DEE DEE BRIDGEWATER

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Dee Dee Bridgewater

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Dee Dee Bridgewater in concert with the Big Band of the Kölner Musikhochschule on July 7th 2006 in Cologne, Germany.
Background information
Birth name Denise Eileen Garrett
Born May 27, 1950 (1950-05-27) (age 58)
Memphis, Tennessee, USA
Origin Flint, Michigan, USA
Genre(s) Jazz, R&B, Hip hop
Occupation(s) Singer, Actress
Instrument(s) Vocals
Years active 1966 - Present
Label(s) Verve
Website DeeDeeBridgewater.com
Dee Dee Bridgewater (born May 27, 1950) is an American Jazz singer. She is a two-time Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter, as well as a Tony Award - winning stage actress. and Host of NPR's Syndicated Radio show "JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater". She is a United Nations Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).





Biography
Born Denise Eileen Garrett in Memphis, Tennessee, she grew up in Flint, Michigan. Her father, Matthew Garrett, was a jazz trumpeter and teacher at Manassas High School, and through his play, Denise was exposed to jazz early on. At the age of sixteen, she was a member of a rock and rhythm'n'blues trio, singing in clubs in Michigan. At 18, she studied at the Michigan State University before she went to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. With their jazz band, she toured the Soviet Union in 1969. The next year, she met trumpeter Cecil Bridgewater, and after their marriage, they moved to New York City, where Cecil played in Horace Silver's band.

In the early 1970s, Bridgewater joined the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra as the lead vocalist.[1] This marked the beginning of her jazz career, and she performed with many of the great jazz musicians of the time, such as Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Max Roach, and others. Performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1973. In 1974, her first own album, entitled Afro Blue, appeared, and she also performed on Broadway in the musical The Wiz. For her role as Glinda the Good Witch she won a Tony Award in 1975 as "best featured actress", and the musical also won the 1976 Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album.


In concert in 1990She 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 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.

Her album Red Earth, published in 2007, features Africa-inspired themes and contributions by numerous musicians from the West African nation of Mali. Performed at the San Francisco Jazz Festival (2007).

December 8, 2007, will perform with the Terence Blanchard Quintet at the prestigious John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and will perform in Switzerland, Russia, Austria, France, Italy, Hungary, Spain, at the end of 2007.

In 1992, she guest-starred in an episode of Highlander the Series entitled "The Beast Below".


Family life
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 current marriage to French concert promoter Jean-Marie Durand).


*****

Dee Dee Bridgewater, İzmir`de
Cazın önemli seslerinden Bridgewater 16.İzmir Caz festivali kapsamında caz severlerle buluşacak.

Cazın en önemli solistleri arasında yer alan Dee Dee Bridgewater, müzik piyasasındaki büyük şirketlerin ticari yaklaşımlarının, `müziğe kan kaybettirdiğini` bildirdi.


16. İzmir Avrupa Caz Festivali`nin açılış konserini bu akşam verecek olan Bridgewater, ilk kez bu akşam İzmir izleyicisinin karşısına çıkacak olmanın kendisini heyecanlandırdığını söyledi.


iki Grammy ve Tony ödüllü Dee Dee Bridgewater, Türkiye`ye uzun yıllardır geldiğini, Türk seyircisinin `her zaman muhteşem` olduğunu belirtti.


Bridgewater Şarkıcı kimliğinin yanı sıra BM Tarım ve Gıda Örgütü`nün iyi niyet elçiliği görevini yürüttü ve bu kapsamda birçok ülkede çalışmalar yaptı.


Bridgewater, üç çocuğundan kendisi gibi vokalist olan büyük kızıyla ortak


bir Broadway şovu için hazırlanıyor.


Sanatçı R&B ve cazı birleştiren bir albüm çalışması içinde olduğunu, `inandığı ve istediği müziği yapmaya devam edeceğini` söyledi.

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Dee Dee Bridgewater may be the first jazz singer to devote an entire release to the theater music of Kurt Weill. She's in great form, with arrangements for the most part by her ex-husband Cecil Bridgewater. "Bilbao Song" is quite novel, with the addition of exotic flamenco guitars and percussion and a guest appearance by Antonio Hart on flute, and her tender interpretation of "My Ship" is first rate. "Alabama Song" leans more toward outright blues, with a saucy vocal and churning Hammond B3 organ. The obscure "I'm a Stranger Here Myself" starts out funky, but its middle section is pure hard bop with a fine solo by alto saxophonist Daniele Scannapieco. But the overly pop sound of keyboardist Thierry Eliez's scoring of "This Is New"; the uninspired chart of "Speak Low," which detracts from her fine singing and the bland French cabaret setting of "Youkali" hardly make them memorable. Still, she has to be admired for taking a chance by covering so many of Kurt Weill's songs (while avoiding the obvious choice of "Mack the Knife"), most of which have been overlooked in the decades since his death in 1950. - AMG

This CD is one of the best things to happen to Kurt Weill's music since....well....he wrote them originally. Ms Bridgewater does something with these tunes that most people are far too scared to try - she messes with them...and with amazing results.

Bilbao Song is perhaps the best example, in which she creates lush contrasts in latin styles...and makes amazing use of nylon-string guitars. However, she also delivers a heavenly performance of My Ship, as well.

Occasionally, the arrangements dip dangerously into pop-jazz, but never for too long. Even when this happens, he incredible voice and delivery (theatre training pays off) combined with unbelievable soloists offsets any problems there.

This is one of the best albums of the past year - a must buy. Also, don't hit stop after track 11 - there's a secret track of Mack the Knife that's well worth the listen! ~ S. Wawkins

Dee Dee Bridgewater is one of the most creative vocalists of our time. I love all of her work (her Horace Silver tribute is a favorite) though, being a huge fan of Weill, I have to bump THIS IS NEW to the front of the line. Dee Dee really does something new here. As another reviewer states, she "messes" with Weill, with gorgeous, moving, thrilling results. If I had to pick a "low-point", it would be the charming "September Song", one of my all-time favorites (I own many beautiful interpretations). Again, Dee Dee's is truly original, and though not my favorite interpretation (that's the "low-point"), is nonetheless lovely. There is so much more to embrace here. And don't miss the hidden final track -- something like 8 minutes after the end of the listed final track -- a truly spontaneous Dee Dee cracking up on "Mack the Knife". Unfortunately, many artists (likely attempting to emulate Ella) have feigned "out-take" versions of "Mack" and other classics, but one can tell that Dee Dee is truly self-intoxicated on this track (and rightly so). I suppose some Weill "purists" may think this effort too light-hearted in spots, but who cares? Laughter in dark places is the very essence of humor -- especially Weill's humor. ~ T. Luck

Dee Dee Bridgewater has made the quintessential Kurt Weill cover album. From the glorious "Youkali" to the imaginative "My Ship" and "Lost In The Stars"...Bridgewater transcends the acts of merely covering a song, and actually inhabits every single one of these Weill masterpieces as if she were a different character in each.

It's like watching an actor give a performance, even when you are just listening to the CD! I had the good fortune of seeing Miss Bridgewater perform live at the Kennedy Center in early 2004, and she performed some of the songs from this CD, and was gracious enough to autograph my copy after the show, and I will never forget her amazing delivery, her showwomanship, her humor and her stunning versatility.

She is a gem, and this CD is just a small sample of what she has to offer.

When she signed my CD, Miss Bridgewater mentioned that her next project would be a "Latin album", as she called it.

Here's hoping she does to Bossa Nova, Brazilian Samba and the Tango what she did with Weill...make it NEW indeed! ~ S. Sittig

Personnel:
Dee Dee Bridgewater (Vocals)
Thierry Eliez (Piano, Hammond B3 Organ and Backing Vocals)
Ira Coleman (Double Bass)
André Ceccarelli (Drums)
Louis Winsberg (Guitar)
Nicolas Folmer (Trumpet)
Denis Leloup (Trombone)
Daniele Scannapieco (Alto Saxophone and Flute)
Minino Garay (Percussion)
Antonio Hart (Alto Saxophone and Flute)
Juan José Mosalini (Bandoneon)
Tulani Bridgewater Kowalski (Backing Vocals)
China Moses (Backing Vocals)

Dee Dee Bridgewater - This is New Tracks:
01 This Is New
02 Lost In The Stars
03 Bilbao Song
04 My Ship
05 Alabama Song
06 Tha Saga Of Jenny
07 Youkali
08 Stranger Here Myself
09 Speak Low
10 September Song
11 Her I'll Stay

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Over the course of a multifaceted career that has spanned four decades, Dee Dee Bridgewater has risen to the top tier of today’s jazz vocalists, putting her own unique spin on standards as well as taking intrepid leaps of faith in re-envisioning jazz classics. For her latest recording, Eleanora Fagan (1915-1959): 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.”

Bridgewater adds that Eleanora Fagan goes far deeper than being a tribute album of retreaded Holiday tunes. “Billie deserves to have her music heard in another light,” she says, “and I definitely didn’t set out to imitate her.”

Key to the fresh approach is pianist Edsel Gomez, Bridgewater’s longtime band mate who wrote new arrangements for the 12 songs on the album, including the African polyrhythmic-charged interpretation of “Lady Sings the Blues, “ a reharmonized version of “All of Me” and the gospel-tinged “God Bless the Child.” Says Bridgewater: “Edsel is an extremely gifted, talented arranger with very modern ideas. Edsel has the ability to be modern and work in a tasteful fashion.”

Gomez took on the daunting challenge of bringing new life to the music with enthusiasm. “I listened to everything Billie Holiday ever recorded,” he says. “I let her music speak to me.” He also kept in mind the personalities of the all-star band Bridgewater had assembled for the recording: dynamic reeds player James Carter, bassist Christian McBride and drummer Lewis Nash.

“This was my dream band,” says Bridgewater. “I got to work with these musicians who I’d been dying to play with. I thought, I can’t miss. With this band I can have a hard-swinging, touching celebration of Billie’s music.”

Bridgewater sings into the nuances of such songs as “Good Morning Heartache,” “Lover Man” and “Fine and Mellow” with an allure that’s equal parts sexy, spunky and sublime. “This was the first time when I wasn’t concerned about having a particular sound of voice,” Bridgewater says. “I was just singing from my gut. It was all so swinging and so soulful.”

Other highlights include the haunting “You’ve Changed” with Carter blowing smoky soul to complement Bridgewater’s moving vocals, the spunky “Mother’s Son-in-Law” with McBride dueting with the coquettish singer, and the uptempo “Miss Brown to You” featuring Nash’s drumming prowess.

Over the course of her career, Bridgewater has paid homage to monumental figures of the music world, recording albums dedicated to Ella Fitzgerald (the Grammy Award-winning Dear Ella, 1997), Horace Silver (Love and Peace: A Tribute to Horace Silver, 1995) and Kurt Weill (This Is New, 2002).

But with Eleanora Fagan—the follow-up to 2007’s brilliant Red Earth: A Malian Journey that melded the music of Mali with jazz—Bridgewater delivers one of the most remarkable recording performances of her career. “Dee Dee is a spirited dynamo and a soulful balladeer,” says liner note writer Dan Ouellette. “She sings with a razor-edged voice; she scats with abandon; she makes you cry. She even chokes up herself upon descending into the ghoulish drama of ‘Strange Fruit,’ which serves as the album’s poignant finale. She gives a moving read with a sparse arrangement supporting her.”

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.”