Powerhouse Performer Dee Dee Bridgewater Comes to Montalvo Mar. 8

Montalvo Arts Center continues its acclaimed Carriage House Concert Series with the Tony Award and three-time Grammy Award winner Dee Dee Bridgewater. Bridgewater hits the Carriage House stage 7:30pm, March 8. The NPR "JazzSet" host and recently-awarded ASCAP Foundation Champion Award recipient will perform selections from her newest album, Memphis... Yes, I'm Ready, a love letter to her hometown. Called "a tribute to the rich soul tradition" by The New York Times, the album features the music that shaped Bridgewater's musical sensibilities: blues, R&B, and soul from the mid-late 1960s. This special one-night-only engagement will be presented at Montalvo Arts Center, 15400 Montalvo Rd., Saratoga. For tickets ($72 Reserved, $80 Premier) and more information the public may visit montalvoarts.org or call (408) 961-5858.

Jazz giant Dee Dee Bridgewater has ascended to the upper echelon of vocalists, putting her unique spin on standards, as well as taking intrepid leaps of faith in re-envisioning jazz classics for more than four decades. The three-time Grammy-winner earned her first professional experience as a member of the legendary Thad Jones/Mel Louis Big Band, and throughout the 1970s 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. She released a series of critically-acclaimed CDs, all but one of which received Grammy nominations. Bridgewater also pursued a parallel career in musical theater, winning a Tony Award for her role as Glinda in the 1975 production of The Wiz. Recently she was seen in the Off-Broadway production of Lady Day as Billie Holiday. 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 Olivier nomination for Best Actress in a Musical. Bridgewater is also a Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization and was a 2017 recipient of an NEA Jazz Masters Fellows Award with honors bestowed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

For nearly 60 years, Montalvo Arts Center's Carriage House Concert Series has presented world-class talent in an intimate indoor setting, becoming a treasured series for performing arts fans in Silicon Valley. Housed in the 316-seat Claire Loftus Carriage House Theatre, the series features a diverse array of artists from a variety of genres from classical to jazz to R&B, rock, and even comedy. Some nights also include the opportunity to dine at Bistro Montalvo, with a prix-fixe dinner served in the elegant historic Villa Montalvo, catered by ModernTaste ($60 per person and offered at the Dee Dee Bridgewater concert).

Montalvo Arts Center is a donor-supported nonprofit institution whose mission is to engage the public in the creative process, acting as a catalyst for exploring the arts, unleashing creativity, and advancing different cultural and cross-cultural perspectives. Located in Silicon Valley's Saratoga Hills, Montalvo occupies a Mediterranean-style Villa, built in 1912 by Senator James Duval Phelan and surrounded by 175 stunning acres. Senator Phelan bequeathed the Villa and grounds to the people of California for the encouragement of art, music, literature, and architecture, a mandate Montalvo has carried forward ever since its founding. The grounds include the campus of the Sally and Don Lucas Artists Residency Program (LAP), the Claire Loftus Carriage House Theatre, and the Lilian Fontaine Garden Theatre. For more information about Montalvo Arts Center and its programs, the public can call 408-961-5858 or visit montalvoarts.org.

Photo credit: Joe Martinez

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