When we last spoke to actress/singer Dee Dee Bridgewater, it was, as Charles Dickens wrote, “the best of times and the worst of times.” She was celebrating the release of her new album, Memphis…Yes I’m Ready, but it was coming on the heels of a her mother’s death after a lengthy battle with dementia. She’s at Yoshi’s in Oakland tonight and will be at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday to do her Memphis…Yes I’m Ready show.
If you don’t already know Bridgewater, she is a three-time Grammy Award winner, a Tony Award winner (for her role in The Wiz), an NEA Jazz Master and a UN Goodwill Ambassador. She’s recorded numerous albums including three that celebrate Billie Holliday, Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington.
When we caught up with her, Bridgewater had moved to New Orleans, but was working with students in Detroit. Her spirits were high and she was in the mood to talk!
How has your performing Memphis…Yes I’m Ready evolved since the release of the album in 2017?
Oooh…Ah ha! Well I’d say we’ve changed up some of the arrangements. We’ve added more backing vocals as the singers are there. They have come up with backing vocals for songs that didn’t have them. We throw in a little theatrics once in a while. Very interestingly, these Memphis musicians, having worked in R&B and soul and blues, are more inclined to be involved in the performance – more so than jazz musicians. It’s been an absolute blast for me. A such needed kind of departure from doing my straight ahead jazz or different projects I’ve done. And it’s been a wonderful healing process.
Has the music become a celebration of your mother and also your participation in the last ten years of her life?
It’s definitely been a celebration of my mother. I would say more in the first year I was doing it. We’re now in our second year of performing the material. There’s still… [there’s a pregnant pause before she continues…] I just went through the second anniversary of my mother’s passing. She died March 1, 2017. And then her birthday was February 6th. But it’s a joy every time I get together with these musicians to perform. It’s music I can dance to and I can lose myself in and kind of create this other persona other than Dee Dee Bridgewater that jazz singer.
As we get older it seems that more and more of our friends, colleagues and influences pass away. What’s the key for you to staying positive and energized as you get older?
Oooooh! How true that is! Music is healing. The older I get the more I feel that I am very fortunate to have chosen music as my profession. It has kept me buoyed through the years and lot of those traumatic situations.
Would it be fair to say that music chose you?
Okay…yeah we could look at it that way as well. I was very blessed to have been born with the voice that I have and have never had to take any kind of music courses to learn how to sing or anything like that. I don’t know anymore and does it matter? It’s close to 50 years that I’ve been singing professionally. I just told a group of high school music students today that professional means being paid to do the thing I love. All of this is making me just look at my life and be extremely grateful that I still have some kind of relevance. [It should be noted that at the end of that sentence she let out the biggest and most glorious laugh.]
I first saw you perform at Jazz Fest in New Orleans in the 90s. Now that you’ve moved there, what has it done for you?
I remember that tent. I remember what I wore. A long red dress trimmed in silver and it had 1996 on it. I absolutely love New Orleans. I love that you see France wherever you go. The connection to France, to Africa. The love of music that’s there. That we have Louis Armstrong Airport and Mahalia Jackson Park and Theatre. The food. Having been born in Memphis, I have always felt a kind of relief when I’m anywhere in the South. My shoulders relax. Having bought a house there, I will be there for a few years. It makes sense for me.
Let’s go way back. Back to the beginning. On Stanley Clarke’s first solo album (1973’s Children of Forever) the very first notes we here are sung by you and Andy Bey. When you think back to that project today what perspective does that give you on the musical journey you’ve had so far?
Oh my goodness. Well that’s out of the blue. My musical journey has been all over the place. But that’s kind of indicative of my personality which can be all over the place. It’s interesting that you would say that because I was thinking about Stanley. That was a wonderful beginning. That throws me back to that period when I was in New York City and how vibrant the music scene was then and just how blessed I was at the beginning of my career to have been in touch with so many different kinds of musicians. Maybe the was the set-up for what I was going to do. It kind of lead me down the path I’ve gone down.
You’ve long stated that Betty Carter was a big inspiration for you on many levels. She told the Washington Post in 1997 that “No matter what you do – whether you’re a singer, a writer or a painter, you’re supposed to keep getting better and better and it’s going to take time to fulfill your potential.” Do you feel like you’ve reached your potential yet?
No. I’m still going for it. [She lets out another uproarious laugh.] I think as an artist we should always be pushing ourselves to do something even better than the last thing or something more challenging than that last thing. I’m dipping my toes into all these different areas I’ve been in in the past. And creating something new. I think it’s a precursor to me making a decision about what I want to do next. What can I say…I’m a Gemini.
And with another huge laugh it was clear that after a long decade, Dee Dee Bridgewater is more than ready and enjoying every minute of it.
For tickets at the Wallis, please go here.
Photo by Mark Higashino/Courtesy of The Wallis