CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Dee Dee Bridgewater

Zankel Hall
Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 at 8:30 PM

“the technique of a virtuoso, the swagger of a great blues singer, and the stage presence of a star”—Chicago Tribune

Grammy and Tony Award winner Dee Dee Bridgewater presents a breathtaking evening of jazz and more. The Observer (London) describes her latest recording, Red Earth, as “an inimitable fusion of Malian voices, music, and traditional instruments, all interspersed with jazz singing … creating a spiritual unity between two diverse styles of music without sacrificing the integrity of either.”

Dee Dee Bridgewater, Vocalist
Ira Coleman, Bass
Edsel Gomez, Piano
Vince Cherico, Drums
Luisito Quintero, Percussion

Grammy- and Tony Award-winner Dee Dee Bridgewater presents a breathtaking evening of jazz and more.

Major funding for Honor! A Celebration of the African American Cultural Legacy has been provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, The Alice Tully Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation's New York City Cultural Innovation Fund, Howard University, and the A. L. and Jennie L. Luria Foundation.

The opening performance of Honor! is sponsored by Bank of America.

Honor! is made possible, in part, by public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Program Notes:

In order to understand just how deeply Dee Dee Bridgewater touched listeners with her most recent album, 2007’s Red Earth, check out the comments made by purchasers on the Amazon.com website: “I hadn’t gotten even halfway through this CD before I had the distinct first impression that this is a masterpiece,” said one new convert. Others raved, “Absolutely gorgeous” and “light years ahead of what most jazz singers are doing.”

Indeed, the Grammy-nominated Red Earth, on which the veteran vocalist explores the connections between jazz and the indigenous sounds of Mali, is one of the jewels of Dee Dee Bridgewater’s long, illustrious career. But as yet another fan noted, “Dee Dee has always been ahead of the curve.” Since she first appeared on the scene in the early 1970s as vocalist for the Thad Jones–Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra, Bridgewater has continued to push her art into new, exciting areas. She’s won not only two Grammy Awards (for 1998’s Dear Ella, a tribute to one of her inspirations) but a Tony as well, for her role in Broadway’s The Wiz. She’s also served as ambassador to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization and, for the past several years, has hosted NPR’s JazzSet radio program.

On disc, Bridgewater has always been about challenge and evolution. Love and Peace: A Tribute to Horace Silver (1995) was hailed for its daring interpretations of the pianist’s compositions, while 2005’s J'ai Deux Amours was Bridgewater’s loving paean to Paris, the city she’s called home for more than two decades. And her concert recordings, most recently 2000’s Live at Yoshi’s, serve to remind us that in front of an audience, she’s one of the most virtuosic and electrifying artists of our time, as she will undoubtedly be proved once again when she takes the stage at Zankel Hall.


—Jeff Tamarkin is the Associate Editor of JazzTimes magazine.


© 2009 The Carnegie Hall Corporation

Dee Dee Bridgewater, Vocalist
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 a Laurence Oliver Award (Best Actress in a Musical, Lady Day); won two Grammy Awards (1998’s Best Jazz Vocal Performance and Best Arrangement Accompanying a Vocal for "Cottontail"); and France’s 1998 top honor Victoire de la Musique (Best Jazz Vocal Album).

As a sparkling ambassador for jazz, Dee Dee Bridgewater bathed in its music before she could walk. Her mother played the greatest albums of Ella Fitzgerald, whose artistry provided an inspiration for Dee Dee throughout her career. Her father was a trumpeter who taught music to the likes of Booker Little, Charles Lloyd, George Coleman, among others. It is the kind of background that leaves its mark on an adolescent.

Bridgewater 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 1974 Bridgewater jumped at the chance to act and sing on Broadway where her voice, beauty, and stage presence won her great success and a Tony Award for her role as “Glinda the Good Witch” in The Wiz. 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 a coveted Laurence Olivier Award nomination 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 in such shows as Sophisticated Ladies, Cosmopolitan Greetings, Black Ballad, Carmen Jazz, and Cabaret (as the first black actress to star as “Sally Bowles”), Bridgewater has secured her reputation as a consummate entertainer.

Named Ambassador to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization in October 1999, Bridgewater joined the battle against world hunger. Taking over the reigns of NPR’s JazzSet from the illustrious Branford Marsalis, Bridgewater presents today’s best jazz artists in performance around the world, taking listeners to Puerto Rico and Cuba, as well as Marciac in the French countryside and across the North American continent from Montreal to Monterey.

Ira Coleman, Bass

Edsel Gomez, Piano

Vince Cherico, Drums

Luisito Quintero, Percussion