Dee Dee Bridgewater Kicks Off TD James Moody Jazz Festival

Two of today’s biggest voices join forces for one-night only on the NJPAC stage as part of the 12th annual TD James Moody Jazz Festival. Legendary jazz singer Dee Dee Bridgewater pairs up with brilliant pianist Bill Charlap (West Orange, New Jersey) in an evening of jazz standards and American classics from the duo’s vast repertoire.

The New Yorker says: “What binds them together is a love of well-crafted songs and a fierce commitment to authentic performance.” This joyful, spontaneous cabaret breathes new life into familiar favorites by Duke Ellington, Cole Porter, Stephen Sondheim and beyond. This is the latest in Bridgewater’s Duo series at NJPAC; last year’s TD James Moody Festival presented her in a unique collaboration with tap virtuoso Savion Glover.

A multi-hyphenate polymath and fearless voyager, explorer, pioneer and keeper of tradition, the three-time Grammy-winner most recently won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album for Eleanora Fagan (1915-1959): To Billie With Love From Dee Dee.

Bridgewater’s career has always bridged musical genres. She earned her first professional experience as a member of the legendary Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band, and throughout the 70’s she performed with such jazz notables as Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon and Dizzy Gillespie. After a foray into the pop world during the 1980s, she relocated to Paris and began to turn her attention back to Jazz.

Bridgewater also pursued a parallel career in musical theater, winning a Tony Award for her role as “Glinda” in The Wiz in 1975. Having recently completed a run as the lead role of Billie Holiday in the off-Broadway production of Lady Day, her other theatrical credits include Sophisticated Ladies, Black Ballad, Carmen, Cabaret and the Off-Broadway and West End Productions of Lady Day, for which Bridgewater received the British Laurence Olivier Nomination for Best Actress in a Musical. 

Tickets: $49.50-$129.50. Location: NJPAC’s Victoria Theater. Newark, New Jersey.

Photo by Rachel Murray

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