Dee Dee Bridgewater - Red Earth
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Free Music Notes for Red Earth
Free Music Review: COLOURFUL WORLD ETHNIC MUSIC WITH STRENGTH AND ROBUSTNESS
Hit: 5 Stars
Among the best world-ethnic albums for this decade colourful and very strong in musical expression .OUMOU SANGARE, EDSEL GOMEZ ,BABA SISSOKO ,are some of the big names which collaborate with DEE DEE in RED EARTH .An excellent recording which will cover with the most satisfying way everybody s thirst for SUPERFINE WORLD ETHNIC MUSIC .FULL OF ENJOYMENT.Free Music Review: Became a Fan of Bridgewater on a Plane
Hit: 5 Stars
I had never heard of Dee Dee Bridgewater, and then on a long plane ride Red Earth was one of the available albums for listening. I went nuts. I ordered it as soon as I got home. The mix of sounds and styles are terrific and Bridgewater's strong voice and stylizing are among the best. She's a real star.Free Music Review: Specatular!
Hit: 5 Stars
Absolutely gorgeous album combining Malian traditional music with vocal Jazz and Blues. Bridgewater is absolutely a trail-blazer and this album puts her way out in front. The musicians featured on the cd are the top in their field. The vocalists bring an authenticity and fullness of sound that makes each song an adventurous journey. By far, this is Dee Dee's best album to date. It is bold, vibrant and rich...just like Mali, just like Dee Dee.Free Music Review: Softer than on FM
Hit: 4 Stars
I personally was introduced to this CD on an FM radio that broadcasted Four Women. The radio version was much more energetic than the CD. Still, quite good JazzFree Music Review: A Minor Masterpiece
Hit: 5 Stars
I hadn't gotten even halfway through this c.d. on first listen, before I had the distinct first impression that this is a masterpiece.
After a few complete listens, I'll temper my enthusiasm, but only slightly. I mean, Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue," Charles Mingus' "Let My Children Hear Music," and Duke Ellington's "In a Mellow Tone" are masterpieces, after all. But this is at the least a minor masterpiece. It also is one of the best vocal jazz c.d.'s of 2007 and quite possibly the best, and a c.d. which absolutely, positively deserves a Grammy nomination.
It also, IMO, is Dee Dee Bridgewater's career highlight. I loved her 2005 release, "Jai Deux Amours." In retrospect, however, that c.d. merely hinted at the greatness of this one. It's like she ripped the top off of the creative bottle, and what the genie has wrought is a wonderment to behold.
This c.d. is a testament to the human condition. The call and response of "Mama Don't Ever Go Away (Mama Digna Sara Ye)" or "Children Go 'Round (Demissenw)", for example, should play as well in Mali as in Manhattan--or Manitoba, for that matter.
But even more basically, this c.d. is to jazz as Paul Simon's "Graceland" is to pop. Which is to say, I cannot think of a better meld of American jazz to African music (including Dizzy Gillespie's "Kush"!). The rhythms throughout are stunning. With a percussion section of 5 or 6 African instruments throughout played by native Malians, and with jagged contrapuntal rhythms over 9/8, 7/8 and 8/8 (yes, "Long Time Ago" is in 8/8--not 4/4, not cut time) meters, this c.d. never ceases to fascinate metrically. And the Malian background vocals sound like the cultural precursor to American inner-city rap.
On first listen, though, I wondered whether the decision to include Nina Simone's "Four Women" and Eugene McDaniel's "Compared to What" was such a good idea. I thought both of these great songs were uniquely American. But as I think more about it, I conclude to the contrary. They may both have been borne of American experience; but outrage over the abuses of slavery and outrage over a morally crumbling society from the government down are hardly unique American commodities. (Recall apartheid, Idi Amin, the Tsutsi's, or Darfur, anyone?) No, these songs work--in fact, "Compared to What" makes a terrific exclamation point ending to a terrific album.
Don't buy this c.d.--buy two copies. One for you and one for a friend who cares about jazz. Your friend will forever thank you. RC
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