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PHOTO: DEE DEE BRIDGEWATER (b. May 27, 1950)
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/dee-dee-bridgewater-mn0000227415
Dee Dee Bridgewater
(b. May 27, 1950)
Biography by Scott Yanow
Few entertainers have ever commanded such depth of artistry in every medium. Fewer still have been rewarded with Broadway’s coveted Tony Award (Best Featured Actress in a Musical The Wiz), nominated for the London theater’s West End equivalent, the Laurence Oliver Award (Best Actress in a Musical Lady Day), won three Grammy® Awards (1998’s Best Jazz Vocal Performance and Best Arrangement Accompanying a Vocal for "Cottontail" Slide Hampton, arranger "Dear Ella", and Best Jazz Vocal Album for "Eleanora Fagan: To Billie with Love from Dee Dee, 2011), and France’s 1998 top honor Victoire de la Musique (Best Jazz Vocal Album), as well as induction into France's Haute Conseil de la Francophonie, Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mérite, and Officier des Arts et des Lettres.
Bridgewater is an NEA Jazz Master, Doris Duke Artist, ASCAP Champion, Memphis Music Hall of Fame Inductee and recipient of three Honorary Doctorates (Michigan State University, Berklee College of Music, and Elmhurst University). For decades she served as the host of NPR's "JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater," produced by WBGO. She also serves as a Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization and founded the non- profit program, The Woodshed Network for self-identifying women in jazz.
Denise "Dee Dee" Garrett was born in Memphis on May 27, 1950 to parents Marion Garrett (nee Holliday) and Matthew Garrett. Her father was a trumpeter, educator and radio host "Matt the Platter Cat" on famed WDIA. Exposed to jazz at an early age, Dee Dee grew up with the sounds of Ella Fitzgerald, Betty Carter, Nancy Wilson, Sarah Vaughan, Miles Davis and Cannonball Adderley, among others. When the family relocated to Flint, MI, Dee Dee continued to listen to WDIA, maintaining her connection to her birthplace, which later inspired her critically acclaimed 2017 self-produced release "Memphis...Yes, I'm Ready" (DDB Records/Sony Masterworks).
By the age of 16 she was in an R& B vocal trio that would eventually be scouted by Motown Records. The family had relocated to Clinton, Michigan and naturally an audition with nearby Motown was inevitable. But the label turned her down, not for her lack of talent, but because of the groups’ young age. When Dee Dee was 18 years old, she attended Michigan State University and joined saxophonist Andy Courtridge's group. In 1969, she transferred to the University of Illinois, where her exception talent was tapped by John Garvey, the University's Jazz Band Director, who hired her for a tour. In 1970, Denise met and married hard bop trumpeter Cecil Bridgewater (Horace Silver, Max Roach, Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band, The Loud Minority). Together, the newlyweds relocated to New York.
Later that same year, Dee Dee made her phenomenal New York debut as the lead vocalist for the legendary Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, still considered one of the premier jazz orchestras of all time. During her New York years, Dee Dee performed in concerts and on recordings with such giants as Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Max Roach and Roland Kirk, Norman Connors, Stanley Clarke and Frank Foster’s "Loud Minority."
In 1974, Bridgewater won the role of Glinda the Good Witch in the original Broadway production of The Wiz. Her standout performance earned her a coveted Tony Award and launched her international stage, film and television career. This began a long line of awards and accolades as well as opportunities to work in Tokyo, Los Angeles, Paris and in London where she garnered the coveted “Laurence Olivier” Award nomination as Best Actress for her tour de force portrayal of jazz legend Billie Holiday in Stephen Stahl’s Lady Day. Performing the lead in equally demanding acting/singing roles as Sophisticated Ladies, CosmopolitanGreetings, Black Ballad, Carmen Jazz and the musical Cabaret (the first black actress to star as Sally Bowles), she secured her reputation as a consummate entertainer. Bridgewater is featured on soundtracks and voice over for film and television projects worldwide. Notable appearances and soundtracks include The Brother from Another Planet, The Fish that Saved Pittsburgh, Cosmopolitan Greetings, Cabaret, Sophisticated Ladies, Coffy, Monster-in-Law and guest appearances on numerous television programs.
In 1976 she landed her first recording contract with Atlantic Records. Her first release was simply entitled "Dee Dee Bridgewater." "Just Family,” (’77 Elektra), produced by Stanley Clarke, featuredrevered musicians with jazz backgrounds, including Chick Corea, George Duke, Airto Moreira, and Bobby Lyle. While this album, and Bridgewater's subsequent releases "Bad for Me" and her eponymous 1980 release sit firmly outside the jazz canon, they have become fan favorites and established Bridgewater as a multi-genre artist. When Bridgewater fulfilled her contract, Bridgewater was determined to focus her talent and again explore her jazz roots. She returned to musical theatre with the touring production Sophisticated Ladies, alongside Gregory Hines, Paula Kelly, Hinton Battle, Judity Jamison, and a talented cast. It was amidst their European tour that Bridgewater would forge a connection with France, which would be her home for over twenty years.
At the conclusion of Sophisticated Ladies, Bridgewater began performing in Paris clubs, establishing herself as a beloved and respected talent. France took note and Dee Dee was offered the starring role of Billie Holiday in the theatrical production "Lady Day" in 1986, again earning rave reviews. Bridgewater learned the entire play in French, delivering a performance that garnered critical and public acclaim. A West End production was mounted in London for which Bridgewater was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award, that country's highest honor. In 1987, Bridgewater released her first album recorded in France. Grammy-nominated "Live in Paris," marked her return to jazz.
1989 brought the highly acclaimed album "Victim of Love," which features a duet with music icon Ray Charles. Dee Dee appeared with Archie Shepp in the musical production "Black Ballad" (1991 and 1992). Bridgewater released a live album titled "In Montreux." Bridgewater began self-producing with her 1993 album "Keeping Tradition" (Polydor/Verve) and created DDB Records in 2006 when she signed with the Universal Music Group as a producer (Bridgewater produces all of her own CDs). Horace Silver, a friend and collaborator, contributed his talent and songs to Bridgewater's 1995 Grammy-nominated release, "Love and Peace: A Tribute to Horace Silver." In 1997, Dee Dee's "Dear Ella," a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, featuring arrangements by Slide Hampton, John Clayton and Cecil Bridgewater, as well as a duet with Kenny Burrell and a standout big band. The album garnered worldwide audience and won 2 Grammy awards and marked the beginning of Bridgewater's work with engineering legends Al Schmitt and Doug Sax. This release was followed by “Live at Yoshi’s” (2000) and "This Is New."(2002) both on Verve Records. Bridgewater.
Dee Dee's 2005 self-produced Grammy-nominated album "J'ai Deux Amours" was a love letter to France. It was also the first release on Bridgewater's own DDB Records. The recording was a re-envisioning of beloved French songs and revered artists, such as Michel Legrand, Edith Piaf and perhaps the greatest expat, Josephine Baker. Her Grammy- nominated 2007 release “Red Earth: A Malian Journey,” (DDB Records) is an ode to Mali and Memphis. Singing in the spirit that draws on her African ancestry and with reverence for jazz tradition at its best, Dee Dee exudes the artistic depth she is revered for around the world. Recorded in Mali and featuring some of its most respected artists, this ambitious concept recording explores musical legacy of Malian and its influences on jazz and blues.
For her 2010 Grammy Award winning release, "Eleanora Fagan (1917-1959)": To Billie With Love From Dee Dee" (DDB Records), Bridgewater honors an iconic jazz figure, Billie Holiday. It was recorded in tandem with Bridgewater's reprisal of her role in an off-Broadway production of "Lady Day." Featuring renown musicians Edsel Gomez, Christian McBride, James Carter and Lewis Nash, the album was a smashing success.
“This album is my way of paying my respect to a vocalist who made it possible for singers like me to carve out a career for ourselves,” says Bridgewater, who performed the role of Holiday in the triumphant theatrical production, Lady Day "based on the singer’s autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues "staged in Paris and London in 1986 and 1987. “I wanted Eleanora Fagan to be something different: more modern and a celebration, not a [recording] that goes dark and sullen and maudlin. I wanted the album to be joyful.”
Instead of playing it safe and recreating her performance in Lady Day, on "Eleanora Fagan," Bridgewater reacquaints herself with Holiday, shining a new ray of love on the often-misunderstood jazz icon. “I wanted the record to be a collection that would not be like the music of the show,” she says. That philosophy is in keeping with Bridgewater’s approach to all of her projects: “I want to move forward, just as I’ve done with each of my albums. To not go backwards, but progress. Constantly.”
In 2015, Bridgewater released "Dee Dee's Feathers" (DDB Records/Okeh/Masterworks) in collaboration with the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. Her connection with New Orleans and the rich history, connection to France and Africa, jazz and blues was a natural fit. The uplifting, get-out-of-your-seat tunes were a harmonious blend of Bridgewater's big band expertise and her gift for reshaping and reinterpreting beloved tunes into unique and original renditions. Dee Dee returned to her roots in 2017 with "Memphis...Yes, I'm Ready." Selecting favorite songs from her childhood spent listening to WDIA, Bridgewater has shared traveled the globe with this joyful and impactful repertoire.
Dee Dee Bridgewater continues touring worldwide, recording and advancing her philanthropic and activism efforts. She is a mother of three and grandmother of three.
Awards
Grammy Awards and Nominations:
"Live in Paris" - Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female, Nominated (1989)
"Keeping Tradition" - Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Nominated (1994)
"Love and Peace: A Tribute to Horace Silver" - Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Nominated (1995)
"Dear Ella" - Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Winner (1997)
"Live at Yoshi's" - Best Jazz Vocal Album, Nominated (2000)
"J'ai Deux Amours" - Best Jazz Vocal Album, Nominated (2005)
"Red Earth - A Malian Journey" - Best Jazz Vocal Album, Nominated (2007)
"Eleanora Fagan (1915–1959): To Billie With Love From Dee Dee" - Best Jazz Vocal Album, Winner (2010)
Honorary Doctorates:
Honorary Doctor of Music, University of Michigan, 2012
Honorary Doctor of Music, Berklee College of Music, 2015
Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts, Elmhurst University, 2022
Awards and Honors:
First American to be inducted into the Haut Conseil de la Francophonie
Commandeur dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Award (France)
Tony Award, Best Featured Actress in a Musical, The Wiz, 1975
Laurence Olivier Award Nomination, 1987
AUDELCO Award, Outstanding Performance in a Musical-Female, LADY DAY, 2014
ASCAP Foundation Champion Award, 2017
NEA Jazz Masters, 2017
Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, 2018
Thelonious Monk Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz Maria Fisher Founder's Award, 2018
German Jazz Trophy [de] - A Life for Jazz Award, Stuttgart Jazz Open, 2019
Memphis Music Hall of Fame, 2019
Dee Dee Bridgewater (b.1950)
Jazz vocalist
One of the many serious American jazz musicians who have found an environment hospitable for their talents in Europe, Dee Dee Bridgewater’s vocals, steeped in the traditions of jazz, have extended those traditions to form her own personal style. Bridgewater has sung jazz, performed on Broadway, and made forays into the pop world. During a 15-year stint in Paris, she combined all the elements of her long musical education into a new level of jazz mastery and gained wide recognition for the first time.
Bridgewater was born Denise Garrett on May 27, 1950, in Memphis, Tennessee; Dee Dee was her nickname from an early age. Her father was known as a jazz trumpeter around Memphis, but when Dee Dee was three the family moved to Flint, Michigan, so that her father could take a teaching job there. As a teenager in Michigan in the early 1960s Bridgewater’s peer group was interested in the growing Motown sound, and she formed a vocal trio, the Iridescents, in hopes of getting a recording contract.
Idolized Nancy Wilson
But her two companions “became more interested in boys,” Bridgewater recalled for the New York Times, and left to her own devices she turned to jazz. “Nancy Wilson was my first big idol,” she told the Seattle Times. “I loved her stage performance, so classy. My walls in my room were covered with articles about Nancy Wilson.” While still in high school she performed with instrumental trios her father put together; underage, she had to sit in the kitchen between sets.
Career: Jazz vocalist. Performed at Village Vanguard with Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra, early 1970s; performed in Broadway musical The Wiz, early 1970s; worked toward pop career, late 1970s; toured with international company of jazz musical Sophisticated Ladies; moved to Paris, France, 1986; released debut solo album, Live in Paris, 1987; signed to Verve label, 1990; moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, 2000.
Awards: Tony Award, Best Supporting Actress in a Musical, for The Wiz; three Grammy nominations; Grammy award, Best Jazz Vocal Performance, for Dear Elia, 1998.
Addresses: Record Label—Verve Records, 825 Eighth Ave., 26th floor, New York, NY 10019.
about music today, I learned in that band,” she told the New York Times. Performing as far afield as the Soviet Union (for a second time) and Tokyo, she was named Best New Vocalist in Down Beat magazine’s annual poll. With her marriage breaking up, however, Bridge-water turned to more lucrative work—with Thad Jones, performing at one of the nation’s leading jazz venues, she was earning only &25 a night. In 1974 Bridgewater auditioned for The Wiz, the all-black version of The Wizard of Oz that captivated Broadway audiences in the 1970s. Playing the part of Glinda the Good Witch, she won a Tony award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical.
Frustrating Pop Career
Romantically involved with Wiz director Gilbert Moses, whom she later married, Bridgewater moved to Los Angeles in 1976 and tried to make a new career in pop music. Though she found moderate success with a few recordings that had jazz fusion elements, Bridgewater never warmed to much of the material she encountered. After nine long years, Bridgewater threw in the towel temporarily on her musical career, moving back to Flint to care for her ailing mother. At the same time, her second marriage went sour. “I needed an ocean between my second husband and me,” Bridgewater told the London Daily Telegraph. And she put one in place by joining the international touring company of the swing musical Sophisticated Ladies.
What drew her back to her musical roots was a backstage conversation with jazz legend Ella Fitzgerald, whom Bridgewater met in Tokyo as the Sophisticated Ladies company traveled to Japan. “I am a jazz singer, that’s in my blood …,” Bridgewater told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “I thought an art form was dying and chose to dedicate myself to it …” As the Sophisticated Ladies company moved on to France, Bridgewater was pleased to find that she was already well known among jazz lovers there, always closely attuned to high-quality American jazz. Bridgewater moved to Paris in 1986 and relaunched her jazz career.
Personally and professionally, the decision was the right one for the artist. “My daughters fell in love with the place,” she told the Seattle Times. “Three girls running around the place? Are you kidding?” Bridge-water met her third husband, Jean-Marie Durand, a French jazz club bartender, during the first year she was living in the city. And work began to come. Bridgewater starred in the one-woman musical Lady Day, a biographical stage rendering of the life of tragic jazz chanteuse Billie Holiday, and she was the first black performer to play the starring role of Sally Bowles in the musical Cabaret, set in Germany during the rise of Nazism. Bridgewater toured Europe and Asia, and was signed to a contract with the Verve label in 1990.
Returned to Jazz
With full creative and financial control over her career, Bridgewater returned to the straight-ahead jazz she had performed as a young woman. After her first Verve album, In Montreux, Bridgewater served notice of her creative philosophy with the title of her next release, 1992’s Keeping Tradition. That album, featuring vocal standards, brought Bridgewater a Grammy nomination in 1993, and she followed it up with two tribute albums to jazz artists who had inspired her. The 1995 release Love and Peace: A Tribute to Horace Silver, landed on European bestseller charts not only for jazz but for pop as well.
Bridgewater returned triumphantly to the stage of New York’s Village Vanguard in 1996, and the following year released the second of her two tribute albums, Dear Ella. Winning positive reviews from jazz journals such as Down Beat, which praised the CD as “exquisite and exuberant,” Dear Ella also served to introduce younger U.S. listeners to the music of Ella Fitzgerald, regarded by many as the greatest pure vocalist in jazz history. The album included three arrangements by Cecil Bridgewater, one of them of the signature Fitzgerald number “How High the Moon.”
In 2000 Bridgewater returned with Live at Yoshi’s, an album recorded at a jazz club in Oakland, California. The album, wrote the Seattle Times, “showcases all her strengths—the thrust of soul music, the chops of swashbuckling jazz improvisation and the inviting personality of an actress.” Live at Yoshi’s displayed Bridgewater’s virtuoso talent for “scat” singing—making instrumental sounds with the voice—more effectively than did her studio albums generally. That year Bridgewater moved back to the United States to be closer to her aging parents, bringing her French husband with her and settling in suburban Las Vegas, Nevada. She seemed to have brought together the many strands of her musical life and hit the peak of her career. Future projects under consideration for Bridge-water included a stage show based on the music of the satirical German-born song composer Kurt Weill.
Selected discography
Live in Paris, Affinity, 1987.
In Montreux, Verve, 1990.
Keeping Tradition, Verve, 1993.
Love and Peace: A Tribute to Horace Silver, Verve, 1995.
(with Heiner Stadler) Ecstasy, Labor, 1996.
Dear Ella, Verve, 1998.
Live at Yoshi’s, Verve, 2000.
Sources
Books
Contemporary Musicians, volume 18, Gale Research, 1997.
Periodicals
Daily Telegraph (London, England), June 3, 2000, p. 8.
Down Beat, November 1997, p. 60.
The Gazette (Montreal, Canada), July 9, 2000, p. C2.
New York Times, September 22, 1998, p. E2.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 10, 1998, p. D10.
Seattle Times, April 13, 2001, p. G17.
http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2010/mar/29/dee-dee-bridgewater-jazz-singer
Portrait of the artist: Dee Dee Bridgewater, jazz singer
At the age of seven, I announced to my father and mother that when I grew up I was going to be an "internationally known jazz singer". I don't know what possessed me – but it came true.
What was your big breakthrough?
Performing professionally for the first time in 1970 with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis big band. I was with them for four years, playing every Monday night at the Village Vanguard in New York with many of the jazz greats – Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, Max Roach. I never studied music, so I call those years my personal music school.
Does jazz deserve a wider audience?
Yes. It suffers from being marketed incorrectly: people think it's intellectual, like classical music, and inaccessible unless you've had some training. The recession is changing that, though: jazz clubs are thriving in the US because it's cheaper for young people to go to them than to go to concerts.
What have you sacrificed for your art?
Being a full-time mother to my children. Because I was on the road so much, my daughters lived with my mother and stepfather for a year when they were young. And my son's father basically raised him until he was 16.
What one song would work as the soundtrack to your life?
Holy cow! I've never gotten this question before. Maybe the song Red Earth from my album Red Earth: A Malian Journey, because it talks about my search for my African ancestry.
Is there any truth in the saying that art is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration?
I think that's a little cold and jaded. For me it's about 40% inspiration and 60% perspiration. I don't sell enough records to be able to sit on my haunches, so I have to get out there and tour.
What work of art would you like to own?
One of Matisse's later works, when he was doing collage. I love his vivid colours, and the fluidity of his lines.
What advice would you give a young singer?
Read your own contracts, and take acting classes so that you know how to project yourself on stage rather than just stand there and sing – if you do that, you might as well just put on a record.
Complete this sentence: At heart, I'm just a frustrated . . .
Man. You have to be a man in this macho music industry: I lead my own band and produce myself.
What's the best advice anyone ever gave you?
I did a duet with Ray Charles in 1990, when I was having problems with my management. He told me: "You will always be able to find another manager or agent, but you are the only Dee Dee Bridgewater, and you owe it to your public to stay who you are."
Born: Memphis, 1950.
Career: Has released more than 10 albums, and won two Grammys. Has also starred in musicals such as The Wiz and the Billie Holiday tribute Lady Day, which she performs at the Barbican, London EC2 (020- 638 8891), on 16 April.
High point: "Travelling to Mali to make my last CD, Red Earth."
Low point: "Between 1990 and 1995: I felt that was I wasn't doing anything innovative."
Dee Dee Bridgewater
Dee Dee Bridgewater (née Denise Garrett, May 27, 1950) is an American jazz singer and actress. She is a three-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, as well as a Tony Award-winning stage actress. For 23 years, she was the host of National Public Radio's syndicated radio show JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater.[1] She is a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization.[2]
Biography
Born Denise Eileen Garrett to an African American family in Memphis, Tennessee, she was raised Catholic in Flint, Michigan. Her father, Matthew Garrett, was a jazz trumpeter and teacher at Manassas High School, and through his playing, she was exposed to jazz early on. At the age of 16, she was a member of a Rock and R&B trio, singing in clubs in Michigan. At 18, she studied at Michigan State University before she went to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. With the school's jazz band, she toured the Soviet Union in 1969.[3]
The next year, she met trumpeter Cecil Bridgewater, and after their marriage, they moved to New York City, where Cecil played in Horace Silver's band. In the early 1970s, Bridgewater joined the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra as lead vocalist.[4] This marked the beginning of her jazz career, and she performed with many of the great jazz musicians of the time, such as Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Max Roach, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Wayne Garfield, and others. She performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1973. In 1974, her first solo album, entitled Afro Blue, appeared, and she performed on Broadway in the musical The Wiz.[5] For her role as Glinda the Good Witch she won a Tony Award in 1975 as "Best Featured Actress", and the musical also won the 1976 Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album.
She subsequently appeared in several other stage productions. After touring France in 1984 with the musical Sophisticated Ladies, she moved to Paris in 1986. The same year saw her in Lady Day, as Billie Holiday, for which role she was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award, as well as recording the song "Precious Thing" with Ray Charles, featured on her album Victim of Love.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, she returned from the world of Pop and Contemporary R&B to Jazz. She performed at the Sanremo Music Festival in Italy and the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1990, and four years later, she finally collaborated with Horace Silver, whom she had long admired, and released the album Love and Peace: A Tribute to Horace Silver. Performed also at the San Francisco Jazz Festival (1996). Her 1997 tribute album Dear Ella won her the 1998 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album, and the 1998 album Live at Yoshi's was also worth a Grammy nomination. Performed again at the Monterey Jazz Festival (1998). She has also explored on This Is New (2002) the songs of Kurt Weill, and, on her next album J'ai deux amours (2005), the French Classics.
Her album Red Earth, released in 2007, features Africa-inspired themes and contributions by numerous musicians from Mali. Performed at the San Francisco Jazz Festival (2007). On December 8, 2007, she performed with the Terence Blanchard Quintet at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.[6] She tours frequently, including overseas gigs around the world. October 16, 2009 found her opening the Shanghai JZ Jazz Festival,[7] in which she sang tunes associated with Ella Fitzgerald, along with Ellington compositions and other jazz standards.
As a Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, Bridgewater continues to appeal for international solidarity to finance global grassroots projects in the fight against world hunger. Awarded Honorary Doctorates from University of Michigan[8] and Berklee College of Music,[9] Bridgewater makes a concerted effort to mentor and nurture young artists.
In April 2017, Bridgewater was the recipient of an NEA Jazz Masters Award[10] with honors bestowed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and in 2018 was awarded the 2018 Maria Fisher Founder's Award by the Thelonious Monk/Hancock Institute of Jazz.[11] She is currently on tour worldwide in support of her latest CD, Memphis... Yes, I'm Ready.
Philanthropy
Bridgewater has a long history of philanthropy and advocacy. Her appointment as UN Goodwill Ambassador to the FAO, as well as the ASCAP Foundation Champion Award, along with her ongoing work with UNESCO for World Jazz Day coupled with her recognition as a Doris Duke Artist set in motion her founding of The Woodshed Network. Launched in 2019, The Woodshed Network was conceived as a program for Women in Jazz, to provide professional support and accelerate careers through mentorship, knowledge sharing and community interaction. The program is a collaboration between Dee Dee Bridgewater as artistic director, (DDB Productions + DDB Records), Tulani Bridgewater-Kowalski as Co-Artistic Director & Program Curator (Bridgewater Artists Management), and 651 ARTS with funding by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. The first year's alumna include Erinn Alexis (sax), Lakecia Benjamin (sax), Darynn Dean (vocals), Sarah Hanahan (sax), Kennedy (vocals), Amina Scott (bass), and Sequoia Snyder (piano). Program mentors included Sheila Jordan, Arthel Neville, Marilyn Rosen (Marilyn Rosen Presents), Alisse Kingsley (Muse Media Public Relations), Maureen McFadden (DL Media), Jett Galindo (The Bakery LA), Shirazette Tinnin, Fanny Delsol (Motema), Simma Levine (NJ PAC), Robin Tomchin (Motema), Stacie Negas (Sony Masterworks), and Lisa Jefferson (LRJ Account Management), with Bridgewater-Kowalski serving as moderator.
Acting
Dee Dee had appeared in such films as the 1979 film The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh and the 1984 film The Brother from Another Planet. She has made a guest appearance in the hit sitcom Benson and the hit sci-fi fantasy TV series Highlander: The Series.
Film and Television credits include:
- Everybody Rides the Carousel, Stage 7, 1976
- The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh as Brandy, 1979
- Benson as Michelle, 1980
- Another Life as Samantha Marshall, 1982
- Night Partners as Gloria, 1983
- The Wiz as Glinda, the Good Witch of the South (TV version of Broadway Musical), 1983[12]
- The Brother from Another Planet as Malverne Davis, 1984
- Highlander: The Series as Carolyn Lamb in "The Beast Below" (Season 1, Ep.16), 1993[13]
- "Falstaff on the Moon" (short film), 1993[14]
- Corps plongés (It's Not About Love) as "la femme au verre du lait", 1998
- Go West! A Lucky Luke Adventure as Molly, 2007
Personal life
Bridgewater is the mother to three children, Tulani Bridgewater (from her marriage to Cecil Bridgewater), China Moses (from her marriage to theater, film and television director Gilbert Moses) and Gabriel Durand (from her last marriage to French concert promoter Jean-Marie Durand). Her eldest daughter, Tulani Bridgewater, attended the Mirman School for Gifted Children in Los Angeles, CA. She went on to graduate from the Ecole Active Bilingue in Paris, France at age 16, going on to graduate from Vassar College.[citation needed] She serves as Bridgewater's manager under her firm Bridgewater Artists Management and runs Bridgewater's production company and record label (DDB Productions, Inc. And DDB Records).[citation needed] Daughter China Moses is an accomplished singer, songwriter, producer, radio host and MTV VJ (France). Her critically acclaimed albums have earned her an international reputation as heir to Bridgewater's legacy. Moses tours worldwide, occasionally sharing the bill with Bridgewater.[citation needed]
Awards and honors
Grammy Awards
The Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Bridgewater has won two Grammys with eight nominations.[15]
Year Work Category Label
1989 Live in Paris Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female Nominated
1994 Keeping Tradition Best Jazz Vocal Performance Nominated
1995 Love and Peace: A Tribute to Horace Silver Best Jazz Vocal Performance Nominated
1997 Dear Ella Best Jazz Vocal Performance Won
2000 Live at Yoshi's Best Jazz Vocal Album Nominated
2005 J'ai deux amours Best Jazz Vocal Album Nominated
2007 Red Earth – A Malian Journey Best Jazz Vocal Album Nominated
2010 Eleanora Fagan (1915–1959): To Billie with Love from Dee Dee Best Jazz Vocal Album Won
Other accolades
- First American to be inducted into the Haut Conseil de la Francophonie
- Commandeur dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Award (France)
- Tony Award, Best Featured Actress in a Musical, The Wiz, 1975
- Laurence Olivier Award Nomination, Best Actress in a Musical, Lady Day, 1987
- AUDELCO Award, Outstanding Performance in a Musical-Female, Lady Day, 2014[16]
- ASCAP Foundation Champion Award,[17] 2017
- NEA Jazz Masters, 2017[18]
- Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, 2018[19]
- Thelonious Monk Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz Maria Fisher Founder's Award, 2018[20]
- German Jazz Trophy [de] – A Life for Jazz Award, Stuttgart Jazz Open, 2019[21]
- Memphis Music Hall of Fame, 2019[22]
As guest
- Frank Foster – The Loud Minority (Mainstream, 1972)
- Stanley Clarke – Children of Forever (Polydor, 1973)
- Roy Ayers – Coffy (Polydor, 1973) – as Denise Bridgewater
- Buddy Terry – Lean on Him (Mainstream, 1973)
- Norman Connors – Love from the Sun (Buddah, 1974)
- Cecil McBee – Mutima (Strata-East, 1974)
- Charles Sullivan – Genesis (Strata-East, 1974)
- Carlos Garnett — Black Love (Muse, 1974)
- Stanley Clarke – I Wanna Play for You (Nemperor, 1979)
- Hollywood Bowl Orchestra – Prelude to a Kiss: The Duke Ellington Album (Philips Classics, 1996)
- Ray Brown — Some of My Best Friends Are...Singers (Telarc, 1998)
- BWB – Groovin' (Warner Bros., 2002)
- Christian McBride – Conversations with Christian (Mack Avenue, 2011)
Film soundtrack
- Coffy (dir. Jack Hill, 1973) — performer: "Coffy Baby", "Coffy Is the Color (Main Title)" – as Denise Bridgewater
- Try This One for Size (dir. Guy Hamilton, 1989)
- The Brother from Another Planet (dir. John Sayles, 1984) — performer: "Getaway", "Boss of the Block"
- Présumé dangereux (dir. Georges Lautner, 1990) — performer: "Turning Round"[30]
- La Vengeance d'une Blonde (dir. Jeannot Szwarc, 1994) – performer with Philip Bailey: "People and Places"
- Monster-in-Law (dir. Robert Luketic, 2005) — performer: "Into My Soul"
- Elsa & Fred (dir. Michael Radford, 2014) — performer: "Step 1"
External links
- Dee Dee Bridgewater – official site
- Dee Dee Bridgewater discography at Discogs
- Dee Dee Bridgewater at IMDb
- Dee Dee Bridgewater at the Internet Broadway Database
- Dee Dee Bridgewater interview at Rockwired.com
- Dee Dee Bridgewater at the Wayback Machine (archived September 9, 2005)
Dee Dee Bridgewater - Jazzwoche Burghausen 1998:
● Tracklist:
1. Undecided
2. Stairway to the Stars
3. Just One of Those Things
4. Slow Boat to China
5. Caravan
6. Midnight Sun
7. Mack the Knife
8. Mr. Paganini
9. Love for Sale
● Personnel:
DEE DEE BRIDGEWATER - vocals
THIERRY ELIEZ - piano, organ
THOMAS BRAMERIE - bass
ANDRÉ CECCARELLI - drums
● 29th Internationale Jazzwoche Burghausen, Germany, 28th March 1998
▶ Dee Dee Bridgewater - Full Length Concerts
http://bit.ly/Z4IVZj
▶ Internationale Jazzwoche Burghausen - Full Length Concerts - http://bit.ly/1BIsmTc
Dee Dee Bridgewater--Live in Bern
May 1, 1987 Bern, CH
Jon Faddis tp / Dee Dee Bridgewater voc / Michel Goudry b / Alain Jeanmarie p / Alvin Queen dr
08:20 All blues
09:00 Misty
05:00 Here's that rainy day
03:30 Interview Dee Bridgewater fehlt hier
04:30 How high the moon (Clark Terry voc add)
08:00 Dr.Feelgood
04:22 Interview Jon Faddis fehlt hier
04:45 A child is born
05:25 C.C.Rider
Dee Dee Bridgewater - "Embraceable You" --2012
(Music & Lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin 1928):
Henrik Sørensen - piano
Ole Skipper Mosgaard - bass
Roger Berg - drums
Mix - Dee Dee Bridgewater - "Song For My Father" (Composition by Horace Silver):
Dee Dee Bridgewater: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert:
Dee Dee Bridgewater - "Doodlin"
(Composition by Horace Silver)
http://www.npr.org/artists/15296069/dee-dee-bridgewater
http://www.npr.org/2014/04/11/301798841/dee-dee-bridgewater-on-song-travels
Listen: Dee Dee Bridgewater On 'Song Travels':
Set List:
- Dee Dee Bridgewater (voice), Bill Jolly (piano), "Good Morning Heartache" (Drake, Fisher)
- Bridgewater (voice), Jolly (piano), "Loverman" (Davis, Ramirez, Sherman)
- Bridgewater (voice), Jolly (piano), "A Foggy Day" (Gershwin)
- Bridgewater (voice), Jolly (piano), "Misty" (Burke, Garner)
- Nancy Wilson, "Guess Who I Saw Today (excerpt)" (Boyd, Grand)
- Bridgewater, "Four Women (excerpt)" (Simone)
- Bridgewater (voice), Jolly (piano), "God Bless The Child" (Holiday, Herzog)
- Bridgewater (voice), Michael Feinstein (voice, piano), "I've Got A Crush On You" (Gershwin)
JazzSet Signs Off:
October 2, 2014 • From outdoor festivals to concert halls in major cities, JazzSet was there. Hear an intimate, bittersweet farewell, with highlights that span the NPR jazz program's 23-year run.
http://www.npr.org/player/embed/353256144/353256657
JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater
Dee Dee Bridgewater On JazzSet
Anna Marie Wooldridge, Abbey Lincoln, Aminata Moseka: singer, actress, composer, militant. They are all one woman.
At the end, singing "Freedom Day," the ensemble brought imagination to bear, with music by Max Roach and lyrics by Oscar Brown Jr., sung by Abbey Lincoln on the 1960 LP We Insist: Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite. "Whisper, listen, whisper, listen," slaves and ancestors learn they are free. The audience rose out of our seats. It's our finale, as well.
Born in Chicago in 1930, Abbey Lincoln was raised in rural Michigan and went to a one-room school. Her siblings (there were 11) remembered that as a girl, she taught herself piano and was always making up songs. Young Lincoln performed in cabarets from Hawaii to Havana, and acted in Hollywood. In 1957, she moved to New York and joined a circle of artists committed to jazz and civil rights. Then, in the 1970s, while living in Los Angeles and taking care of her mother, Lincoln began to write. From the late 1980s almost until her death in 2010, she recorded albums that introduced, piece by piece, in her own voice, the Abbey Lincoln songbook.
- "The River"
- "Bird Alone"
- "And It's Supposed to Be Love"
- "Wholly Earth"
- "Another World"
- "Throw It Away"
- "Talkin' to the Sun"
- "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" (poem by Maya Angelou)
- "Freedom Day" (Roach, Brown)
Toward the end, Lincoln asked her friend Dee Dee Bridgewater to help keep that songbook alive. On May 20, 2011, at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., with Dianne Reeves and Cassandra Wilson, Bridgewater began to fulfill her promise. Terri Lyne Carrington is musical director on the drums.
"Each singer displayed a distinct personality: Bridgewater with her raspy shouts and engaging theatricality; Reeves with her unerring musicianship and remarkable range; Wilson with her dusky tone and insinuating delivery," Mike Joyce wrote in The Washington Post. "When the singers joined voices, sharing harmonies and trading verses, they sometimes conjured the sound of a marvelously compact reed section, robust and reverberant."
The lyrics show Lincoln's flexible perspective. She's on the ground in "The River," racing streaming down the freeway in a river of cars. She's looking up at "Bird alone, flying high," and resting on a cosmic perch in "Wholly Earth." And she's her own woman throughout. Reeves notes Lincoln's emotional range runs from sweet and encouraging to brutally honest, as in "And It's Supposed to Be Love" with its description of intimate violence: "Body slam you to the ground / Messaging a chill / Curses make your head go 'round / Brings a certain thrill."
Set List:
Dianne Reeves
Dee Dee Bridgewater
Cassandra Wilson
Ensemble
*All songs by Abbey Lincoln unless otherwise noted.
Credits
Recording and Surround Sound mix by Duke Markos.
The Music Of 'Ella!'
On JazzSet:
In 1998, Dee Dee Bridgewater won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album for Dear Ella. Bridgewater brings some of those arrangements for the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band and audience to savor, including "A-Tisket, A-Tasket," Fitzgerald's first hit record in 1938. Bridgewater's personal pièce de resistance might be "Cherokee," the last number.
Dee Dee Bridgewater-- 'Red Earth'-- Album
by Hgxjx
17 videos
Zycopolis TV
Published on October 17, 2014
Dee Dee Bridgewater "Motherland"
Produced by : Zycopolis Productions
Directed by : Patrick Savey
Musiciens:
Dee Dee BRIDGEWATER (Chant)
Cheick TIDIANE SECK (Arrangeur / Claviers)
Tata BAMBO (Chant)
Oumou SANGARÉ (Chant)
Lansine KOUYATÉ (Balafon)
Moussa SISSOKHO (Djembe)
Ali WAGE (Flûte Peul)
Yacouba SISSOKHO (Kora)
Mare SANOGO (Doum Doum)
Baba SISSOKHO (Tamani, N’Goni)
Moriba KOITA (N’Goni)
Zoumana TERETA (Sokou)
Edsel GOMEZ (Piano)
Ira COLEMAN (Basse)
Minino GARAY (Batterie & Percussions)
Bassekou KOUYATÉ (N’Goni)
Ami SAKO (Chant)
Gabriel DURAND (Guitare sur “Children Go Round”)
SEGOU (Djembe)
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Dee Dee Bridgewater--Live in Bern
May 1, 1987 Bern, CH:
Dee Dee Bridgewater Live At The Royal Albert Hall London August 2023.
Full concert: