Certainly trad and not even in a 1950s sense, the spirit of this duo recording seems to live more in the 1930s or even earlier.
Jazz standards – all of them familiar but really pushed hard by Dee Dee Bridgewater (75) who twists and turns the melodies and injects a lot of meaning to the words – I, for one, understood ‘Mood Indigo’ a bit better than ever before and the song has been covered many times and I’ve lost count how many times I have heard the song.
It’s fitting that the album starts with that most stately of sound Duke Ellington’s and ‘Beginning To See The Light’. But it’s not just reverential stateliness that the album deals with – there’s a lot of sheer joy and passion that emerges from the chrysalis. The butterfly effect sends you to another time that speaks of the roots of much new jazz that wants to interpret the traditions. As for Charlap (58) I like his work most with the late Tony Bennett and, like Bennett, Bridgewater, who is an Ella Fitzgerald calibre singer, (and you can’t write that unambiguous praise about more than a handful of singers) is so comfortable with this sort of classic material as a given. And crucially the American is able to use it as a platform to improvise around and play with the contents in so many ways.
The duo have been playing live together for about 6 years.
The treatment of ‘Honeysuckle Rose’ is a new benchmark (even with the whistling) as there’s such ingenuity in the theatricality of the vocal and the tinkling very antique Charlap accompaniment. You don’t need a drummer when someone as percussive as Charlap is playing and as for pace and beat even the need to have a bass player is a bit ridiculous when things are as measured and beefily punched out by both artists on songs like ‘Love for Sale.’
Also strong points of the album are a fine version of Cole Porter’s ‘Love For Sale’. Dee Dee’s scatting is first class and surely an album like this should be used to teach new jazz singers the style.
It’s a long time since I’ve seen Bridgewater live (a concert that was heavy on Horace Silver) and I interviewed her on the phone for a piece run on the cover of Jazzwise in the magazine’s very early days. But I’ve never heard Charlap live. He’s on my bucket list.
Her voice thinking back to that 1990s concert at London’s SouthBank Centre when I heard her that extraordinary voice is still just as fine an instrument. Perhaps she brings out the deeper tones of her range more and that makes her sound even more momentous. You get some great expressivity when she slows things down as on ‘Here’s That Rainy Day.’
If I were a betting man I’d plonk down a big wad of a wager that this will gain a Grammy nomination in due course. Regardless, dear reader, put your money where my mouth is and get this when it’s released. It’s clearly a landmark recording. And beyond industry speculation, the ficklety and fripperies of fame, the album is a must for any self respecting jazz vocals appreciator. The duo take a blow torch to the familiar and make all these great, old, songs brand new.
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