Elemental (Dee Dee Bridgewater and Bill Charlap album)

Styart Nicholson of Jazzwise stated: "The synergy songstress and accompanist create, each pushing one another in different directions asking questions like ‘how are you going to handle this?’ means there is never a let up in creativity. It’s demanding stuff with no room for coasting, which makes this studio album a remarkably vibrant affair."^[2] Will Friedwald of The Wall Street Journal wrote: "On their new album, “Elemental,” singer Dee Dee Bridgewater and pianist Bill Charlap push interpretation to its limits, starting with some very familiar jazz standards. Rather than digging down into their chord changes and devising new melodies on top of them, as has come to be the common practice in the modern jazz era, they create variations on the tunes as originally written."^[7]

The album was nominated for 2026 Grammy Awards in Best Jazz Vocal Album category.^[8] The Arts Fuse included the album in its list of the best jazz albums of 2025.^[9]

Band

• Dee Dee Bridgewater – vocals, producing
• Bill Charlap – piano

Production

• Tulani Bridgewater-Kowalski – producer
• Timothy J. Zick – recording, mixing