Elemental

Vocalist Dee Bridgewater and pianist Bill Charlap are inventive kindred spirits on their ebulliently stripped-down duo session, 2025s Elemental. While not the most unlikely team, Charlap and Bridgewater nonetheless bring varied backgrounds to their collaborations. Charlap is a preeminent jazz pianist known for his sophisticated interpretations of the Great American Songbook. Conversely, though steeped in the jazz tradition, Bridgewater has explored an array of sounds, from funk to Latin and R&B, along with composing much of her own material. Since joining forces in 2019, the duo have communed over their passion for jazz standards, diving into each song with a creative abandon and virtuosity that speaks to their deep well of experience as solo performers. Here, they are at once both lead and accompanist, as on their opening take on "Beginning to See the Light," where Bridgewater sets up the swing standard by evincing a brushed drum groove with her voice before Charlap enters with a bass note pattern. From there, they build the song, accenting each phrase with bluesy relish and taking turns soloing. Bridgewater comes from the vocalese/scat school of singing and punctuates her solos with ear-popping musical sounds inspired by reed and brass instruments. Shes also widely dynamic, cooing out the melody one minute and ascending into rowdy shouts the next, as she does on Fats Wallers "Honeysuckle Rose." Charlap responds in kind throughout, framing her in both Earl Hines-esque two-hand patterns as well as skittering, bug-like multi-note runs and smashing cluster chords. Of course, as crazy as they can get, they also know when to lean into a good tune, as on Duke Ellingtons "Mood Indigo," where Bridgewater sinks intoxicatingly into Duke Ellingtons melody, wrapping herself in Charlaps sun-dappled, late-afternoon chords. Theres a sense on Elemental that Bridgewater and Charlap can move a song in any direction and that anything can happen at any given moment -- like two jazz gods playing in the clouds and casting musical rainbows in their wake. ~ Matt Collar