INTERVIEW: Dee Dee Bridgewater prepares for State Theatre gala concert
Photo: Dee Dee Bridgewater’s new album is called Memphis … Yes, I’m Ready. Photo courtesy of the artist / Provided by the State Theatre with permission.
Dee Dee Bridgewater, the celebrated singer of jazz and the American Songbook, will duet with pianist Bill Charlap Saturday, June 1 at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The evening is a special one for the venue because Bridgewater’s concert is part of the State’s annual gala, this year honoring Congressman Frank Pallone Jr. and MetLife.
Bridgewater, in a recent phone interview with Hollywood Soapbox, called Charlap a wonderful pianist, and she expects them to play some of the standards from the American Songbook for the New Jersey audience.
“I would say probably there will be songs from the American Songbook,” she said. “I may throw in some songs from other albums that I have done, but as it’s in duo, that remains to be seen, the songs that we think will work the best. But Bill Charlap is a very accomplished pianist. His latest offering is backing Tony Bennett and Diana Krall with his trio. He’s got a fine reputation.”
When Bridgewater takes the stage with a fellow musician, there needs to be an established trust factor. For the singer, this trust has led to some memorable collaborations both on stage and in the recording studio.
“Of course, there’s a trust factor with anyone that I work with,” Bridgewater said. “There has to be a trust factor, and I think that’s something that’s normal and expected with any musician when they’re working with another musician. We have to have trust in each other otherwise we couldn’t really perform together.”
That trust factor also leads into the unknown, when Bridgewater likes to extend a song and improvise a bit.
“Once we get into a song, there’s always going to be improv that goes on,” she said. “Even if it’s material that has been rehearsed, once you are performing in it in a live setting, and you’re having this dialogue between yourself and other musicians, there is an element of surprise that goes into it.”
She added: “I think most artists look forward to collaborating, but it’s something that I enjoy doing. I’m about to fly to Moscow tomorrow where I’m going to be collaborating with a Russian big band under the leadership of a tenor saxophonist named Igor Butman, and that’s a gentleman that I’ve worked with off and on over the years. So, yes, I look forward to collaborations. I look forward to reunions and all that stuff.”
Bridgwater’s latest album is called Memphis … Yes, I’m Ready. It is arguably the most personal recording in her illustrious career, and that’s because the project brought her back to the city of her birth.
“It was definitely personal,” she said. “I had gone to Memphis because I was born there, but my family had left when I was 3-½. And I wanted to go back and try and unearth things about my father because my father had taught at one of the two high schools for African-American students. It’s called Manassas High School, and it still exists today. So I wanted to look up information on that, and I just wanted to get a better understanding of Memphis as a city since that’s where I’m from. It was a wonderful experience, and the music that I perform on that album is all music that I heard on a radio station out of Memphis that I found out in 2014 my father had been an on-air disc jockey for. And that’s WDIA.”
On the album, Bridgwater provides her signature vocals to such well-known tunes as “The Thrill Is Gone,” “Try a Little Tenderness” and “Hound Dog.”
Her father’s musicianship inspired in her an early love for music.
“We had music in the house,” she said about growing up. “My father played professionally when he was in Memphis. He played more as a hobby when we moved to Michigan, which is where I grew up in Flint, Michigan, but we always had music in the house.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Dee Dee Bridgewater will play Saturday, June 1 at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, New Jersey, as part of the venue’s annual gala. Click here for more information and tickets.
