DEE DEE BRIDGEWATER, IRVIN MAYFIELD & THE NEW ORLEANS JAZZ ORCHESTRA BROUGHT DOWN THE HOUSE TO CLOSE OUT THIS YEARS MELBOURNE INT’L JAZZ FESTIVAL IN AUSTRALIA

New Orleans in the house

All Photo taken by: Marc Bongers

Re-Posted from The Sydney Morning Herald
It’s been just three years since Dee Dee Bridgewater last appeared at the Melbourne International Jazz Festival, performing a memorable show with her quintet on closing night. This year, MIJF artistic director Michael Tortoni introduced Bridgewater’s show – again a festival finale – as a return by popular demand, and it’s easy to see the appeal from a programming perspective.
Bridgewater is a hugely charismatic performer with terrific energy and a knockout voice, and her appearance this time was augmented by the 18-piece New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, led by trumpeter Irvin Mayfield. The show’s repertoire focused on classic tunes associated with the Crescent City, though it opened – oddly but charmingly – with a big-band rendition of Advance Australia Fair.

Mayfield played a prominent role in the night’s proceedings, his trumpet often engaging in drawly conversations or mock jousts with Bridgewater as she improvised lyrics or scatted like a particularly feisty trombone. St. James Infirmary was given a contemporary gospel twist, Bridgewater squeezing and stretching the melody into a throaty swagger as Mayfield coaxed the trumpet section into a five-way improvised duel.
The sound of the orchestra seemed a little uneven at times, and the emphasis on crowd-pleasing gestures (along with a significant amount of audience coaching by Mayfield) was sometimes at odds with the air of spontaneity the band sought to convey.
But when the brass players filed into the auditorium for a second-line parade at the end of the show, there was no coaching needed as the audience leapt to its feet, swaying and shouting its approval as Bridgewater sashayed off stage to the theme tune from Treme.

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