News

Two years after her memorable first show in Bulgaria, Grammy Award-winner Dee Dee Bridgewater is coming back to the stage of the National Palace of Culture, this time with her African project Red Earth. A Malian Journey. She has promised to have the audience standing by the end of the first tune during her concert on March 18.

“Today's jazz standards were the pop music of the 1930's and 40s,” Bridgewater says. “People must dance and feel festive. They shouldn't just sit there; I want them to react. Otherwise, I haven't done my job well.”

Marked by the polyrhythmics of Africa and the melodies of Mali, Red Earth. A Malian Journey is certain to lift people off their seats. “When I first played it to my mother, she danced from the beginning through the end. And she's 80 years old,” Bridgewater says.

In search of her ancestors, Dee Dee Bridgewater starts her journey from Bamako, the capital of Mali. In his movie Feels Like Goin' Home Martin Scorsese traced the origins of blues and vocal jazz to Mali, building a bridge between the Mississippi delta and the African state.

Bridgewater shares that idea, taking it a step further, by connecting vocal jazz improvisations with the Malian singer-storyteller tradition, called grio. Songs like Bani (Bad Spirits), Sakhodougou (The Griots) and Massane Cisse (Red Earth) originated in the 12th-13th century and have been retold in this local verbal and musical tradition. Bridgewater recreates them on stage with one of the best voices of Mali.

This is the first time African musicians of such calibre will visit Bulgaria, and the first opportunity for the Bulgarian audience to listen live to the original African instruments.

Tickets are available at Dyukyan Meloman on 6-i Septemvri Str., the ticket centre of the National Palace of Culture, in Piccadilli and Germanos stores. Tickets can also be purchased on-line at eventim.bg and meloman-bg.com.

March 7 2008, source: www.sofiaecho.com