Dee Dee Bridgewater and Bill Charlap – Elemental (Mack Avenue Records) (13th Floor Album Review)
Dee Dee Bridgewater and Bill Charlap have consummated their on again, off again live affair with a first recording together in Elemental.
The release is a collection of 8 jazz standards that will be familiar to many, but in the hands of this dynamic duo take the listener on a journey through a variety of styles that reflect the breadth of their talent and experience while honouring the legends of the genre that laid claim to these songs in the past.
The album opens with Bridgewater’s high-hat impersonation and some abstract bass chords from Charlap, then suddenly blossoms into Duke Ellington’s Beginning To See The Light. The voice is pure Dee Dee – playful, theatrical and spot on; a joyful announcement of what’s to come. Her, at times, theatrical delivery switches between classic jazz chanteuse to kittenish muse and scat-improvisiation as Charlap keeps her on track with some delicate flourishes and strong discordant arrangements.
The pair have been playing together in front of live audiences since 2019 in a colab that surprised many initially despite their individual popularity. Recent concerts have drawn rapturous praise from critics at the blending of two distinct styles.
Miles Davis once, famously, said “It’s not the notes you play, it’s the notes you don’t play,” and this is no truer than on another Ellington classic, Mood Indigo. Bridgewater is restrained, melancholic and perfectly ‘bluesy’ allowing space between her phrases to great effect. Charlap is sparse in accompaniment, holding a bass note, tickling the top tones and rarely together. He allows Dee Dee the room to dictate the introductory tempo and gradually wrests the baton from her to carry the song home. It really is a masterpiece of self-control that allows emptiness to fill the voids emphasising the song’s intent.
The idea for the pair to get together came from one of Bridgewater’s internal voices, she claims.
“I hear voices,” she says in the album release notes. “I woke one morning and a voice said, ‘Bill Charlap.’ I was really quite dumbfounded because it seemed like such an unlikely pairing for me.”
But she has learnt to trust the voice that has been instrumental in winning her three Grammys, a Tony and a host of other awards. Charlap was equally astonished and curious, initially thinking she wanted to guest with his trio, but quickly warmed to the idea of the pair working alone.
The clarity and confidence to work in the empty spaces continues in the tear-jerker Here’s That Rainy Day (Jimmy Van Huesen and Johnny Burke), a song covered by many great jazz vocalists including Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald. The delivery is halting, punctuated and bleak. The final few bars epitomising the song as Dee Dee holds a note with unwavering clarity while Charlap drips sporadic notes to the finish like raindrops on the roof.
Cole Porter’s Love For Sale moves us along to a different place and time with Charlap syncopating his way along Broadway as Bridgewater lets rip exploring her vocal range and collection of boutique noises in an expressionist jewel.
“My perception and my understanding of Bill changed completely after we got together,” Bridgewater says of their initial outings. “I was blown away by Bill’s sensitivity as a pianist, his wealth of knowledge and the references that he can call upon when he’s playing. I mean, he’s an encyclopedia. I have never before in all of my years worked with a musician with whom I could so completely relax and be myself.”
Bridgewater sounds completely relaxed and in tune with her pianist partner as she sings Gershwin’s S’Wonderful, a smoochy, warm feel-good song that breaks into a scat-piano jam half way through.
Charlap is equally praiseworthy of his companion.
“Dee Dee Bridgewater is a giant of a musician,” he says. “A brilliant vocalist, but just as much an actor, just as much a storyteller, just as much a risk taker. All of that is together in equal parts, with each piece stepping out into the following spot at different moments.”
In The Still Of The Night, another penned by Porter, has the pair in harmonious reflection. Their ability to move between time signatures and still maintain a rhythm is evidence of a connection and history that’s been entertaining jazz enthusiasts for over half a decade.
Bridgewater explains it thus: “The two of us have discovered a kind of musical melding that is completely inexplicable to the untrained ear,” she says. “We’ve become a gentle force of nature, and people are astounded when they encounter it.”
Ellington’s Caravan in Bridgewater and Charlap’s hands is one of those “gentle force(s) of nature” – seemingly worlds apart dancing to their own beats, the ensemble is a heady work-through conveying the exotic excitement of Ellington’s creation.
One single has been released from the record to date: Fats Waller’s Honeysuckle Rose gets a makeover that veers from the original’s stride accompaniment to syncopated abstract notes as Dee Dee flits friskily among flowers of her imagination. The track will at the very least have you smiling from ear to ear, if not hopping around the room in pure joy.
Bridgewater gets the last word on Waller’s timeless ditty, “Fats Waller was a playful musician and wrote lyrics that reflected this characteristic,” Bridgewater said. “Bill and I wanted to emulate this quality on ‘Honeysuckle Rose,’ hence our approach. We’re skipping, holding musical hands, whistling, playing hide and seek, taking gentle jabs at each other like children on a playground, all in the moment, unrehearsed, improvised in real time.”
Alex Robertson
GRAMMY-Winners Dee Dee Bridgewater and Bill Charlap album Elemental
out on June 13 via Mack Avenue Records/DDB Records
Available for Pre-Order Now!
