Jazz great shaking up expectations
Dee Dee Bridgewater — a two-time Grammy Award winner, NEA Jazz Master honoree and Tony Award winner for her Broadway role in “The Wiz” — will kick off the 2017-18 season at SFJazz, ThursdaySunday, Sept. 7-10, with a series of tribute performances celebrating the greats who influenced her along the way — Ella Fitzgerald, Horace Silver and Josephine Baker. The singer, who was the voice of National Public Radio’s “Jazz Set With Dee Dee Bridgewater,” will also take a stylistic detour with a program reflecting her forthcoming album, “Memphis … Yes, I’m Ready,” exploring the R&B sounds of her birthplace. We spoke to Bridgewater, who also plays the Monterey Jazz Festival on Sept. 16, during a tour stop in Berlin.
Q: It’s difficult enough to prepare for one concert; how do you do it for four? A: I’m not even there. I’m preparing for a show I’m doing tomorrow. I’m a little freaked out. I’ve got an idea of programming, but I don’t have anything etched in stone yet. Q: I’m sure a lot of it is just muscle memory — you’ve been doing songs associated with Horace Silver, Ella Fitzgerald and Josephine Baker forever. A: A lot of it is. You know what? The Ella evening will be fine, but I still sometimes have to have lyrics in front of me. The Josephine night’s got me tripping. Q: You’re also performing
songs from your new album, “Memphis … Yes, I’m Ready.” Do you think your fans are ready? A: I’m going to shock them. The players are not known in the jazz world at all. I’ve been doing this repertoire already, mainly in Europe. A lot of them are not happy. Q: What do you mean they’re not happy? A: Well, they’re just not. I’ve had people sit in front of me with their arms folded. I’ve had to call people out. I tell them, “Really? Why don’t you just go?” Q: That’s hard to believe — it’s still your voice and your soul. Right now, especially, it feels like songs from that place and era feel relevant again.
A: I thought about that. The whole purpose of going back was trying to go back and answer some questions and know that part of my life and why I am the way I am and what I do. My original idea that got thwarted was to do a big blues album, and I was going to end up in Memphis. But I didn’t feel like I could get it done in 10 songs. Q: This feels like a natural fit for you. A: I’m at a point where I want to have fun. I want to relax. I want to dance. I’m 67, and I’ve been defending jazz music all my life. I just want to have a good time. I don’t care what the critics are going to say. Q: It’s not like you ever made the same album twice anyway. A: This is true. But I guess it was all around jazz, even though the repertoires were different. This is so abrupt. This is all electric instruments. It’s just different. My goal eventually is to do it really like a revue, to get costumes and a little bit of choreography like James Brown. I go into this whole other world. It brings me such joy.
Aidin Vaziri is The San Francisco Chronicle’s pop music critic. E-mail: avaziri@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MusicSF