Dee Dee Bridgewater

[John Meulendijks]

A popular lady singer with a lot of gospel to it toured the Netherlands. For
once I had an opportunity to do well on the piano for a fine world-class
singer/pianoplayer. A pianoplayer with respect for sound.......After 50
minutes of intense hard work, I enjoyed the good job the tuner before me had
done on last nights performance (the instrument travelled along) and I hoped
my eager efforts (and I really did go for it) would contribute even more to
the joyful celebration we were looking forward to.............Then: it came
to my consiousness that there was no microphone near the piano. Nothing
underneath either. No pickups. But a silent-system there was......... A
sound of silence.

John Meulendijks
Tilburg the Netherlands

----- Original Message -----
From: Richard Brekne <Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no>
To: PTG <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Saturday, February 17, 2001 11:09 PM
Subject: Dee Dee Bridgewater


> Dee Dee Bridgewater was in town tonite and I got the call to do
> the piano. A beautifull well kept never been moved from its first
> home  Hamburg D. Great fun. Its been a while since I have done a
> real concert job now. "Real" meaning a full blown concert hall
> with a well behaved audience. It was kinda nice being on stage
> again if you get my meaning. Thats how it always feels to me
> anyways... when the tuning counts... everyone can hear and gives
> a damn.
>
> She had a hot trio (french me thinks) with her. In particular the
> pianist / hammond organ player was dynamite. This fellow had some
> moves that will just plain blow any jazz enthusiast away. And he
> had some really cute tricks as well. He actually had the grand
> sounding like a banjo for a short stint in a song where the
> affect fit just right.
>
> Towards the end of the nite the inevitable "piano tuners
> nightmare" song came up. You know the nice slow melodic one that
> features the piano player with beautiful long sounding single
> tones..... after an hour of banging away. Piano held up well and
> I was tickled pink of course.  All in all a wonderfull nite. You
> gotta catch this ladies act.
>
> --
> Richard Brekne
> RPT, N.P.T.F.
> Bergen, Norway
> mailto:Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no
>
>