Dee Dee Bridgewater
Birdland, NYC, October 2, 2018
Reviewed by Chris Struck for Cabaret Scenes
Dee Dee Bridgewater’s latest set at Birdland took up the challenge of chronicling the life of another entertainment legend—Josephine Baker. Perhaps inspired by the French aspect of both their careers or by their styles, Bridgewater aptly shared the highs and lows of Baker’s illustrious and entertaining life as a performer and even a spy.
However, like the common thread between us all, Baker’s repertory, portrayed stunningly by Bridgewater, captured the essence of the late-night lives lived by artists around the world.
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Backed by a stunning quintet, Bridgewater performed up-tempo songs, sometimes with a Latin feel, to seduce the audience with both amorous and light-hearted numbers. The best of these was “April in Paris” (Vernon Duke/Yip Harburg), which touched on that French connection with particularly good moments in lines such as “I never knew the charm of spring/I never met it face to face/I never knew my heart could sing/till April in Paris.” The sultry trumpet and fantastic sax solos supported Bridgewater’s silky vocal lines. Singer and band had fun, too, with the fast-paced farce, “Don’t Touch Me Tomato.”
Trumpeter Theo Croker led the quintet which featured Irwin Hall (alto sax), Michael King (piano), and Kush Abadey (drums), and Eric Wheeler (bass). With Bridgewater, this wonderful group of performers can lull you into imagining that real life is but a dream and that we all can be transported back to the streets of Paris for an evening of sweet jazz. However, jazz wasn’t the only thing on the menu as they played a powerful arrangement of Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are a-Changin’” with King’s piano skills applied to organ.
