Review: Dee Dee Bridgewater at Norwich Theatre Royal
Dee Dee Bridgewater. Picture: Mark Higashino - Credit: Mark Higashino
It's great when an act pleasantly surprises: and at this gig at Norwich Theatre Royal the audience got two unexpected delights.
Support act Bill Laurance is known for his role in modern jazz group Snarky Puppy, but – aside from some brief interloping electronica – gave us stunning traditional piano renditions of Nearness of You and House of the Rising Sun, alongside two of his own pieces, Chia and Madeleine.
Dee Dee Bridgewater has an impressive pedigree as a jazz chanteuse but for her latest album has switched to the blues and R&B of her hometown Memphis. Cue rousing versions of Giving Up, Yes I'm Ready, Try A Little Tenderness, Hound Dog, and I Can't Stand The Rain.
Despite having one leg in plaster, Bridgewater was on top form with amazing vocal purity and strength, matched by an on point backing group. It might not be the night many in the audience were expecting, but no one could have left blue.
James Goffin
You may also want to watch:
Most Read
- 1 Builder took pink pill and ran naked around hotel
- 2 Fire tears through historic Thorpe pub
- 3 Four national high street names to move into former M&S store
- 4 Mass coronavirus vaccination centre opens in Norwich today
- 5 Stunning images capture Cromer in the snow
- 6 Store open despite positive Covid test at town centre Sainsbury's
- 7 Vaccines roll-out to move on to over 70s
- 8 Delays as 23m-long caravan travels through Norfolk
- 9 Norfolk to get rapid Covid test sites - to find people without symptoms
- 10 Vandals leave £80,000 trail of destruction in car park