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Dee Dee Bridgewater - Memphis...Yes, I'm Ready [Okeh] 2017

Three-time Grammy Award winning jazz vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater returns to the place of her birth to record a powerful collection of American soul/R&B classics.

Bridgewater was born in Memphis Tennessee (in 1950, though she may not thank me for reminding you) as Denise Eileen Garrett, where her father taught music at Manassas High School. His students included Charles Lloyd, Harold Mabern and Booker Little, so we should perhaps have been prepared for the appearance of his daughter as a long-term star singer and songwriter in the jazz orbit. Having departed Memphis for Michigan when she was three years of age, Bridgewater listened avidly to the sounds emerging from ‘Soulsville’ on her radio. She has now made the opportunity to return to her birthplace for both inspiration and recording.

This CD features 13 solid-gold Memphis soul classics recorded at the famous Royal Studios, home of Hi Records, Willie Mitchell, the Reverend Al Green and many other soul and R&B stars. Much of the repertoire is instantly recognisable, with songs like Hound Dog, Try A Little Tenderness, I Can’t Get Next To You and I Can’t Stand The Rain being given the Dee Dee treatment. The band assembled for the sessions offers fine support, with the electric piano of John Stoddart a prominent feature. The album features a strong horn section led by Kirk Whalum on tenor and baritone saxophones, and the predominant sound is low-down, bassy and utterly solid.