May 27, 1950

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Singer Dee Dee Bridgewater (born Denise Eileen Garrett) was born on May 27, 1950, in Memphis, Tennessee, and raised in Flint, Michigan.

In the early ’70s, she joined the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra as the lead vocalist.

Gigs with jazz masters like Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Max Roach, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk followed.

Bridgewater is a three-time Grammy winner with over 15 albums under her name.

She toured the Soviet Union in 1969 with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign jazz band and met her future husband, trumpeter Cecil Bridgewater, the following year.

After their marriage, the couple relocated to New York where Cecil played with Horace Silver’s band, and Dee Dee soon exploded onto the local scene as the lead vocalist for the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra during the early ’70s.

Following this event, marking the official start of her jazz career, Dee Dee Bridgewater went on to work with big-name artists of the day, including Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Dexter Gordon, and Max Roach.

Dee Dee Bridgewater sings a set of four standards in Stuttgart, Germany, at the 2013 Stuttgart Jazz Open, accompanied by the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Personnel:

Dee Dee Bridgewater, vocals
Lang Lang, piano
Stéphane Denève, conductor

Set List:

1 “My Favorite Things”
2 “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”
3 “Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall in Love”
4 “Stairway to the Stars”

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