SCATTING IN THE CRIB [:60]

RUFFIN: NOW A JAZZ MOMENT

Dee Dee scatting up and under

Dee Dee Bridgewater: My mom loved jazz singers so when I was a baby, she swore that I could scat before I could speak.

VOCALIST DEE DEE BRIDGEWATER WAS BORN INTO A FAMILY RICH WITH MUSICAL TALENT. AND SHE REVEALED THIS PERFORMANCE GENE AT A VERY, VERY YOUNG AGE.

Dee Dee Bridgewater: And she said by the time I was, like, 10 months, I would stand on the side of my crib and hold the rail and try to scat with Ella Fitzgerald.

When I was doing the research on Ella for my Dear Ella album, the first recorded music that she did, I would put it on, and I could hum these melodies. So I called my mom up, and then she says, “Oh, those were the songs I was listening to when I was pregnant with you.”

And I said, “Wow, this must be true.” You know, this—this whole belief that if you play music for the child while the baby’s in—in your womb, that they remember it, and it can influence them, so...

I was always able to scat!

Dee Dee scatting up and under