Jon Bream for Star Tribune – Saturday was a great night to be out and about listening to music. I caught Dee Dee Bridgewater at the Twin Cities Jazz Festival and the Devon Allman Project at the Dakota. Here are reports.
Dee Dee Bridgewater
Grammy- and Tony-winning jazz singer Dee Dee Bridgewater grew up in Memphis, listening to WDIA radio where her dad was a DJ. Even when the family relocated to Michigan, she kept listening to the R&B station. So, after recording mostly jazz albums for years, Bridgewater last year delivered “Memphis…Yes, I’m Ready,” a tribute to the music of her youth.
That material was the focus of her headlining performance at the Twin Cities Jazz Festival on a very pleasant Saturday night at jam-packed Mears Park in St. Paul’s Lowertown.
Backed by a first-rate R&B ensemble with horns and female backup singers, Bridgewater, 68, opened with what was the first song she heard on WDIA – “Giving Up,” an old Gladys Knight hit. The rest of the repertoire was a tour through ‘60s and ‘70s R&B and blues – Al Green’s “Can’t Get Next to You,” Barbara Mason’s “Yes, I’m Ready,” Carla Thomas’ “B.A.B.Y.” and Ann Peebles’ “Can’t Stand the Rain.”
Bridgewater did justice to them all, and she electrified with Otis Redding’s “Try a Little Tenderness,” which whipped her and the crowd into a soulful frenzy. B.B. King’s blues chestnut “The Thrill Is Gone” led into a medley of classics not on Bridgewater’s album including Aretha Franklin’s “Rock Steady” and Sly Stone’s “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin).”
A dynamic performer with precise phrasing, Bridgewater encored with a nod to the Twin Cities, a reading of Prince’s “Purple Rain,” which has become an obvious go-to encore for visiting musicians since his passing in 2016.