9 of Dee Dee Bridgewater's career highlights: From musical theatre to jazz master

She has never been afraid to cross genre boundaries

Author: Emma DoddsPublished 14th Jun 2021
Last updated 3rd Feb 2022

Dee Dee Bridgewater is a total jazz icon. That much is obvious. Her fans around the world have always been huge admirers of her genre-crossing, boundary-breaking work - from fronting a jazz orchestra, to performing on stage in musical theatre productions, Dee Dee has never shied away from innovation.

Take a trip down memory lane and look back through some of Dee Dee's most successful career moments through the years.

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Dee Dee Bridgewater's career highlights:

Early life

Dee Dee Bridgewater was born Denise Garrett on 27th May 1950 in Memphis, Tennessee, later growing up in Michigan. Her father was jazz trumpeter Matthew Garrett nicknamed 'Matt the Platter Cat', also worked as a radio DJ and a teacher. De Dee began singing in clubs around Michigan in a rock/R&B trio aged 16. At 18 she went to study at Michigan State University before going on to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She later toured the Soviet Union with the school's jazz band, of which Cecil Bridgewater was also a member.

1970: Marriage to Cecil Bridgewater

After they embarked on the school tour together, Cecil and Dee Dee married in 1970, and they moved to New York City where Cecil played trumpet in Horace Silver's band and Dee Dee sang lead in the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra. She went on to perform in the jazz world with Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins and Dexter Gordon. During her marriage to Cecil, Dee Dee welcomed daughter Tulani, who has followed her parents' footsteps into the music world as a talent manager, and owns Bridgewater Artist Management.

1974: Debut album Afro Blue and The Wiz

Dee Dee released her debut album Afro Blue in 1974, working with her husband Cecil and his brother Ron Bridgewater on the record, featuring songs like 'Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head', 'People Make the World Go Around' and the album title track, written by Mongo Santamaria. She also made appearances on the musical theatre stage that year, originating the role of Glinda the Good Witch in The Wiz, a musical retelling The Wizard of Oz from the perspective of African-American culture. Dee Dee won a Tony Award in 1975 for her role, and appeared on the original cast recording of the show. She divorced Cecil in 1975, but the pair remained on good terms and continued to collaborate together musically over the years.

1977: Second marriage and more musical theatre

Dee Dee married theatrical director Gilbert Moses in 1977, welcoming her second daughter China Moses a year later in 1978. China has gone onto become a hugely successful jazz singer in her own right, and is also a presenter right here on Jazz FM. Dee Dee had also caught the musical theatre bug after her incredible performance in The Wiz, going on to appear in Sophisticated Ladies and portraying Billie Holiday in Lady Day. She moved to Paris in 1986 after divorcing Gilbert in 1985, meeting her third husband Jean-Marie Durand, a French Jazz club bartender, that same year and they tied the knot in 1991. Dee Dee recorded 'Precious Thing' with Ray Charles for her album Victim of Love, released in 1989.

1990: Return to Jazz

After forays in other musical genres, Dee Dee returned to her original love jazz, performing at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1990 and working with Horace Silver in 1994 on her album Love and Peace: A Tribute to Horace Silver. During this time she'd also welcomed her third child, son Gabriel Durand with her husband Jean-Marie in 1992. Dee Dee returned briefly to acting in 1993, starring in an episode of Highlander: The Series. She performed at the San Francisco Jazz Festival in 1996, and a year later she released a tribute album to Ella Fitzgerald, Dear Ella, singing 'Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love' and 'Oh, Lady Be Good!' among others. At the 1998 Grammy Awards, Dee Dee took home the Best Jazz Vocal Album gong for the record, and it also went to Number 5 on the US Jazz charts.

2000: Live at Yoshi's and other albums

Dee Dee released three albums in the space of five years: Live at Yoshi's in 2000, a recording of a 1998 performance at Yoshi's Jazz Club that received a Grammy nomination; This Is New in 2002 on which she sang the likes of 'Alabama Song', 'My Ship' and 'September Song'; and J'ai deux amours in 2005, her first album in French which was also Grammy-nominated. Her next album, Red Earth – A Malian Journey, was released in 2007, allowing her to explore her Malian and African ancestry and to incorporate it into her love of Jazz. She re-recorded the song 'Afro Blue' from her debut album, also performing a version of Nina Simone's 'Four Women' and including some of her own compositions.

2010: Billie Holiday tribute

Paying tribute to one of the most influential artists in her life, Dee Dee released her Billie Holiday tribute album Eleanora Fagan (1915-1959): To Billie with Love in 2009, singing covers of 'Lady Sings the Blues' and 'God Bless the Child'. The record won Dee Dee her second Grammy Award, taking home the Best Jazz Vocal Album in 2010; the same year she split from her third husband. She released a compilation album called Midnight Sun a year later, featuring love ballads and standards, on the request of her fans. She called the record her 'ode' to her fans, saying, "Love in all its glory – for better or for worse – as expressed by some of the most amazing songwriters of our time." Dee Dee was the recipient of an honorary degree in 2015 from Berklee College of Music.

2017: Jazz Master

Dee Dee was bestowed the accolade of Jazz Master by the NEA in 2017 – one of the highest accolades a Jazz musician can be given in the US, and a year later she was awarded the Maria Fisher Founder's Award by the Thelonious Monk/Hancock Institute of Jazz. She also released her most recent album in 2017, Memphis… Yes, I'm Ready, which saw her return to the town she was born in and rediscover her musical roots of R&B and soul, singing songs such as 'Try a Little Tenderness' and 'Don't Be Cruel'. She co-produced the album with her daughter Tulani.

2019: Memphis Hall of Fame

Among her many incredible achievements, Dee Dee was inducted into the Memphis Hall of Fame in 2019, the same year as R&B and Soul icon Tina Turner. Posting a photo of herself on stage at the ceremony on her Instagram profile, Dee Dee announced that she was 'so ecstatic' to have been inducted. In 2020, Dee Dee gave an interview to Jazz FM's Nigel Williams on the topic of mental health, opening up about her own struggles and adding, "I'm very happy to see the whole idea of speaking about wellness, whether it be mental wellness, physical health - wellness is becoming a subject."