Dee Dee Bridgewater is first and foremost a groundbreaker, an artist whose projects have traversed the musical kaleidoscope from traditional vocal jazz to searing scat interpretations. Unafraid and uninhibited, these attributes make her one of the most versatile and inspiring artist and producer of her generation. Drawing on a deep font of talent and inspiration, Bridgewater's 2007 project, Red Earth--A Malian Journey, is a journey both forward and back.
Melding Malian voices, music and traditional instruments with American Jazz vernacular and penning many of the lyrics, Bridgewater has crafted one of her most important musical statements to date. She explains, the album is "the culmination of my decision to find my African roots. It was an idea I first had when doing Horace Silver's music, which is so syncopated and rhythmic." The resulting Grammy®-nominated album Love and Peace: A Tribute to Horace Silver solidified her resolve to further investigate African music. With the death of Ella Fitzgerald in 1996 and Dee Dee's subsequent double Grammy® Award-winning tribute Dear Ella, the project was put on hold. Her ensuing albums, Live at Yoshi's, This is New, and J'ai Deux Amours, incorporated more global sounds and influences and yielded Grammy® nominations for two of the albums.
