DOORS @6:30PM, SHOWTIME @7PM
Photo credit (Dee Dee) : Kimberly M. Wang | Eardog Productions
ABOUT DEE DEE BRIDGEWATER:
Over the course of a multifaceted career, Grammy and Tony Award-winner Dee Dee Bridgewater has ascended to the upper echelon of vocalists, uniquely spinning standards and taking intrepid leaps of faith re-envisioning jazz classics. Fearless pioneer and keeper of tradition, the three-time Grammy-winner’s most recent win was for Best Jazz Vocal Album - Eleanora Fagan (1915-1959): To Billie With Love From Dee Dee.
Bridging genres, her first professional experience was as a member of the legendary Thad Jones/Mel Louis Big Band. Throughout the 70’s, she performed with jazz notables Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon and Dizzy Gillespie, among others.
Bridgewater began self-producing with 1993’s release, Keeping Tradition (Polydor/Verve). In 2006, she created DDB Records in 2006 under a Producer/Distribution agreement with Universal Music Group - releasing critically-acclaimed albums, including Dear Ella, a double Grammy-winning tribute to Ella Fitzgerald. She signed Theo Croker to DDB and released a project with the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra (Dee Dee’s Feathers), with Sony/OKeh - all to critical acclaim.
With a parallel career in musical theater, Bridgewater won a Tony Award for her role as “Glinda” in The Wiz (1975). Her other theatrical credits include, Sophisticated Ladies, Black Ballad, Carmen, Cabaret. She revived her Laurence Olivier nominated role as Billie Holiday in Lady Day (West End and Off-Broadway) and recently appeared in the Anna Deveare-Smith penned Ella Broadway workshop. With film, television and soundtrack credits, Bridgewater is an accomplished entertainment “polymath.”
As a legacy Goodwill Ambassador to the UN FAO, Bridgewater champions global efforts in the fight against world hunger. A 2017 NEA Jazz Master, Bridgewater is an ASCAP Champion Awardee, Doris Duke Artist (2018), and Memphis Music Hall of Fame inductee (2019). She serves as co-Founder and co-Artistic Director of The Woodshed Network.
ABOUT BILL CHARLAP:
Grammy award winning pianist Bill Charlap has performed with many of the leading artists of our time including Phil Woods, Tony Bennett, Gerry Mulligan, Wynton Marsalis, Freddy Cole and Houston Person. Born in New York City, Charlap began playing the piano at age three. His father was Broadway composer Moose Charlap, whose credits include Peter Pan, and his mother is singer Sandy Stewart, who toured with Benny Goodman, and was a regular on the Perry Como show. She earned a 1963 Grammy nomination for her recording of “My Coloring Book." In 2005, Charlap and Stewart released the acclaimed CD, Love Is Here To Stay (Blue Note).
In 1997, Charlap formed his trio with bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington, now recognized as one of the leading groups in jazz. In 2000, he was signed to Blue Note Records and received two Grammy Award nominations, for Somewhere: The Songs of Leonard Bernstein and The Bill Charlap Trio: Live at the Village Vanguard. He is known for his interpretations of American popular song.. Time magazine wrote, “Bill Charlap approaches a song the way a lover approaches his beloved…no matter how imaginative or surprising his take on a song is, he invariably zeroes in on its essence.” In 2016, Tony Bennett & Bill Charlap: The Silver Lining, The Songs of Jerome Kern, was awarded a Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Album. In April, the Bill Charlap Trio released, Notes from New York, their debut recording for the Impulse label. Alan Morrison's five-star review in Down Beat stated that the new recording is "a masterclass in class."
In 2019, Charlap will be celebrating his 15th year as Artistic Director of New York City’s Jazz in July Festival at 92Y. He has produced concerts for Jazz at Lincoln Center, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Chicago Symphony Center and the Hollywood Bowl. Charlap is married to renowned jazz pianist and composer Renee Rosnes, and the two artists often collaborate in a duo piano setting. In 2010 Charlap and Rosnes released Double Portrait (Blue Note). Bill Charlap is currently the Director of Jazz Studies at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey.
This show is sponsored by A2 Jazz Fest.
