Dee Dee Bridgewater - Red Earth: A Malian Journey (Jewl)
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Artist: Dee Dee BridgewaterEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2007-08-28
Music Label: Emarcy / Umgd
Soundtracks:
- Afro Blue
- Bad Spirits
- Dee Dee
- Mama Don't Ever Go Away (Mama Digna Sara Ye)
- Footprints
- Children Go 'Round (Demissenw)
- The Griots (Sakhodougou)
- Oh My Love (Djarabi)
- Four Women
- No More (Bambo)
- Red Earth (Massane Cisse)
- Meanwhile
- Compared To What
Music reviews of Red Earth: A Malian Journey (Jewl)
Music Review: Dee Dee goes to Mali to find her ancestral roots.
Rating: 4 Stars
Dee Dee goes to Mali to find her ancestral roots and makes this CD with African musicians.
Rhythmically strong throughout, the most appealing tracks are the jazz covers.
The standout is her revisiting "Afro Blue" in a more percussive version than her 70's classic. Wayne Shorter's "Footprints" is given a slightly slower pace but is equally good, and her version of Nina Simone's "Four Women" is compelling. There's also a real barnstorming version of "Compared To What".
The other tracks may be too African for many on this interesting project.
Her inspiration for finding `home' was that she's spent much of her recent career "being other people" with projects celebrating female jazz giants Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. So she wanted to find herself and "wanted to get percussive".
Suitably enough, the set opens with an immaculate version of the track made famous by another female jazz singer "finding herself" today, Abbey Lincoln. "Afro Blue" will always be classic but this version seems to resonate stronger than ever being one of the ten recorded in Bamako with Cheick Tidiane Seck.
There's a nice section on him arriving at Bamako Station on the DVD and the place to be for a great Saturday night out is Oumou Sangaré's hotel.
The DVD is a beautifully filmed documentary of the recording of the album with the Malian backdrop, even with scenes of urban poverty, it's a great 45 minute advert (bound to turn up on cable channel at some stage and well worth watching).
Seck is the link between Dee Dee's American jazz and Africa. The studio is full of traditional instruments, ("I want the boom boom" she says) and it a mixture of local musicians and her regular trio of Edsel Gomez (Puerto Rico, pianist). Ira Coleman (bassist worked with Angelique Kidjo, Denise Jannah and Klaus Doldinger) and Minino Garay (Arginitian percussionist).
"Bani" (Bad Spirits), "Sakhodougou" (The Griots) and "Massane Cissé" (Red Earth) have been told in the oral tradition of the `griots' since the twelfth century and is what global music is all about, even if the purists might disagree with Dee Dee's contributions in English. Purist or not, the duet on "Djarabi" (Oh My Love) with Oumou Sangaré is special and there's no denying that the vocal contribution of Kabiné Kouyaté on "The Griots" is a find.
One of the better tracks that attempt a modern griot mix English/skat/Bambara is "Dee Dee'=" co-written with Baba Sissoko and "Mama Digna Sara Ye" (Mama Don't Ever Go Away) written with Malian diva Ramata Diakité.
On the DVD she explains at length about how she wanted to make this an album for and by women. Good choice then to cover a Nina Simone song, `Four Women' and the track that's getting all-round acclaim "Bambo" (No More) with its anti-forced marriage. Originally composed by Tata `Bambo' Kouyaté (who sings with Dee Dee), it was so influencial, the government outlawed forced marriage in the 1960s (not that it still doesn't go on of course around the world).
Two obvious sides of Dee Dee come out on the soul-modal-jazz interpretation of Wayne Shorter's "Footprints" with suitable roots lyrics from Dee Dee and the blues with Bassékou Kouyaté and three other n'goni players, two percussionists and Bassékou's wife on "Children Go `Round".
The last three tracks were recorded in Paris, where she lives with her husband/co-producer Jean Marie Durand. "Red Earth" (Massane Cissé) rocks the blues as Dee really lets you have it with Fatoumata "Mama" Kouyaté.
My highlights: "Red Earth", "Afro Blue", "Footprints", "Bambo", "The Griots", "Four Women".
Description of Red Earth: A Malian Journey (Jewl)
Dee Dee Bridgewater is first and foremost a groundbreaker, an artist whose projects have traversed the musical kaleidoscope from traditional vocal jazz to searing scat interpretations. Unafraid and uninhibited, these attributes make her one of the most versatile and inspiring artist and producer of her generation. Drawing on a deep font of talent and inspiration, Bridgewater's 2007 project, Red Earth--A Malian Journey, is a journey both forward and back.
Melding Malian voices, music and traditional instruments with American Jazz vernacular and penning many of the lyrics, Bridgewater has crafted one of her most important musical statements to date. She explains, the album is "the culmination of my decision to find my African roots. It was an idea I first had when doing Horace Silver's music, which is so syncopated and rhythmic." The resulting Grammy®-nominated album Love and Peace: A Tribute to Horace Silver solidified her resolve to further investigate African music. With the death of Ella Fitzgerald in 1996 and Dee Dee's subsequent double Grammy® Award-winning tribute Dear Ella, the project was put on hold. Her ensuing albums, Live at Yoshi's, This is New, and J'ai Deux Amours, incorporated more global sounds and influences and yielded Grammy® nominations for two of the albums.
Dee Dee Bridgewater
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