DEE DEE BRIDGEWATER & ESTONIAN DREAM BIG BAND USA-Estonia

Viru Keskus presents:

One of the main performers of Jazzkaar 2020 Festival will be the unique jazz singer Dee Dee Bridgewater, who has greatly influenced American vocal jazz music. Her creative journeys spanning from jazz to pop and chansons are always full of love and passion. She has won several major awards over the past five decades: two Grammy Awards, eight Grammy nominations and a Tony Award for her outstanding roles on Broadway. Dee Dee Bridgewater will perform at Jazzkaar with Estonian Dream Big Band led by Siim Aimla on 21 April at Alexela Concert Hall.

In terms of soul, Memphis lies in Nashville’s shadow – and under that of Detroit. Dee Dee Bridgewater was born in 1950 in Memphis. She spent her childhood there and secretly listened to WDIA, the local soul radio channel. Two years ago, she fulfilled her dream and recorded a very personal album with Memphis soul classics from those years. It includes songs by Pops Staples, Ann Peebles and Al Green. It was a journey into the past for the jazz singer. It was only when she worked on “Memphis … Yes I’m Ready” that she found out that her father, a trumpeter and music teacher, had worked as a DJ on WDIA in his earlier years. This completes a circle for Bridgewater. Since her beginnings with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis band, she has always let herself be guided by her musical passions. She worked with Sonny Rollins and Dexter Gordon, did excursions into dance music and onto musical stages, dedicated her albums to idols like Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday, recorded songs by Kurt Weill, and tracked down her African roots (“Red Earth”) and recorded “Dee Dee’s Feathers” for New Orleans. Both her grandmother and mother were singers, and her daughter China Moses has meanwhile also become a star of the scene. Dee Dee Bridgewater was once described as “ The most beautiful voice of her generation” and this is no exaggeration.

The concert in Estonia is with Estonian Dream Big Band.