Dee Dee Bridgewater: Live At Yoshi's (CD)

Dee Dee Bridgewater (geb. 1950)

Live At Yoshi's

CD

CD (Compact Disc)

Herkömmliche CD, die mit allen CD-Playern und Computerlaufwerken, aber auch mit den meisten SACD- oder Multiplayern abspielbar ist.

Dee Dee Bridgewater (geb. 1950): Live At Yoshi's, CD

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Label: EmArcy, 1998
Erscheinungstermin: 2.7.2009

GRAMMY NOMINATED ALBUM, LIVE AT YOSHI'S: A PARAMOUNT JAZZ EXPERIENCE only rarely transpires within the confines of a studio. For a music that blooms on the improvisational cusp, jazz thrives in a live setting where the conditions for discovery are optimum. Indeed, if the band is on and the audience open, a jazz performance set in an intimate club can effect those kinds of spontaneous eruptions of music that can never be duplicated.

We've all been to those special shows and wished afterward, if only the proceedings had been recorded, right? Well, that's what makes Dee Dee Bridgewater's latest release, Live at Yoshi's, such a sumptuous treat. During her sold-out week-long stint in April 1998 at Yoshi's Jazz Club in Oakland, California (on the east shore of San Francisco Bay), the tapes were rolling, documenting her and her trio mates pianist-organist Thierry Eliez, bassist Thomas Bramerie and drummer Ali Jackson II delivering the goods in that rarified state of jazz alchemy.

“Live is cool,” says Bridgewater, an onstage dynamo who commands the stage with equal parts elegance, exuberance and funky soul. “The artists get to let their hair down. It's more relaxed than a studio setting and you can play off the audience. Plus, you're working with the ambiance of the club itself.”

For the Yoshi's date, Bridgewater focused on material from her double Grammy Award-winning CD, Dear Ella. Paying reverential homage to the First Lady of Song (many of the tunes were recorded on the April 25 show which marked the 80th anniversary of Fitzgerald's birthday), Bridgewater opens the show with a spirited take on "Undecided", offers a graceful swing through "(I'd Like to Get You on a) Slow Boat to China", caresses the radiant melody of the ballad "Stairway to the Stars", hushes the house with a ruby-toned rendition of "Midnight Sun" and concludes the set by scatting through "Cotton Tail". Also in the mix are a euphoric flight through "What a Little Moonlight Can Do", an upbeat into "Cherokee" and an epic, multi-climaxing version of "Love for Sale".

Throw in an impromptu ride through James Brown's bumpin' "Sex Machine" (a spur-of-the-moment swangin' funk bit that Bridgewater had to partly ad lib because she didn't remember all the words) and you get the full song listing of the Dee Dee live package. But that's not the entire A-through-Z of the affair. Unlike most live discs where it sounds like the artist and the audience were instructed to be on their best behavior (read: keep it under check), Live at Yoshi's opens a window not only on Bridgewater's ease of rapport with her fans but also her fun-loving sense of humor.

"Certainly the songs are important, but I also wanted to give people the feeling of what it's like to spend a full evening with me," Bridgewater explains. "In recent years, clowning around has become a big part of my performance. I love taking a few moments to make the audience laugh." She pauses and adds with that robust chuckle which wonderfully pervades the set, "You know, it's always been a dream to do stand-up comedy."

So, check out Dee Dee's "get a boat" intro to "Slow Boat to China", which she leans back and belts out once she's set sail, her hearty laughs while Eliez romps on the organ in "Cherokee", and her purrs and growls on her "naughty". (deedeebridgewater. com)