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Dida Pelled: Blues in the Night

By Ludovico Granvassu
May 31, 2026
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Dida Pelled's I Wish You Would (La Reserve) is more than a love letter to the blues, a genre she returns to after the high bar she set with A Missing Shade of Blue (Red Records). It is the definitive statement of an artist whose signature lies in the irresistible contrast between the understated intimacy of her voice—soft, almost delicate, yet impossible to ignore—and a guitar style that is warm, sophisticated and quietly virtuosic, never showy, never a wasted note. The mark of a true stylist.

Focusing exclusively on blues tunes by the likes of Mary Lou Williams, John Lee Hooker and Jelly Roll Morton, Pelled approaches these songs revealing new sides to them... sometimes playfully, but always compellingly.

Backed by a dream ensemble featuring Sullivan Fortner on piano and Rhodes, Tony Scherr on bass, and Kenny Wollesen on drums and percussion, she delivers a version of "Blues in the Night" that feels completely her own. Without ever sounding burdened by the towering legacy of interpreters such as Dinah Washington or Big Joe Turner, Pelled slips naturally into the atmosphere of this classic by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer, revealing once again how, in the right hands, timeless songs can still sound wonderfully alive.

Contact Ludovico Granvassu on All About Jazz.
I'm the Editor-in-Chief of All About Jazz Italia, host of Mondo Jazz on Radio Free Brooklyn and was once visited by Frank Zappa's ghost.... he was funny too.

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