Jazz stars Dee Dee Bridgewater and Irvin Mayfield are big talents, big personalities and big cut-ups. They make a terrific tandem.
With Bridgewater and Mayfield onstage at the Dakota Jazz Club on Sunday night, I don't think I've ever laughed so much at a jazz concert -- and come away musically satisfied at the same time.
Bridgewater, a Grammy- and Tony-winning vocalist, and Mayfield, a Grammy-winning trumpeter/bandleader and former jazz artistic director of the Minnesota Orchestra, collaborated on a 2015 album, "Dee Dee's Feathers," a marvelous exploration of New Orleans music featuring Mayfield's 18-piece New Orleans Jazz Orchestra.
Backed by four other musicians, Bridgewater and Mayfield hit the Dakota stage Sunday with no planned set list. So the singer and the trumpeter bantered all night long, trying to settle on songs and vying to one-up each other in repartee. They made each laugh, and, more importantly, musical moments made all the musicians smile at one another. It was that kind of night.
To no one's surprise, Bridgewater, 65, demonstrated that she's a special vocalist, bringing sass and slyness to Harry Connick's "One Fine Thing," sounding just like Louis Armstrong singing and scatting like his trumpet on "Basin Street Blues," and doing a spot-on scat imitation of Mayfield's muted trumpet. And during "St. James Infirmary," she improvised a verse about wanting to be buried in Louboutin shoes and Prada coat with a feather in her hat.
Mayfield, 38, had his inspired solo turns on trumpet but he may have been more memorable for his big mouth than his nuanced sounds.
Near the end of the 75-minute opening set, Mayfield announced that the group would be performing "buck naked" on Monday night at the Dakota.
"Not me," Bridgewater piped up. "I don't play that. I got all kinds of stuff holding me. When I'm naked, it's an explosion. You can do it. .. Y'all young and fine."
