Dear Ella
Dear Ella is a 1997 studio album by Dee Dee Bridgewater, recorded in tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, who had died the previous year. For "Dear Ella", Bridgewater won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album and Slide Hampton won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) for his arrangement of "Cotton Tail" at the 40th Grammy Awards. Reception. Raoul Hernandez of "The Austin Chronicle" stated, "As with nature, music is in a constant state of regeneration. For every fallen John Coltrane there's a James Carter, for every departed Miles Davis, a Terence Blanchard. Sometimes  it takes generations to fill a hole, but new trees sprout every day. One forest in need of re-seeding has long been the Satin Doll woods, where craters left by Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, and Ella Fitzgerald still gape. Only recently has Cassandra Wilson helped fill the gap, and now with Dear Ella, Dee Dee Bridgewater is ready to take her side." "All About Jazz" review commented, "Overall, this disc is a good, pleasant listen for fans of scatting and upbeat big band swing singing. While the theme is a tribute to Ella, don't pick this up expecting  to hear her ghost. While Bridgewater is brave enough to take on all this material and the legend of Ella, she is also smart enough to realize there is only one Ella, and that she needs to sing like Dee Dee to be successful. At times, the melodies involved in several of the songs are obscured somewhat by Bridgewater's R’n’B-ish stylings, but her effort on these songs is real and cannot be dismissed. Bridgewater had the privilege of meeting Ella on multiple occasions, and seems to have been genuinely influenced by her singing and her personality. This  project seems to be her way of bidding farewell to jazz's true First Lady of Song."