A career in music and specifically in jazz was Dee Dee’s destiny. Born Denise “Dee Dee” Garrett in Memphis, she moved to Flint, Michigan as a young child. Surrounded by music, her first source of inspiration was the voice of Ella Fitzgerald, which she heard on her mother’s recordings. Her father was a trumpeter and teacher who counted Booker Little, Charles Lloyd, and George Coleman among his students. Dee Dee was singing in a rock and R&B trio as an adolescent, and toured the Soviet Union with the University of Illinois Big Band in 1969. In New York a year later with then-husband, trumpeter Cecil Bridgewater, she debuted with the Mel Lewis/Thad Jones Orchestra. Soon she was performing and/or recording with such luminaries as Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Max Roach, Roland Kirk, Stanley Clarke and Frank Foster’s "Loud Minority."

Despite her success, Dee Dee sought new opportunities to expand her artistry, and in the mid 70s brought her voice to the Broadway stage, winning the Tony Award for her role as Glinda the Good Witch in The Wiz. From Broadway she went on to Tokyo, Los Angeles, Paris and in London where she won the coveted Laurence Olivier Award nomination as Best Actress for her role as Billie Holiday in Stephen Stahl’s Lady Day. She subsequently performed in stagings of Sophisticated Ladies, Cosmopolitan Greetings, Black Ballad, Carmen Jones, and was the first African American to portray Sally Bowles in the Paris production of Cabaret.

Bridgewater turned to pop for a while in the 80s, but after moving to Paris, found herself pulled back into jazz. As a performer and producer for Verve, she released a series of acclaimed recordings, beginning with Keeping Tradition in 1993 and a tribute to Horace Silver, Love and Peace (1994). Most have received Grammy nominations, including her much heralded 1997 double Grammy-winning tribute to her early muse, Dear Ella. In 2003, she released a critically acclaimed tribute to Kurt Weill, This is New. In 2005, Dee Dee released her 16th recording, the Grammy-nominated J'ai Deux Amours, a passionate cycle of French love songs. A visit to her ancestors’ homeland in Mali lead to her 2007 project and international tour, Red Earth, featuring Bridgewater’s outstanding trio--pianist Edsel Gomez, bassist Ira Coleman and drummer Manino Garay, with seven amazing musicians from Mali singing and/or playing traditional Malian instruments; again, she received a Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album. Wrote John Walters in The Guardian, “Red Earth is neither fusion nor compromise but a happy meeting of African musicianship and Afro-American romanticism.”

Dee Dee released her third Grammy winner, Eleanora Fagan: To Billie With Love, in 2010, supported by a dream band of Edsel Gomez, Christian McBride, Lewis Nash and fellow Detroit native James Carter. “Ms. Bridgewater's performance style is often wildly extroverted, spanning a broad emotional and musical range,” notes Larry Blumenfeld of NPR. “It is in many ways the polar opposite of Holiday's finely focused presence and introverted demeanor. On the new CD, though Ms. Bridgewater flecks a lyric or two with Holiday's timbre or phrasing, her singing is never imitative, often reflective of musical liberties Holiday never took.” By 2011, it was time for a retrospective, Midnight Sun, a collection of the love songs Dee Dee had recorded throughout her career.

Beyond her roles as performer and producer, Dee Dee Bridgewater has taken on other challenges. Since 1999, she has served as Ambassador to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as part of the battle against world hunger. Her efforts as Ambassador were recognized when she became the first American member of the "Haut Conseil de la Francophonie," an organization which recognizes individuals on a global level who have made significant contributions to French culture and society. As a “jazz ambassador,” Dee Dee took over as host of NPR’s award-winning Jazz Set in 2001, replacing Branford Marsalis, and continues in this role today, introducing listeners to the best jazz artists in live performances around the world.

With a voice shaded by Nancy Wilson, Nina Simone, and Tina Turner, as well as Ella, Dee Dee Bridgewater is the penultimate jazz singer, whether scatting or singing it straight on. “Jazz is my soul, my roots—it’s me.”

Join Dee Dee Bridgewater’s birthday party this week at the Blue Note in Manhattan, sets at 8 and 10:30 pm each night, May 29-June 3.

 

The Blue Note is located at 131 West 3rd Street in Manhattan, tickets $35 (tables) or $20 (bar); www.bluenotejazz.com or (212) 475-8592.