Fireside Chat

Dee Dee Bridgewater

DDB Records, Emarcy, NYC

Dee Dee Bridgewater has been bathing in the world of jazz since before she could walk. Her mother played Ella Fitzgerald like it was going out of fashion and her father was a trumpeter who the likes of George Coleman and Booker Little came to for classes. She toured the Soviet Union in 1969 with the University of Illinois Big Band and the very next year she made the inevitable move to New York. She soon came to be recording and playing with a bevy of giants: Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie and Max Roach to name but a few. However a few years later she jumped at the opportunity to act and sing on Broadway where her talents won her success and a Tony for her role in The Wiz. This was the first in a long line of characters, awards and standing ovations, which thickly cemented her reputation as a consummate entertainer. Since winning her first recording contract with Atlantic in 1976 she has been releasing through various genres across the board up until the present day, including tributes to Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday.