Dee Dee Bridgewater - Lady Sings The Blues
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Dee Dee Bridgewater’s latest album pays homage to Billie Holiday, a singer she has interpreted on the London stage and whose music means a great deal to her both for her radical songs particularly ‘Strange Fruit’ but also for her uncompromising personality.
’s latest album pays homage to Billie Holiday, a singer she has interpreted on the London stage and whose music means a great deal to her both for her radical songs particularly ‘Strange Fruit’ but also for her uncompromising personality. Ahead of her Holiday-themed concert at the Barbican this month Peter Quinn talks to Dee Dee about the Holiday legend
"Love will make you drink and gamble, Make you sad all night long, Love will make you do things That you know is wrong.” – Billie Holiday, ‘Fine and Mellow’
Is there anything more profoundly moving in the history of vocal jazz than Billie Holiday’s 1957 performance of ‘Fine and Mellow’ on CBS’s The Sound of Jazz? Available on YouTube (725,000+ views and counting), the eight minutes of black and white footage finds Holiday briefly reunited with her estranged friend Lester Young for the last time. Prez, barely able to stand, delivers one of the most heart-rending choruses you’ll ever hear. Billie, looking straight into his eyes, smiles and nods her head in quiet recognition. Both of them would be dead within two years.
Holiday communicated the essence of a song as being the bearer of a deep emotion, not simply a melodic line to negotiate and decorate. And no other singer understands this better than Dee Dee Bridgewater. Having produced albums dedicated to Ella Fitzgerald (the Grammy award-winning Dear Ella), Horace Silver (Love and Peace: A Tribute to Horace Silver) and Kurt Weill (This Is New), Bridgewater clearly likes to inhabit an artist’s skin. But with Billie it was different: it was to become an all-consuming love affair. But on first hearing one of Holiday’s albums in 1970, Bridgewater was initially averse to her charms.
This is an extract from Jazzwise Issue #139 – to read the full article click here to subscribe and receive a FREE copy of the latest Hiromi CD 'Place To Be'.
"Love will make you drink and gamble, Make you sad all night long, Love will make you do things That you know is wrong.” – Billie Holiday, ‘Fine and Mellow’
Is there anything more profoundly moving in the history of vocal jazz than Billie Holiday’s 1957 performance of ‘Fine and Mellow’ on CBS’s The Sound of Jazz? Available on YouTube (725,000+ views and counting), the eight minutes of black and white footage finds Holiday briefly reunited with her estranged friend Lester Young for the last time. Prez, barely able to stand, delivers one of the most heart-rending choruses you’ll ever hear. Billie, looking straight into his eyes, smiles and nods her head in quiet recognition. Both of them would be dead within two years.
Holiday communicated the essence of a song as being the bearer of a deep emotion, not simply a melodic line to negotiate and decorate. And no other singer understands this better than Dee Dee Bridgewater. Having produced albums dedicated to Ella Fitzgerald (the Grammy award-winning Dear Ella), Horace Silver (Love and Peace: A Tribute to Horace Silver) and Kurt Weill (This Is New), Bridgewater clearly likes to inhabit an artist’s skin. But with Billie it was different: it was to become an all-consuming love affair. But on first hearing one of Holiday’s albums in 1970, Bridgewater was initially averse to her charms.
This is an extract from Jazzwise Issue #139 – to read the full article click here to subscribe and receive a FREE copy of the latest Hiromi CD 'Place To Be'.