LIVE REVIEW: Dee Dee Bridgewater Throws Herself a Memphis Soul Party

Giovanni Russonello for THE NEW YORK TIMES – Dee Dee Bridgewater began her first set at the Blue Note on Tuesday with a short, half-rapped opening statement, settling in beneath the lights as her band played a Booker T. and the MG’s groove.

“I’m 67 years old, I’m happy to be, and I have decided to do a record that is for me,” she said. “I hope that you will enjoy yourself. Welcome to my party.”

Ms. Bridgewater was referring to the recently released album “Memphis … Yes I’m Ready,” a tribute to the rich soul tradition of the city where she was born. In fact, the entire year ought to have been Ms. Bridgewater’s party. In April she received a Jazz Masters award from the National Endowment for the Arts, and next month she will cap it off with another prize: the ASCAP Foundation Champion Award, recognizing her decades of work on behalf of those in need.

But it wasn’t that simple. She spent the first seven months of 2017 in a wheelchair, hobbled by ruptures to her Achilles’ tendon sustained during two separate falls. One was a harrowing backstage plunge in Jakarta, where an errant cue sent her down a flight of stairs.

“I’m known for moving and I’m known for wearing high, high heels,” Ms. Bridgewater said in the green room on Tuesday, moments before taking the Blue Note stage. “That may never happen again. I hope it does.”

Read the full article on The New York Times

Dee Dee Bridgewater on TKA

INTERVIEW: Dee Dee Bridgewater On Recording Her Dream Album

Ang Santos for WBGO – It’s been a busy year for vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater. WBGO’s Ang Santos caught up with the jazz icon in New York City, as she tours in support of a new album.

Ang Santos: Joining us on the WBGO Journal is Dee Dee Bridgewater, at the Blue Note in New York City. No stranger to our airwaves, Thanks for being with us.

Dee Dee Bridgewater: You’re welcome.

AS: You’re touring for your new album, ‘Memphis, Yes I’m Ready’. To my understanding the album was a project that spanned over several years?

DDB: Yeah. From the time that I decided this was the direction I wanted to go in, to going and meeting with Kirk Whalum who co-produced the album with me. It’s been a beautiful journey because it was also about me going back home to Memphis. I was born there but my family left when I was three and a half. It was also kind of the culmination of doing a lot of research on my father and what our life was like when we lived there. Finding the house my parents lived in when I was born and finding out it was just a few blocks from Royal Studios. My father was friends with Willie Mitchell. They played in a few bands together. Willie Mitchell of course owned Royal Studios. Royal just celebrated its 60th anniversary. I’m very proud to be part of that history in black music.

Read the full interview on WBGO

Dee Dee Bridgewater on TKA

LIVE REVIEW: Pat Metheny Quartet epic and electric at Barbican

Adam McCulloch for JAZZWISE MAGAZINE – In these turbulent times small things can provide a reassuring sense of constancy. So Pat Metheny‘s arrival on stage clutching a 48-string guitar, in a striped t-shirt and jeans, with the smile of a man in his element etched on his face, relayed a sense of ‘all is well with the world’, a glowing feeling that persisted for the next two and a half hours and beyond.

This was the opening day of the EFG London Jazz Festival – an occasion that always means making a tough choice: the big opening Jazz Voice bash at the Royal Festival Hall, Manu Dibango at Ronnie’s, Groove Warriors at the Bull’s Head, Michael Janisch Band at Rich Mix, Tomasz Stanko at Cadogan Hall… But Metheny was the stellar billing: a multi-Grammy Award and Downbeat Poll winner whose gigs over the past 40 years have been marked not only by incredible musicianship, adventurous technology and great tunes but by a ferocious commitment to continued musical searching.

Joined for the current cycle of gigs by Brit Gwilym Simcock on piano, Malaysian-born, Australian-raised Linda May Han Oh on bass and 15-year Metheny associate Antonio Sánchez, from Mexico City on drums, Metheny’s tune choices were similar to those of the Ronnie Scott’s sets last year: lesser known PMG tracks, picks from his 1976 debut Bright Size Life, various Trio albums and the 1992 masterpiece Secret Story. Without a new album to promote this was Metheny enjoying himself with old tunes and finding fresh ways of playing them.

Read the full review on Jazzwise Magazine

Pat Metheny on TKA

VIDEO PREMIERE: Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn Face Off In ‘Don’t Let It Bring You Down’ Video

Gary Graff for BILLBOARD – Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn have no problem staring intently into each other’s eyes; They are married, after all. But the duo decided a face-off was the best course to take for “Don’t Let It Bring You Down,” the first video from their new album Echo In The Valley, which is premiering exclusively below.

The clip, directed by Alex Chaloff and filmed in a sweaty Los Angeles warehouse, features the two — Fleck playing a cello banjo, Washburn on a fretless banjo — staring each other down as the camera swirls 360 degrees around their performance. “This song in particular is a little complicated. I guess you could say it’s hard to tap your foot throughout the whole thing,” Washburn tells Billboard. “One of the things we wanted to do was show people, on our instruments, what’s happening and use the (video) to help people understand the song musically.”

Watch the video on Billboard

Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn on TKA

VIDEO PREMIERE: The Dustbowl Revival covers Supertramp classic

Wendy Geller for YAHOO! MUSIC – The Dustbowl Revival is a Venice, California-based collective that merges a variety of different vintage Americana genres — including bluegrass, gospel, pre-war blues, and swing — to create a sonic mixture all their own. Their new eponymous album finds the Los Angeles-based ensemble evolving and refining its music, which is well evidenced by their latest video: Yahoo Music is excited to debut the group’s cover of ’70s classic “Breakfast in America” by Supertramp.

Frontman/guitarist Zach Lupetin explains the band’s decision to cover the song. “As an eight piece band it’s often hard to agree on potential songs to cover — but Liz [Beebe, vocalist] came up with the Supertramp idea and it just clicked. It was like a ‘love at first jam’ with this tune in the rehearsal space.

“There is something otherworldly and odd about ‘Breakfast In America,’” he continues. “Like it’s from the POV of alien creatures dreaming about what it would be like to go to Texas and find a girl. As a songwriter I appreciate the oddity. We added the jam section because like a lot of classic rock radio the actual song is so succinct — we wanted to go beyond the radio edit and felt we could give the live interpretation more breath and spirit. How can we really rock out?”

Watch the video on Yahoo! Music

The Dustbowl Revival on TKA

TRACK: Ronnie Earl Premieres New Song, “Ain’t That Loving You”

Damian Fanelli for GUITAR WORLD – Today, GuitarWorld.com has teamed up with Ronnie Earl & the Broadcasters to premiere a new song, “Ain’t That Loving You.” The track is from the band’s upcoming album, The Luckiest Man, which will be released November 17 via Stony Plain Records.

“Ain’t That Loving You,” which has been recorded by scores of artists, including Buddy Guy and Bobby “Blue” Bland, is credited to Peacock Records founder Don Robey, who also “wrote” Bland’s “I Pity the Fool” and “Farther Up the Road.”

The Broadcasters’ version, which is sung by Diane Blue, features some tasty and twangy Strat picking by Earl—which shouldn’t be much of a surprise. Earl, a former member of Roomful of Blues, is a three-time Blues Music Award winner (Guitar Player of the Year), a DownBeat magazine winner (Blues Album of the Year) and an associate professor of guitar at Berklee College of Music.

In the words of the late B.B. King: “[Earl] is one of the most serious blues guitarists you can find today. He makes me proud.”

Listen to the song on Guitar World

Ronnie Earl & the Broadcasters on TKA

Monthly Archives: November 2017