Dee Dee Bridgewater

Jazz singer Dee Dee Bridgewater, born in 1950 in Memphis. grew up in a musical house with a jazz trumpeter father and began singing in clubs while a student at Michigan State University. After her marriage to trumpeter Cecil Bridgewater, she moved to New York, where she sang with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra. Bridgewater worked with big names in jazz, including Dizzy Gillespie, appeared at the Monterey Jazz Festival, and even played Glinda in the Broadway production of The Wiz, for which she won a Tony Award for best featured actress in 1975. She spent the next few years on stage, notably appearing as Billie Holiday in Lady Day, before returning to jazz in the late 80s, when she released a tribute album to Ella Fitzgerald, which won the 1998 Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album. Bridgewater also won a Grammy for her 2010 tribute album to Billie Holiday. In all, Dee Dee Bridgewater has released fifteen albums, with 2002’s This Is New peaking at No. 7 on the Billboard charts.