APPEARING FOR THE FIRST TIME IN AUSTRALIA EXCLUSIVE TO ADELAIDE
A consummate performer and entertainer of the highest calibre.
Often compared to Ella Fitzgerald, Dee Dee Bridgewater is a dynamic singer with an encyclopaedic knowledge of jazz and a firm grounding in tradition.
Few entertainers have ever commanded such depth of artistry in every medium. Fewer still have been rewarded with Broadway's coveted Tony Award, nominated for the London theatre's West End equivalent, the Laurence Olivier Award, won two Grammy® Awards, and France's top honour Victoire de la Musique.
Critics have called the dazzling jazz vocalist and stage actress Dee Dee Bridgewater "a combination of class, exuberance and cool". Dee Dee's magnificent vocal range, intensity of expression, keen wit, beauty and stage presence has won her great success all around the world.
As a sparkling ambassador for jazz, she bathed in its music before she could walk. Her mother played the greatest albums of Ella Fitzgerald, whose artistry has provided an inspiration for Dee Dee throughout her career. Her father was a trumpeter who taught music - to Booker Little, Charles Lloyd and George Coleman, among others. With such a background, Dee Dee was soon performing herself as a soloist and in groups.
Dee Dee made her phenomenal New York debut in 1970 as the lead vocalist for the band led by Thad Jones and Mel Lewis, one of the premier jazz orchestras of the time. These New York years marked an early career in concerts and on recordings with such giants as Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Max Roach and Roland Kirk and rich experiences with Norman Connors, Stanley Clarke and Frank Foster's "Loud Minority."
In 1999 Dee Dee was named Ambassador to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and joined the battle against world hunger.
In these exclusive to Adelaide shows Ms Bridgewater will be performing songs from her lush album of French love songs"J'ai Deux Amours" and her critically-acclaimed tribute to Kurt Weill,"This Is New", along with some other selections.
"An extroverted crowd-pleaser." Washington Post
