Dee Dee Bridgewater

Moment that made the concert: during the encore, Dee Dee (who loves nothing more than crowd connection and interaction) invited audience members on stage to dance while she sang her Malian-influenced bluesy songs to the accompaniment of African rhythms and instruments. The crowd was on its feet in the hall. An old man with a cane slowly made his way onto the stage, deliberately set the cane down and (there is no other way to say this right) began to BRING THE FUNK. He danced with soul as the delighted audience clapped.

She looked queenly and avant-garde in her bizarre and elegant stage costume, a piece of art itself, a sensuous black silk sheath dress, an art deco creation tiered and folded, like a cake or the Chrysler Builing, accompanied by a jaunty hot pink scarf and a wild black headwrap.

I must admit that for the first two or three songs of the concert, I was skeptical of Bridgewater's vocal power in spite of her winning (and wide!) smile. She talked an awful lot between songs and while I liked to hear about her inspirations and intentions in bringing together Malian music and American blues and jazz, at first it seemed like a lot of hype. Her voice was overshadowed by the powerful voices of her two Malian musical guests, Mamani Keita and Kabine Kouyate. The band was great, especially Cherif Soumanou on the kora (a Malian instrument that is like a cross between a guitar and a harp) and one of the percussionists on an instrument which is a banjo precursor (I've forgotten the name of this).

However, I was thoroughly convinced of Dee Dee's vocal abilities a little later in the show when she began to sing more blues- and gospel-inspired songs, often blending this vocal tradition seamlessly with the Malian tradition. Her rendition of Nina Simone's "Four Women"("Peaches") was emotionally powerful. Her new album's title song, "Red Earth" was also strong. She really has a talent for connecting with the audience and for tapping into the emotional power of a song, hamming it up without empty artifice, and her passion for interpretation was great. Clearly she had made a powerful personal discovery of Malian music and culture and wanted to share it. The audience ate it up.