Dee Dee Bridgewater
Dee Dee Bridgewater: Yesterday, Today … and Tomorrow
by Raul da Gama
How do you fit the life of someone celebrated for her multi-dimensional artistry, and more importantly, a quintessential human being, in a few hundred words or so? Why, even a 300- or 400-page book wouldn’t do to fit all that she has accomplished in life so far. Here’s a snapshot: three GRAMMY Awards, a Tony Award winner for her role as Glinda the Good Witch in The Wiz - the Broadway version of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1975) - the Doris Duke Award (2019), NEA Jazz Master (2020), Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, first American to be inducted into the Haut Conseil de la Francophonie, Commandeur dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Award (France), and that is just scratching the surface.
The soul is where Dee Dee’s art resides, and it is from that deepest recess of her being that it emerges. Her voyage of discovery took her first to Mali, to discover her African ancestry. The evanescent music of Red Earth: A Malian Journey (DDB Records, 2007) resulted from that part of her journey. From Bamako, the next stop was Memphis, where she was born and lived until three years of age, when she moved to Flint, MI. “After having done Red Earth, which was the African part of my journey,” Dee Dee says, “I needed to look at my birthplace. I was born in Memphis, TN. And I decided that I needed to look at my birthplace and my ancestry here in the United States.” That part of Dee Dee’s journey yielded perhaps her most stripped down, and also her most ambitious album, Memphis… Yes I’m Ready (OKeh, 2017). Again, that is just scratching the surface of her catalogue.
To Read More, Visit: https://mags.hothousejazzmagazine.com/509e3d909f.html#page/12
Catch the Dee Dee Bridgewater of yesterday, today and tomorrow at Birdland Jazz Club - NYC, January 22 – 25
