Dee Dee Bridgewater
Over the course of a multifaceted career spanning four decades, Grammy and Tony Award-winning Jazz giant Dee Dee Bridgewater has ascended to the upper echelon of vocalists, putting her unique spin on standards, as well as taking intrepid leaps of faith in re-envisioning jazz classics. Ever the fearless voyager, explorer, pioneer and keeper of tradition, the three-timeGrammy-winner most recently won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album for Eleanora Fagan(1915-1959): To Billie With Love From Dee Dee.
Bridgewater’s career has always bridged musical genres. She earned her first professional experience as a member of the legendary Thad Jones/Mel Louis Big Band, and throughout the70’s she performed with such jazz notables as Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon andDizzy Gillespie.
Bridgewater also pursued a parallel career in musical theater, winning a Tony Award for her role as Glinda in The Wiz in 1975 Having recently completed a run as the lead role of Billie Holiday in the off-Broadway production of Lady Day, her other theatrical credits include SophisticatedLadies, Black Ballad, Carmen, Cabaret, and the Off-Broadway and West End Productions of LadyDay, for which Bridgewater received the British Laurence Olivier Nomination for Best Actress in aMusical.
As a Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO),Bridgewater continues to appeal for international solidarity to finance global grassroots projects in the fight against world hunger. She is currently on tour worldwide in support of Memphis, her new CD, and in April of this year was the recipient of an NEA Jazz Masters Fellows Award with honors bestowed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.