Dee Dee Bridgewater
Biography Dee Dee Bridgewater
Dee Dee Bridgewater
Over the course of a multifaceted career spanning four decades, Grammy and Tony Award-winning 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. Ever the fearless voyager, explorer, pioneer and keeper of tradition, the three-time Grammy-winner recently won the 2011 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 Louis 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. Signing with the Universal Music Group as a producer (Bridgewater produces
all of her CDs), Bridgewater released a series of critically-acclaimed titles beginning with KeepingTradition in 1993. All but one, including her wildly successful double Grammy Award-winning tribute to Ella Fitzgerald,Dear Ella - have received Grammy nominations. Bridgewater also pursued a parallel career in musical theater, winning a Tony Award for her role as “Glinda” in The Wiz in 1975. Her other theatrical credits include Sophisticated Ladies, Black Ballad, Carmen, Cabaret and the West End Production of Lady Day, for which Bridgewater received the British Laurence Olivier Nomination for Best Actress in a Musical. As a Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Bridgewater continues to appeal for international solidarity to finance global grassroots projects in the fight against world hunger.
New Orleans Jazz Orchestra
The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra creates Jazz to enhance life, transform place, and elevate spirit.
NOJO inspires freedom and culture in the individual and the global community by creating authentic, engaging Jazz experiences that celebrate the origins and transform the future of Jazz. As a performing arts organization, our goal is to strengthen the business of Jazz through performances, tours, recordings, education and media platforms. NOJO is the first and only performing arts institution committed solely to the development of an Industry for Jazz in the city that created it.
NOJO’s first building project, The Peoples Health New Orleans Jazz Market, will open in Spring 2015 as a performing arts venue and Jazz community center in Central City New Orleans. The Jazz Market will feature music education experiences for all ages, a New Orleans Jazz Archive, tributes to current and past Jazz Masters, and performances by Irvin Mayfield, NOJO and other renowned musicians.
Irvin Mayfield
37, is a Grammy and Billboard Award-winning artist with 25 albums to his credit. Mayfield is the founding Artistic Director of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra and currently serves as Jazz Artist in Residence for the Apollo Theater; he served as Artistic Director of Jazz for the Minnesota Orchestra from 2009-2015. He is also a professor at the University of New Orleans, where he serves as Director of the New Orleans Jazz Institute. In 2009, he entered into a historic partnership with the Royal Sonesta Hotel and created Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse, which brought "Jazz back to Bourbon Street" in the historic French Quarter. Mayfield was nominated to the National Council on the Arts by President George W. Bush and was subsequently appointed to the post by President Barack Obama in 2010. He also received The Chancellor’s Award from the University of New Orleans (the highest ranking award given to a professor) in 2010 and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Dillard University in 2011. A passionate advocate for New Orleans and for the arts, Mayfield is Chairman of the Board for the Soledad O'Brien & Brad Raymond Starfish Foundation, as well as the New Orleans African American Museum of Art, Culture and History. He is Chairman Emeritus of the New Orleans Public Library and serves on the boards of Louisiana State University’s Department of Psychiatry and Health Science, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, the New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau, the New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation, the New Orleans Public Library Foundation, Tulane University’s School of Architecture, Unity of Greater New Orleans, the Urban Libraries Council, and the Youth Rescue Initiative. He and NOJO recently opened the first space built for Jazz in the city that created the music — The Peoples Health New Orleans Jazz Market.
