Dee Dee Bridgewater at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater 10/25/02

by Alan Greenblatt

Dee Dee Bridgewater is a showman, let there be no doubt. Wearing a shredded dress and tipsy-high heels, Bridgewater moves about a stage constantly, dancing and clapping and running her tongue over the top row of her teeth. "Now, it's time to get raunch-chay!" she announced at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater last week, rubbing her hand around her tuchis. "Because we have to."

Bridgewater is touring in support of "This Is New," her album of songs by Kurt Weill, the German/American composer of "Threepenny Opera" and many Broadway shows, as well as some more long-haired stuff. Bridgewater performed many of Weill's most famous numbers, including "September Song," "My Ship" and "I'm a Stranger Here Myself," which I can never hear without thinking of local waiter/cabaret weirdo Joseph Perna belting it out with high intensity and a strong vibrato warble.

Bridewater has a remarkable voice, clear with a pleasing burr around the edges. She hits every note dead on. You're never nervous for her, in that sense. I would argue, though, that what used sometimes to be said about Ella Fitzgerald is more true about Bridgewater -- she doesn't lend drama or personal emotion to the song, just sings the notes prettily.

In Bridgewater's case, it didn't seem to matter whether a song was tragic or gay, she sang the notes and sustained the last note of a phrase for four beats and that was that. She relied heavily on the arrangements by her former husband Cecil Bridgewater to convey the different moods of the songs.

Her version of "Alabama Song," however, revealed a great deal of musical intelligence. Her scatting in duet with bassist Ira Coleman was hilarious, full of musical jokes, and displayed her awesome range to full advantage.

Cecil Bridgewater has reimagined the Weill canon in interesting ways, mixing things up with Latin beats and tango rhythms and all kinds of stuff that works quite well. Weill has largely been left to the straight singers such as Ute Lemper and Dawn Upshaw but he can stand up to jazz and rock treatments as well as Cole Porter or all the rest of that crowd.

Dee Dee Bridgewater lived for many years in France and several members of her band were Europeans, all dressed in dark suits over tee-shirts. The standout player was alto saxist Daniele Scannapieco, the only one who understood the value of letting some air and silences in between notes to build up some rhythm and momentum.