigan in the early 1960s Bridgewater’s
peer group was interested in the growing Motown sound, and she formed a
vocal trio, the Iridescents, in hopes of getting a recording contract.
But her two companions “became more interested in boys,” Bridgewater recalled for the New York Times, and left to her own devices she turned to jazz. “Nancy Wilson was my first big idol,” she told the Seattle Times. “I loved her stage performance, so classy. My walls in my room were covered with articles about Nancy Wilson.”
While still in high school she performed with instrumental trios her
father put together; underage, she had to sit in the kitchen between
sets.
She attended Michigan State University briefly, but switched to the University of Illinois after meeting the director of the school’s jazz band in 1969 and finding herself interested in a trumpeter in the university’s jazz program, Cecil Bridgewater. Married within six months of meeting, the two toured the Soviet Union with the school’s jazz band. But they soon landed gigs off campus and resolved to move to New York to try their luck in the nation’s
jazz center. Later divorced from Cecil Bridgewater (with whom she
remained on good terms and in close musical cooperation) and married
twice more, Dee Dee Bridgewater has performed under that name since the
days of their marriage.
Bridgewater made a splash quickly in New York, performing at the
famed Village Vanguard club with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis orchestra. “Everything I know
At a Glance…
Born Denise Garrett on May 27, 1950, in Memphis, TN; nicknamed Dee
Dee from an early age; father a teacher and jazz trumpeter; married
Cecil Bridgewater, a musician, 1969 or 1970 (divorced); married Gilbert
Moses, a theatrical director (divorced); married Jean-Marie Durand, a
bartender; children: Tulani Bridgewater, China Moses, Gabriel Durand. Education: Attended Michigan State University and the University of Illinois.
Career: Jazz vocalist. Performed at Village Vanguard with Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra, early 1970s; performed in Broadway musical The Wiz, early 1970s; worked toward pop career, late 1970s; toured with international company of jazz musical Sophisticated Ladies; moved to Paris, France, 1986; released debut solo album, Live in Paris, 1987; signed to Verve label, 1990; moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, 2000.
Awards: Tony Award, Best Supporting Actress in a Musical, for The Wiz; three Grammy nominations; Grammy award, Best Jazz Vocal Performance, for Dear Ella, 1998.
Addresses:Record Label—Verve Records, 825 Eighth Ave., 26th floor, New York, NY 10019.
Performing as far afield as the Soviet Union (for a second time) and Tokyo, she was named Best New Vocalist in Down Beat magazine’s annual poll. With her marriage breaking up, however, Bridgewater turned to more lucrative work—with Thad Jones, performing at one of the nation’s leading jazz venues, she was earning only &25 a night. In 1974 Bridgewater auditioned for The Wiz, the all-black version of The Wizard of Oz
that captivated Broadway audiences in the 1970s. Playing the part of
Glinda the Good Witch, she won a Tony award for Best Supporting Actress
in a Musical.
Romantically involved with Wiz director Gilbert Moses, whom
she later married, Bridgewater moved to Los Angeles in 1976 and tried to
make a new career in pop music. Though she found moderate success with a
few recordings that had jazz fusion elements, Bridgewater never warmed
to much of the material she encountered. After nine long years,
Bridgewater threw in the towel temporarily on her musical career, moving
back to Flint to care for her ailing mother. At the same time, her
second marriage went sour. “I needed an ocean between my second husband and me,” Bridgewater told the London Daily Telegraph. And she put one in place by joining the international touring company of the swing musical Sophisticated Ladies.
What drew her back to her musical roots was a backstage conversation
with jazz legend Ella Fitzgerald, whom Bridgewater met in Tokyo as the Sophisticated Ladies company traveled to Japan. “I am a jazz singer, that’s in my blood …,” Bridgewater told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “I thought an art form was dying and chose to dedicate myself to it …” As the Sophisticated Ladies
company moved on to France, Bridgewater was pleased to find that she
was already well known among jazz lovers there, always closely attuned
to high-quality American jazz. Bridgewater moved to Paris in 1986 and
relaunched her jazz career.
Personally and professionally, the decision was the right one for the artist. “My daughters fell in love with the place,” she told the Seattle Times. “Three girls running around the place? Are you kidding?”
Bridge-water met her third husband, Jean-Marie Durand, a French jazz
club bartender, during the first year she was living in the city. And
work began to come. Bridgewater starred in the one-woman musical Lady Day,
a biographical stage rendering of the life of tragic jazz chanteuse
Billie Holiday, and she was the first black performer to play the
starring role of Sally Bowles in the musical Cabaret, set in
Germany during the rise of Nazism. Bridgewater toured Europe and Asia,
and was signed to a contract with the Verve label in 1990.
With full creative and financial control over her career, Bridgewater
returned to the straight-ahead jazz she had performed as a young woman.
After her first Verve album, In Montreux, Bridgewater served notice of her creative philosophy with the title of her next release, 1992’s Keeping Tradition.
That album, featuring vocal standards, brought Bridgewater a Grammy
nomination in 1993, and she followed it up with two tribute albums to
jazz artists who had inspired her. The 1995 release Love and Peace: A Tribute to Horace Silver, landed on European bestseller charts not only for jazz but for pop as well.
Bridgewater returned triumphantly to the stage of New York’s Village Vanguard in 1996, and the following year released the second of her two tribute albums, Dear Ella. Winning positive reviews from jazz journals such as Down Beat, which praised the CD as “exquisite and exuberant,” Dear Ella
also served to introduce younger U.S. listeners to the music of Ella
Fitzgerald, regarded by many as the greatest pure vocalist in jazz
history. The album included three arrangements by Cecil Bridgewater, one
of them of the signature Fitzgerald number “How High the Moon.”
In 2000 Bridgewater returned with Live at Yoshi’s, an album recorded at a jazz club in Oakland, California. The album, wrote the Seattle Times, “showcases all her strengths—the thrust of soul music, the chops of swashbuckling jazz improvisation and the inviting personality of an actress.” Live at Yoshi’s displayed Bridgewater’s virtuoso talent for “scat” singing—making instrumental sounds with the voice—more
effectively than did her studio albums generally. That year Bridgewater
moved back to the United States to be closer to her aging parents,
bringing her French husband with her and settling in suburban Las Vegas,
Nevada. She seemed to have brought together the many strands of her
musical life and hit the peak of her career. Future projects under
consideration for Bridge-water included a stage show based on the music
of the satirical German-born song composer Kurt Weill.
Portrait of the artist: Dee Dee Bridgewater, jazz singer
'Ray Charles told me: You can always get another agent or manager – but you are the only Dee Dee Bridgewater'
'You have to be a man in this macho industry' … Dee Dee Bridgewater. Photograph: Paul Cooper
Paul Cooper/Guardian
Monday 29 March 2010 What got you started?
At the age of seven, I announced to my father and mother that when I grew up I was going to be an "internationally known jazz singer". I don't know what possessed me – but it came true.
What was your big breakthrough?
Performing professionally for the first time in 1970 with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis big band. I was with them for four years, playing every Monday night at the Village Vanguard in New York with many of the jazz greats – Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, Max Roach. I never studied music, so I call those years my personal music school.
Does jazz deserve a wider audience?
Yes. It suffers from being marketed incorrectly: people think it's intellectual, like classical music, and inaccessible unless you've had some training. The recession is changing that, though: jazz clubs are thriving in the US because it's cheaper for young people to go to them than to go to concerts.
What have you sacrificed for your art?
Being a full-time mother to my children. Because I was on the road so much, my daughters lived with my mother and stepfather for a year when they were young. And my son's father basically raised him until he was 16.
What one song would work as the soundtrack to your life?
Holy cow! I've never gotten this question before. Maybe the song Red Earth from my album Red Earth: A Malian Journey, because it talks about my search for my African ancestry.
Is there any truth in the saying that art is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration?
I think that's a little cold and jaded. For me it's about 40% inspiration and 60% perspiration. I don't sell enough records to be able to sit on my haunches, so I have to get out there and tour.
What work of art would you like to own?
One of Matisse's later works, when he was doing collage. I love his vivid colours, and the fluidity of his lines.
What advice would you give a young singer?
Read your own contracts, and take acting classes so that you know how to project yourself on stage rather than just stand there and sing – if you do that, you might as well just put on a record.
Complete this sentence: At heart, I'm just a frustrated . . .
Man. You have to be a man in this macho music industry: I lead my own band and produce myself.
What's the best advice anyone ever gave you?
I did a duet with Ray Charles in 1990, when I was having problems with my management. He told me: "You will always be able to find another manager or agent, but you are the only Dee Dee Bridgewater, and you owe it to your public to stay who you are."
Born: Memphis, 1950.
Career: Has released more than 10 albums, and won two Grammys. Has also starred in musicals such as The Wiz and the Billie Holiday tribute Lady Day, which she performs at the Barbican, London EC2 (020- 638 8891), on 16 April.
High point: "Travelling to Mali to make my last CD, Red Earth."
Low point: "Between 1990 and 1995: I felt that was I wasn't doing anything innovative."
Considering that Dee Dee Bridgewater has collected a couple of
Grammys and holds down a high-profile gig hosting the popular NPR show
JazzSet, she is about as visible as possible for a jazz singer in the
United States. But in France, where Bridgewater lived from the mid-1980s
to 1999, she was a bona fide celebrity--she even had her own prime-time
television show.
Her new CD, J'ai Deux Amours (Sovereign Artists), with its gorgeously
textured arrangements of French-chanson classics such as "Ne Me Quitte
Pas," "La Belle Vie" and "Mon Homme," makes perfect sense for
Bridgewater. It's another step on her journey away from well-worn jazz
and American Songbook standards, and it's a loving tribute to France.
While she tips her hat to previous generations of African-American
artists who sought refuge in France--the album's title track is
indelibly linked to Josephine Baker, the sensation of 1920s
Paris--Bridgewater never saw herself as an expatriate, unlike Baker and
later Kenny Clarke. She doesn't romanticize France or hold it up as a
racially egalitarian idyll. But Bridgewater has long wanted to express
her gratitude to the country that embraced her: "This album was really
my way to say thank you to France for having opened its arms and adopted
me, calling me one of their own."
In a series of conversations with the singer when she was performing
in the San Francisco Bay Area, and on the phone from her house in
Henderson, Nev., Bridgewater described how she turned her longtime dream
into a reality. She's been working on the concept of a chanson album
since 1995, but it wasn't until last year that the project reached
fruition, when she was commissioned by the Kennedy Center to do two
concerts as part of a three-month celebration of French culture. She
decided to focus on songs that are popular in both French and English,
so that her non-Francophone fans will still be familiar with the tunes.
"And since I was going to have to learn all these pieces in French," she
says, "I also selected songs that I knew, because I thought that would
free me up if I was at least familiar with the melody."
Rather than hire an arranger, she worked collectively with her band,
featuring the ubiquitous bassist Ira Coleman, percussionist Minino
Garay, acoustic guitarist Louis Winsberg and accordionist Marc
Berthoumieux. A crossover success in Europe, where the album has gained
widespread attention outside of jazz circles, J'ai Deux Amours is
steeped in her improvisational sensibility, combining the emotional
immediacy of the cabaret with the volatility of the jazz bandstand.
"This is the first time I made an album where I didn't hire an
arranger," Bridgewater says. "The musicians and I worked out the
arrangements ourselves, and I feel that J'ai Deux Amours has a much more
personal flavor. I deliberately wanted to mix my voice so that it
sounds like the music is floating around the voice. Instead of my voice
being out front, I wanted the feeling of a more ensemble production."
In many ways the material perfectly suits Bridgewater's many
strengths as a performer. She brings her keen ear for jazz harmonies and
an improvisational aesthetic to chanson, but she also revels in the
music's inherent drama and theatricality. A true heir to the tradition
of Ella Fitzgerald, Nancy Wilson and Betty Carter, Bridgewater is jazz's
most charismatic vocalist, an artist whose musical virtuosity is
inseparable from her instincts as an entertainer.
She has often said that her years of experience in musical theater
have little bearing on her jazz performances, but watching her on stage,
that's hard to believe. No other performer in jazz is so at home on the
bandstand. Where Dianne Reeves and Cassandra Wilson carry themselves
with an aloof, regal bearing, Bridgewater comes across as chatty,
confessional and uninhibited. Her spectacular flights of scatting, solos
as intricately constructed as just about any horn player's, segue into
playfully bawdy passages in which she acts out a song's lyric (her
version of "Love for Sale" is practically a felony).
Off stage, Bridgewater is calm, thoughtful and fully in control. A
strikingly beautiful woman with the kind of cheekbones that sustain the
careers of supermodels, she looks more than a decade younger than her 55
years. Like one of her mentors, Betty Carter, Bridgewater is both a
highly effective bandleader and a savvy businesswoman. She was the only
female jazz artist at Verve with a producer's contract, and she used the
prerogative to produce her six recordings for the label. She's
surrounded herself with trusted confidants, employing her French-born
husband, Jean-Marie Durand, and her daughter Tulani Bridgewater-Kowalski
(from her first marriage to trumpeter Cecil Bridgewater), as her
managers.
All this helps explain why everything seems to have fallen into place
for Bridgewater over the past decade, following years of swimming
against the music business' mercurial tides. After her exhilarating
four-year stint in the creative hothouse of the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis
Jazz Orchestra in the early '70s, a lack of gigs pushed her to Broadway,
where she won a Tony in 1975 for her role as Glinda the Good Witch in
The Wiz. She made a couple of albums in the mid-'70s but didn't find her
identity as a solo artist until she moved to France.
She started gaining attention in Europe in the fall of 1983 with a
long Paris run in the Duke Ellington-inspired show Sophisticated Ladies.
Before returning to France in early 1986 as the star of the musical
Lady Day, a production that garnered her an Olivier Award nomination in
London, Bridgewater was featured in John Sayles' early indie film The
Brother From Another Planet. By the time Lady Day closed, her two
daughters were urging her to settle in France. "There wasn't a whole lot
going on in the States for black actresses at the time," Bridgewater
says. "I didn't have a recording contract, and my daughters and I really
liked the lifestyle we had."
It wasn't long before Bridgewater parlayed headlining at festivals
into gigs as a radio DJ and television host, cementing her celebrity
status as France's preeminent jazz singer. Meanwhile, she started
raising her profile stateside by releasing a series of excellent albums
for Verve. Doggedly following her muse, she hit creative pay dirt with
Love and Peace, her 1995 album of songs by Horace Silver. She followed
it up with 1997's Dear Ella, which won the Grammy for best jazz-vocal
album, and her 2000 tour de force, Live at Yoshi's.
While she had surrounded herself with brilliant European musicians
during her years in France, Bridgewater knew that she missed out on
several generations of American players who came of age while she was
out of the country. Since moving back to the States in 1999, she has
forged close ties with some of those musicians, developing a loyal cadre
of accompanists.
"I love playing with Dee Dee because she's really stretching out and
taking a lot of chances in different styles," says Ira Coleman, whose
resume includes stints with Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams and Mulgrew
Miller. "She just energizes us. When we play with her, everyone finds
their voice. She's somebody who thrives on a challenge. If you tell her,
you can't do that, she'll go and prove you wrong."
A perfect example of Bridgewater breaking a jazz taboo was her
decision to explore the music of Kurt Weill on her 2002 album This Is
New. While in retrospect it's an ideal meeting of artist and repertoire,
Bridgewater was the first jazz vocalist to wade into territory
dominated by Teutonic icons Lotte Lenya and Ute Lemper. Strangely
enough, Bridgewater was first inspired to explore Weill's music while
performing in Poland as part of a Weill revue in early 2000, an
elaborate production featuring ornate costumes, stylish sets and four
other performers who interpreted Weill in a myriad of musical styles.
Though the other vocalists sang in German, Bridgewater was so taken
with Weill's material that she decided to put together a program of his
music for an appearance that summer at the Montreal International Jazz
Festival. Studying recordings of Weill's music by artists such as
Lemper, rocker Marianne Faithfull, cabaret star Julie Wilson and opera
singer Teresa Stratas, she gradually compiled a list of songs for a
show, then asked Cecil Bridgewater to write the charts. Rather than
focus on scathingly satirical pieces Weill created with Bertolt Brecht
during the Weimar years, Bridgewater decided to concentrate on Weill's
emotionally expansive American tunes, such as "Speak Low," "Lost in the
Stars" and "The Saga of Jenny," with its uncharacteristically dark and
outrageous lyric by Ira Gershwin.
"This Is New was a beginning for me, a gentle announcement that this
was where I was moving," Bridgewater says. "For me as a musician, I've
got to continue challenging myself. I'm sure at some point I'll come
back to straightahead jazz, but I'm feeling the need to go outside of
that realm right now to enlarge my musical vocabulary."
There was something wonderfully apt about Bridgewater, the artist who
moved to Europe in order to find work as a jazz singer, reintroducing
herself to the U.S. with the music of a European composer enamored with
jazz who reinvented himself after fleeing to America. Bridgewater isn't
so much remaking herself with her quest for new material as she is
globalizing her musical vision. Even as she's been performing songs from
J'ai Deux Amours, she's been working with exceptional jazz artists such
as pianist Edsel Gomez and drummer Adam Cruz on a program of Latin
American standards, including tunes by the esteemed Puerto Rican
composer Pedro Flores, the legendary Cuban conguero Mongo Santamaria and
the Brazilian greats Milton Nascimento and Baden Powell.
"I didn't know Edsel was such a fine arranger, but when he told me he
had just done an entire album for Janis Siegel, well of course that
ruffled my feathers," Bridgewater says with a laugh. "So I asked him to
do a couple of arrangements for me. One of my next albums is going to
focus on Latin music, which makes me feel like I'm in a very creative
space, like I'm growing and advancing."
The feeling is definitely mutual. "Her energy is just ridiculous, and
it's contagious," says Gomez, who's collaborated widely with musicians
such as Don Byron and David Sanchez. "She's got a spirit that just grabs
the audience and the musicians and makes it a fantastic experience.
She's very open and intuitive in the way she handles music. When she
scats and improvises, it's not a studied thing; it's natural. But if you
analyze it, it's all correct and very advanced."
Another project in her sights will bring her back into Francophone
territory even as she blazes a new trail. Recently named the first
American member of the High Council for the Protection of French
Culture, an international organization run by the ex-president of
Senegal, Bridgewater is planning a collaboration with musicians from
Mali. She wants to help raise awareness about the desperately poor but
culturally rich West African nation.
"It's also about a personal search for me, for my African roots," she
says, describing a powerful connection she feels to the country. "Every
time I listen to African music, it's Malian music that really speaks to
my soul. And when I went to Mali they told me I'm from a nomadic tribe
called the Peul. I've always loved any place with red earth, and when I
woke up in the morning and looked out my hotel window, the whole earth
was red. I was like, 'Oh, my God, this is it.'"
Which isn't to say that Bridgewater has given up her interest in
movies and musical theater. She's landed roles in films and musicals,
but her hectic schedule as a jazz artist has prevented her from
returning to the stage.
"I got the role of Muzzy in Thoroughly Modern Millie and couldn't do
it, and Sheryl Lee Ralph ended up with part," Bridgewater says. "I was
offered the role in Into the Woods that Vanessa Williams ended up doing
because I wasn't free. Now they're going to do a musical version of The
Color Purple and I got the role of Shug, and they still call my daughter
to see if I'm free for the workshops, and would I be free for Broadway?
I would love to get back into the theater, but I just can't seem to
find the time. It's very, very frustrating. Obviously what's in the
cards for me is music."
While Broadway mavens may gnash their teeth, jazz fans can offer
thanks that Bridgewater has been able to make so much great music with
the hand that she was dealt.
Listening Pleasures:
Kandia Kouyate, Biriko (Stern's Africa)
VA, The Divas From Mali: Kandia Kouyate, Mah Damba, Sali Sidibe, Oumou Sangare (World Network)
Oumou Sangare, Worotan (World Circuit)
Babani Kone, Yelema (Seydoni)
Salif Keita, Moffou (Universal)
Gearbox:
Neumann KMS 105 microphone
“Jazz Monthly Feature Interview”
Dee Dee Bridgewater,
March 2006
Smitty:
It is certainly a privilege and an honor to welcome my next guest to
JazzMonthly.com; her voice is so strong yet so pleasingly harmonic; she
has a stunning new CD called “J’ai Deux amours”;
please welcome the gorgeous and so very talented, the incomparable
Sovereign Artists recording artist, Ms. Dee Dee Bridgewater. Dee Dee,
bon jour! Comment allez vous?
Dee Dee Bridgewater (DDB): Comment allez vous? Bon jour, bon jour, Smitty. (Laughing). What a great introduction!
Smitty: And well deserved (laughing)!
DDB: Myyyy!
Smitty: Oh,.…I’m so happy to talk with you, and I feel as though I’m fulfilling a dream, so thank you very much.
DDB: You are very welcome.
Smitty: How’s everything going for you?
DDB:
Oh, everything…everything is going well. I’m in L.A. visiting my eldest
daughter, who is about four months pregnant. I thought I’d come and
spend a few days with her and her husband and help out.
Smitty: That’s nice.
DDB: So that’s where I am. I am visiting my daughter.
Smitty: Well, this is certainly a happy time for you.
DDB: Yes, I’m going be a grandmother for the first time.
Smitty: Ohhhh!
DDB: I’m so excited. I’m stoked, stoked, stoked. I’m gonna be the hippest, sexiest grandma ya ever saw. Oh yeah. Okay. (Laughing.)
Smitty: I am so sure of that, and congratulations.
DDB: Thank you.
Smitty: Well, you are getting such rave reviews for this great new CD, and rightly so.
DDB:
Well, thank you. I’m…I am ecstatic about the reviews, I’m ecstatic
about the record air play, I am over the moon that the album received a
Grammy nomination….stunned is more like it.
Smitty: (Laughing.)
DDB:
But, you know, it was a very risky project for me, and it’s a project
that I’d wanted to do since like ’95 and I put it in a drawer because
when I actually thought about putting it together, it was at the same
time that Ella Fitzgerald died, and then I kind of derailed my…all of my
musical dreams and put ‘em on hold when I did the tribute to Ella. (Dear Ella)
Smitty: Yes, and what a beautiful tribute.
DDB: Thank you. So I’m just glad that I finally got back to it, you know, and that’s thanks to the wonderful Derek Gordon, who was running the jazz program at the Kennedy Center, who’s now heading up jazz at the Lincoln Center,
because he asked me to do two concerts last year at the Kennedy Center
for Valentine’s Day as part of a three-month series at the Kennedy
Center honoring French culture. So I literally flew the musicians who
are on the album in to Washington, D.C. on February 11th and I
selected songs that I thought an American public would know because
most of the songs on the CD have been big hits in their English
versions, and we came up with arrangements together, and literally two
and a half days later, went downstairs from the rehearsal hall to back
stage, changed clothes and went on stage. (Laughing.)
Smitty: Wow!
DDB:
So the album has come out of that performance and the demand by the
public from the two concerts to do an album of the music. I had no idea
that it would get the response that it’s gotten, especially here in the
United States. I’m over the moon.
Smitty: Well, I tell you, I put this CD on when I got it…
DDB: Mm-hmm.
Smitty: …and I felt like I was in France.
DDB: Oooh.
Smitty:
I felt as though I was in love, and the music is just so all
encompassing. It was just a great mix of music, and I just fell in love.
I called Alisse [Kingsley] and just told her I was going nuts over this
record. (Laughing.)
DDB: I’m so happy to hear that, I really am.
Smitty: Oh yes.
DDB:
Well, you know, part of the goal that I had was the selection of the
musicians, because this is the first time that I’m not working in a
traditional jazz trio setting, because I was doing French songs and most
of these are French love songs. I wanted to evoke the Parisian sound,
so I had to have an accordion, and I figured since I had an accordion,
which is a keyboard itself, that I wouldn’t use a regular piano, and to
complement the accordion I would have guitar, and then bass, and instead
of a regular drum kit I wanted to have more percussive instruments. So
the musicians that I have, three of them worked with me already on my
Kurt Weill project as with this new project, and that’s Louis Winsberg on guitar, Ira Coleman on bass, and Minino Garay on drums and percussions……. and Marc Berthoumieux the accordionist is a dear and longtime friend of Louis Winsberg and my husband, Jean-Marie Durand.
As I mentioned, I had to have the accordion, because I wanted the
accordion to open up the album musically, because I did want to set the
mood for the album and for the listener. And I just thought that if we
used a composition of his, which is called “Joe in a Blues,” which he’d written for Josephine Baker, I thought that it was a perfect intro into the album. Also I wanted to start with J’ai Deux amours,
the title of the album, which is also the first very big hit that
Josephine Baker had in France. So I wanted to lead the listener into
this musical excursion through Josephine.
Smitty: Yes, a very nice concept.
DDB:
Yeah, so I’m very happy that you like it and that people like it. I’m
really surprised that the language doesn’t seem to bother anyone.
Smitty:
It’s interesting that you say that because I thought about that as I
was listening. I said, you know, ‘even though I do not understand the
words, I just love the whole vibe’. It just put me in such a mood of
love.
DDB: I’m so glad.
Smitty:
It’s beautiful, I tell ya. And it speaks volumes for your talent and
your career and what you’ve done, because I know this project has been
long in the making.
DDB: Well, I’m glad.
Smitty:
At what point did this come together in your mind and heart where you
definitively said to yourself, “I think I have something here” or “This
is something I definitely want do.”
DDB:
After we did these two concerts at the Kennedy Center, with the
response of the people, I was stunned. People were…I mean, we got
standing ovations that went on and on, and people were…the emotions that
the music brought out of people was just amazing. I saw men crying and
people were smiling, they were screaming. The elation was like,
incredible. I had a CD signing after the second concert and people were
coming up to me and saying “Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you.
You took me away from everything. I thought I was in France,” and so
that was really when I said, “Wow, maybe I’ve got something here and
maybe…I don’t know…the timing is right, maybe this is the moment that I
should do this,” you know?
Smitty: Yeah.
DDB:
I have to admit that I was also a bit leery about the reaction that I
would receive in the United States due to current administration, and
during the first term when the war in Iraq broke out. The big stink that
was made about France especially, but France and Germany not being…in
agreement with the administration about the war, you know, and then the
subsequent boycotting of France. I know that during the second
administration that the President did admit that France and Germany were
correct, and that he should’ve waited and gotten more information, and I
know that that created an immediate turnaround in the United States for
all things French. So there’s…I thought maybe it’s a kind of
subconscious thing that is going on for Americans. I don’t know. I’ve
been trying to figure it out. But I made it because I have spent almost
the last twenty years of my life in France, and it was a way for me to
say thank you to the country. I have a tremendous career in France and
in Europe that Americans don’t even know about. I also made it because I
thought it was time that I embraced these almost twenty years, and not
be in the closet about the fact that I really did adopt this second
culture and I do speak French and, you know, I thought it was a way to
just really embrace my life, and it was made with a lot of love, you
know. It’s the first project that I did where I did not hire an
arranger or arrangers, and I really put my confidence in the four
musicians that I did the project with, to come up with these wonderful
musical ideas. I said to them that I wanted it to have more of a world
music flavor because France and Paris especially, is such a metropol.
You’ve got so many different cultures, so many people from different
countries that live there. When you turn on your radio in France and you
go up and down the dial, you can come across African music, Arab music,
country and western music from the United States…
Smitty: (Laughing.)
DDB:
…jazz, French, pop, you know, a multi-section of pop music from all
around the world….you can find Asian stations, you can find stations
from little countries that we’ve not even heard of or we don’t know
about here in the United States, and when you are out in France, you see
these people in these different cultures.
Smitty: Wow! Sounds very cool!
DDB:
And it’s just an incredible melting pot, so I wanted to show that, and I
think that music today also is going more towards a world music mix. I
am currently trying to explore world music rhythms. I’m interested in
the drum, I’m interested in all the different rhythms that we have. Of
course when you talk about the drum you could go to the mother land of
Africa, so I wanted to have little snippets of all these different
rhythms, and through these musicians we were able to accomplish that,
so…Oh I am a wordy woman, aren’t I? (Both laughing)
Smitty:
Well, you hooked up with the right guy because I can be so wordy but,
you know, I just love people, I love talking to people and learning from
them and especially when we share so much in common. I just love music,
period, but I do have a special love for jazz, and I have listened to
you for years and I’ve listened to your career, you might say…
DDB: Mm-hmm.
Smitty:
…over the years and you mentioned the word “stoked”….I have been stoked
for the last few days knowing that you and I were going to talk, so
this is like a dream come true for me. (Laughing.)
DDB: Thank you, thank you.
Smitty: Yes. So tell me, you’re a two-time Grammy winner…
DDB: Yeah.
Smitty: …and you’ve won a Tony Award.
DDB: Yep.
Smitty:
So, you know, I think of you as not just a musician and a singer, but I
think of you more as an entertainer because you’re so multi-talented
that your voice.…it fits everywhere, you know?
DDB:
Yeah, well, I think of myself as an entertainer and I read an interview
by Tony Bennett that he did maybe three or four years ago and he called
himself a jazz entertainer and I said “Oh, that’s perfect.”
Smitty: Yeah.
DDB:
“Oh, that’s absolutely perfect.” And that’s what I am. I believe that
it’s really important to entertain people, and I grew up, you could say,
with the Sammy Davis School of Music. That’s what I used to…. you know,
with the school of entertainment, because Sammy Davis was such a
versatile performer, and when I was growing up, I thought that in order
to be a singer you had to know how to sing, how to dance, how to act.
Smitty: Yes, that’s very important and a great attitude to have.
DDB:
Because I grew up watching all the movies from the Ziegfield Follies,
when my parents would go to bed…. all these musicals from the thirties
and forties, and I wanted to be like that when I grew up. So I think it
behooves an artist not to put on a show, and I feel that people take
time out of their lives to buy tickets, to arrange, you know, two or
three hours of their time to come and sit and spend an evening with an
artist, and it is the artist’s responsibility to give them a good show.
Smitty: Yes, I agree.
DDB:
Which means good music, good arrangements, good singing, and
entertainment. I want to make them laugh, I want to bring them into my
music, I want them to forget about their problems, and I try to do the
same thing when I do my albums. I want someone to be able to sit down
for an hour and just go on a little musical voyage with me and forget
about stuff, and I want them to be inspired at the end of it and get
energy so that they can get up and confront their lives and deal with
things.
Smitty: Yes, and trust me, you’ve accomplished that.
DDB: Oh, thank you.
Smitty: Yes. Tell me, what inspires Dee Dee Bridgewater?
DDB: My children, my family, my mother, my husband, people that I meet.
DDB:
But I believe that I have things that I’m supposed to do. I’m trying…I
know that my voice and my talents were a gift because I never studied to
do anything that I do today. So I’m just trying to give back this
incredible gift that I was given and to share it with people. So it’s
talking with people like you…
Smitty: Well, thank you.
DDB:
…that gives me inspiration, knowing that you were moved by my music,
that it did something for you. It’s people that send me letters to thank
me for my concerts or send me an e-mail on my Web site or that I run
into on the street and tell me what my music has done for them. That’s
what keeps me going and that’s what has inspired me.
Smitty: Yes, you have such a wonderful outlook on life.
DDB:
But Lord knows, physically I’m exhausted. I would like to sit down and
I would like, you know, nothing more than stay home, you know, and not
be on the road. I like to say I’m an artist who records, I’m not a
recording artist. I make my living by my concert work. But I don’t know,
once I get on the stage and once the music starts, I’m gone…I’m gone
and I just like to take people with me on these magical trips, so….life
is an inspiration.
Smitty: Yes, it is, and that’s a wonderful way of putting it, too. Well, Dee Dee, I know you have to run.
DDB: Yes.
Smitty:
I know you’re so popular, and let me say for the record….that you are
very inspirational for thousands, literally thousands around the world.
And we appreciate you very much and all that you do in your humanitarian
efforts that we didn’t get to talk about….maybe next time….
DDB: Well, we can certainly do another chat. I would love that.
Smitty: Yes, let’s do that, perhaps later on in the year, let’s get back together, all right?
DDB: Okay, that sounds like a plan, sounds like a promise.
Smitty: Great.
DDB: And I accept it…
Smitty: Yes.
DDB: …for all of your listeners and readers.
Smitty: We love you for that. (Laughing.)
DDB:
We’ve got a date. Thank you so much for your interest and thank you so
much for all the wonderful compliments that you bestowed on “J’ai Deux amours”
and thank you very much for following my career. I appreciate it. I am
an artist who cares. So I appreciate it very, very much. I wish you
continued success with everything that you’re doing.
Smitty: Thank you very much. I’ll have to come…I’ll have to come find you. I have your tour schedule, so I will find you.
DDB: Okay.
Smitty: How’s that? And I’ll let you know that I’m in the house.
DDB: Yes! Smitty’s in the house! (both laughing) Okay, my darling. Take care of yourself.
Smitty: We’ve been chatting with the mellifluous and effervescent Ms Dee Dee Bridgewater. She has release a wonderful new CD called J’ai Deux amours.
I highly recommend this CD, and don’t miss her live performance! Dee
Dee thanks again, and congratulations again on being a grandma.
THE
MUSIC OF DEE DEE BRIDGEWATER: AN EXTENSIVE VIDEO OVERVIEW, A CROSS SECTION
OF RECORDINGS, MUSICAL ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY, PLUS VARIOUS INTERVIEWS
WITH DEE DEE BRIDGEWATER:
Dee Dee Bridgewater - Jazzwoche Burghausen 1998:
● Tracklist: 1. Undecided 2. Stairway to the Stars 3. Just One of Those Things 4. Slow Boat to China 5. Caravan 6. Midnight Sun 7. Mack the Knife 8. Mr. Paganini 9. Love for Sale ● Personnel:
DEE DEE BRIDGEWATER - vocals THIERRY ELIEZ - piano, organ THOMAS BRAMERIE - bass ANDRÉ CECCARELLI - drums ● 29th Internationale Jazzwoche Burghausen, Germany, 28th March 1998 ▶ Dee Dee Bridgewater - Full Length Concerts - http://bit.ly/Z4IVZj ▶ Internationale Jazzwoche Burghausen - Full Length Concerts - http://bit.ly/1BIsmTc
Dee Dee Bridgewater--Live in Bern May 1, 1987 Bern, CH Jon Faddis tp / Dee Dee Bridgewater voc / Michel Goudry b / Alain Jeanmarie p / Alvin Queen dr 08:20 All blues 09:00 Misty 05:00 Here's that rainy day 03:30 Interview Dee Bridgewater fehlt hier 04:30 How high the moon (Clark Terry voc add) 08:00 Dr.Feelgood 04:22 Interview Jon Faddis fehlt hier 04:45 A child is born 05:25 C.C.Rider
Dee Dee Bridgewater - "Embraceable You" --2012
(Music & Lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin 1928)
Dee Dee Bridgewater with the Rhythm Section from Tivoli Big Band. Henrik Sørensen - piano Ole Skipper Mosgaard - bass Roger Berg - drums
LANG LANG, DEE DEE BRIDGEWATER & RSO Jazz Open Stuttgart 2013 TRUE-- HD:
Genre: Vocal Jazz / Standards Duration: 00:22:18 Year: 2013
Musicians:
LANG LANG - piano DEE DEE BRIDGEWATER - vocals Das Radio-Sinfonieorchester (RSO) Stuttgart of SWR Management: STÉPHANE DENÈVE
Track List:
- My Favorite Thing (Richard Rodgers) - Somewhere Over the Rainbow (Harold Arlen) - Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Lowe (Cole Porter) - Stairway to the Stars (Matty Malneck / Frank Signorelli) Information : 20th Jazz Open Stuttgart held on the 7th of July 2013 from the courtyard of the New Castle.
Lang
Lang is a Chinese celebrated genius concert pianist who has performed
with leading orchestras in Europe, the United States and his native
China. He began piano lessons at age three. At the age of five, he won
first place at the Shenyang Piano Competition and performed his first
public recital and was awarded first prize for outstanding artistic
performance at the fourth International Competition for Young Pianists
in Ettlingen, Germany at age 11. Lang has given sold out recitals and
concerts in many major cities and was the first Chinese pianist to be
engaged by the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic and some top
American orchestras. Lang is a featured soloist on the Golden Globe
winning score of The Painted Veil and can be heard on the soundtrack of
The Banquet. Finally, he has performed for numerous international
dignitaries including the former Secretary-General of the United Nations
Kofi Annan, President Barack Obama, Queen Elizabeth II, President Hu
Jintao of China, President Horst Köhler of Germany, Prince Charles, as
well as Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, French President Nicolas
Sarkozy and Polish President Lech Kaczynski. Lang currently resides in
New York City.
On this episode of Song Travels, Bridgewater talks with host Michael Feinstein about the haunting experience of portraying Billie Holiday
on stage. Along with her accompanist, Bill Jolly, she performs two of
Holiday's signature songs: "Loverman" and "God Bless the Child."
Nancy Wilson, "Guess Who I Saw Today (excerpt)" (Boyd, Grand)
Bridgewater, "Four Women (excerpt)" (Simone)
Bridgewater (voice), Jolly (piano), "God Bless The Child" (Holiday, Herzog)
Bridgewater (voice), Michael Feinstein (voice, piano), "I've Got A Crush On You" (Gershwin)
JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater
JazzSet Signs Off: October 2, 2014 • From outdoor festivals to concert halls in major cities, JazzSet was there. Hear an intimate, bittersweet farewell, with highlights that span the NPR jazz program's 23-year run.
<iframe src="http://www.npr.org/player/embed/353256144/353256657" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe> JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater
Dee Dee Bridgewater On JazzSet
August 14, 2014 • Held each summer in the lovely hillside country of Westchester County, the Caramoor Jazz Festival is in a rolling woods, 40 miles northeast of New York City. Hear Dee Dee Bridgewater lead her quintet:
This month, JazzSet is celebrating ten years with host Dee Dee Bridgewater with three shows that feature her onstage: the Women in Jazz All-Stars, Ella!,
and next week, her duets with the five young, prodigious finalists in
the American Pianists Association competition for the 2011 Cole Porter
Fellowship.
Ella
Fitzgerald was born 94 years ago — on April 25, 1917 — in Newport
News, Va. She had a hard childhood in the New York City area, at times
raising herself. In 1934, her life turned a corner when she sang at
Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater. She joined the Chick Webb Orchestra
and, although she was shy, she took it over when the leader died in
1939. As you see in the iconic, amazing photograph by William Gottlieb,
Fitzgerald worked with the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band in the mid-1940s. Today'sDizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band, conducted by Antonio Hart, is the house band on the special Ella! edition of JazzSet.
In 1998, Dee Dee Bridgewater won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album for Dear Ella.
Bridgewater brings some of those arrangements for the Dizzy Gillespie
All-Star Big Band and audience to savor, including "A-Tisket,
A-Tasket," Fitzgerald's first hit record in 1938. Bridgewater's
personal pièce de resistance might be "Cherokee," the last number.
As Bridgewater is on stage, WBGO's Rhonda Hamilton guest hosts.
Personnel
Music
director: Antonio Hart; saxophones: Sharel Cassity, Jimmy Heath, Mark
Gross, Bobby Lavell, Gary Smulyan; trumpets: Gregory Gisbert, Alex
Norris, Claudio Roditi, Diego Urcola; trombones: Steve Davis, Michael
Dease, Jason Jackson, Jennifer Wharton; guitar: Yotam Silberstein;
piano: Cyrus Chestnut; bass and executive director: John Lee; drums:
Willie Jones III.
Credits
Set List
Bridgewater and Siegel (vocals), Yotam Silberstein (guitar), "Dear Ella" (Kenny Burrell) Bridgewater, "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" (Fitzgerald and Feldman, arr. Slide Hampton) Siegel, "How Long Has This Been Going On?" (Gershwins, arr. Fred Hersch) Siegel, "Just When We're Fallin' in Love a.k.a. Robbins' Nest" (Thompson, Russell, arr. Count Basie) Bridgewater, "Shiny Stockings" (Foster, additional lyrics by Fitzgerald; arr. Frank Foster) Bridgewater, "Oh Lady, Be Good!" (Gershwins, arr. Cecil Bridgewater) Siegel, "Like Young" (Previn and Webster, arr. Dennis Wilson) Siegel, "I Remember You" (Schertzinger and Mercer, arr. Nelson Riddle) Siegel and Silberstein (guitar), "Gee Baby (Ain't I Good to You)" (Redman and Razaf, arr. Siegel and Silberstein) Siegel, "Too Darn Hot" (Porter, arr. Buddy Bregman) Bridgewater, "Mack the Knife" (Weill, Blitzstein, Brecht, arr. Lou Levy) Bridgewater, "Cherokee" (Noble, arr. Frank Foster) All songs accompanied by the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band unless noted.
Concert creator: Kevin Struthers. Recording in the Concert Hall on
Jan. 24, 2010, by Greg Hartman of Big Mo. Surround Sound mix by Duke
Markos. Script by Mark Schramm.
Published on Oct 17, 2014 Dee Dee Bridgewater "Motherland" Produced by : Zycopolis Productions Directed by : Patrick Savey
Daughter and wife of musicians, Dee Dee Bridgewater grew up with the jazz and the black American music. Today, this same music has brought her until the crossing with Mandingue music, the traditional Malian music. This musical travel is also a spiritual journey and a search for her roots. The journey starts in Mali with the encounter of Malian musicians, then goes through Paris for the concerts rehearsals, and eventually end in Bamako for the recording of the album.
Musiciens:
Dee Dee BRIDGEWATER (Chant) Cheick TIDIANE SECK (Arrangeur / Claviers) Tata BAMBO (Chant) Oumou SANGARÉ (Chant) Lansine KOUYATÉ (Balafon) Moussa SISSOKHO (Djembe) Ali WAGE (Flûte Peul) Yacouba SISSOKHO (Kora) Mare SANOGO (Doum Doum) Baba SISSOKHO (Tamani, N’Goni) Moriba KOITA (N’Goni) Zoumana TERETA (Sokou) Edsel GOMEZ (Piano) Ira COLEMAN (Basse) Minino GARAY (Batterie & Percussions) Bassekou KOUYATÉ (N’Goni) Ami SAKO (Chant) Gabriel DURAND (Guitare sur “Children Go Round”) SEGOU (Djembe)
Follow us on : facebook.com/zycopolis twitter.com/zycopolis zycopolis.tumblr.com pinterest.com/zycopolis vimeo.com/zycopolis zycopolis.tumblr.com zycopolis.com
She subsequently appeared in several other stage productions. After touring France in 1984 with the musical Sophisticated Ladies, she moved to Paris in 1986. The same year saw her in Lady Day as Billie Holiday, for which role she was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, she returned from the world of musical to jazz. She performed at the Sanremo Music Festival in Italy and the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1990, and four years later, she finally collaborated with Horace Silver, whom she had long admired, and released the album Love and Peace: A Tribute to Horace Silver. Performed also at the San Francisco Jazz Festival (1996). Her 1997 tribute album Dear Ella won her the 1998 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album, and the 1998 album Live at Yoshi's was also worth a Grammy nomination. Performed again at the Monterey Jazz Festival (1998). She has also explored on This Is New (2002) the songs of Kurt Weill, and, on her next album J'ai deux amours (2005), the French Classics.
Bridgewater is mother to three children, Tulani Bridgewater (from her marriage to Cecil Bridgewater), China Moses (from her marriage to theater, film and television director Gilbert Moses)
and Gabriel Durand (from her last marriage to French concert promoter
Jean-Marie Durand). Her eldest daughter, Tulani Bridgewater attended The Mirman School
for the Gifted in Los Angeles, CA. She went on to graduate from the
Ecole Active Bilingue in Paris, France at age 16, going on to graduate
from Vassar College.
She serves as Bridgewater's manager and runs Bridgewater's production
company and record label (DDB Productions, Inc. And DDB Records).
Daughter China Moses is an accomplished singer and MTV VJ (France). Her
critically acclaimed albums have earned her an international reputation
as heir to Bridgewater's legacy. Moses tours worldwide occasionally
sharing the bill with Bridgewater.
Bridgewater is the first American to be inducted to the Haut Conseil
de la Francophonie. She has received the Award of Arts and Letters in
France. She also won the 1975 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance in The Wiz.
Bridgewater is the recipient of the 2014 AUDELCO Award in the category
of Outstanding Performance in a Musical-Female for her portrayal of Billie Holiday in the Off-Broadway bio-musical LADY DAY at the Little Shubert Theater. [4]
Kofi Natambu, editor of and contributor to Sound Projections, is a writer, poet, cultural critic, and political journalist whose poetry, essays, criticism, reviews, and journalism have appeared in many literary magazines, journals, newspapers, and anthologies. He has written extensively about music as a critic and historian for many publications, including the Black Scholar, Downbeat, Solid Ground: A New World Journal, Detroit Metro Times, KONCH, the Panopticon Review,Black Renaissance Noire, the Village Voice, the City Sun (NYC), the Poetry Project Newsletter (NYC), and the African American Review. He is the author of a biography Malcolm X: His Life & Work (Alpha Books) and two books of poetry: The Melody Never Stops (Past Tents Press) and Intervals (Post Aesthetic Press). He was the founder and editor of Solid Ground: A New World Journal, a national quarterly magazine of the arts, culture, and politics and the editor of a literary anthology Nostalgia for the Present (Post Aesthetic Press). Natambu has read his work throughout the country and given many lectures and workshops at academic and arts institutions. He has taught American literature, literary theory and criticism, cultural history and criticism, film studies, political science, creative writing, philosophy, critical theory, and music history and criticism (Jazz, Blues, R&B, Hip Hop) at many universities and colleges. He was also a curator in the Education Department of Detroit’s Museum of African American History. Born in Detroit, Michigan, Natambu currently lives in Berkeley, California with his wife Chuleenan.
