Dee Dee Bridgewater

The American jazz singer Dee Dee Bridgewater was born in Memphis Tennessee but was raised in Michigan, daughter to Matthew Garrett, a jazz trumpeter. Through her father's influence she was exposed to music from an early age and by the time she was 16 she was regularly appearing in clubs in Michigan singing a mixture of jazz, rock and rhythm 'n' blues.

Whilst attending the University of Illinois she began singing with the University's jazz band and toured the USSR with them in 1969 gaining valuable performing skills. Her jazz career began in earnest when she joined the highly respected Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra in the 1970s and this gave her the opportunity to play with many of the jazz greats such as Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillepspie, Max Roach and Dexter Gordon.

During the 1980s she began appearing in musical productions such as 'Sophisticated Ladies' and 'Lady Day' (playing Billie Holiday). In the 1990s she began to concentrate once again on her jazz career and recorded a string of successful albums winning three Grammy Awards along the way. She continues to record and tours frequently, often appearing at major jazz festivals around the globe.