Dee
Dee Bridgewater
at work.
Dee
Dee Bridgewater WAS back in town
with her smile and her passion, and that
was enough to redeem that ticky-tacky
Hollywood neighborhood around Catalina's
on Cahuenga, where she had also packed in
a bit of imperturbable Parisian style and
sass.
Bridgewater
is the child of a trumpet player, so she
knows in her bones who's who in the jazz
pantheon. Her repertoire stresses the
jazz masters.
But
she adds a sophisticated savvy where her
charts are concerned, and that was all in
play in the towering account she gave of
Duke Ellington's "I'm Beginning to
See the Light," into which she
neatly tucked an a cappella section
devoted to "Just Squeeze Me,"
another Ellington monument.
This
squeezing business
set off a number of her blinding smiles
or maybe it was the killer soloing and
comping of the trio that was backing her
one June night not long ago: Thierry
Eliez, piano and organ; Thomas Bramerie,
bass; and Ali Jackson II, drums.
After
Duke, the next one would be Dizzy
Gillespie, whose "Night in
Tunisia" was given a panoramic
excursion, capped with a mention of
"A Love Supreme," honoring the
Coltrane contingent.
Bridgewater
scatted on this one in an superhip style
that she learned at the feet of Dizzy
himself and other patrons of her early
days, such as Sonny Rollins and Dexter
Gordon. These gentlemen are known for
their ability to throw themselves
completely into their music, without ever
losing track of their technique. That's
the way Bridgewater scats, with abandon
but with chops.
You
heard this on "Filthy McNasty,"
the Horace Silver classic, or the Charlie
Parker vehicle, "Cherokee," to
which Eliez contributed a lightning fast
organ solo, or the Benny Goodman-Charlie
Christian "Air Mail Special,"
which had some intense bebop scatting in
it and swung hard as nails.
But
she kept her balance on ballads, too,
like the deeply moving "My
Ship," that Billie Holiday used to
do. It also showed off her rich and
satisfying voice quality, to which an
arco bass intro subtly directed the ear.
Another great ballad was "Love for
Sale," honoring Ella Fitzgerald,
where she was passionate and tragic but
remained pretty much believable and
certainly well phrased.
And
the other other thing was her sense of
humor, illustrated by an impromptu parody
of Marilyn Monroe singing "Happy
Birthday" for a gentleman at
ringside who was celebrating one. That
reflected her show biz sense, earned on
Broadway with her roles in "The
Wiz" and "Sophisticated
Ladies."
Quite
a little package, all told.
