Dee Dee Bridgewater

Dee Dee Bridgewater Bio

Dee Dee Bridgewater (born Denise Eileen Garrett, May 27, 1950) is an American jazz singer, actress, record producer, songwriter, and radio host whose career began in the mid-1960s. A three-time Grammy Award winner and Tony Award winner, she became a familiar voice on National Public Radio as the long-running host of JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater. She has also served as a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization.

Born in Memphis, Tennessee, and raised in Flint, Michigan, Bridgewater built a reputation through Broadway, international concert tours, and a celebrated series of recorded tributes to jazz greats. Her honors include the NEA Jazz Masters Award, the Maria Fisher Founder’s Award, and induction into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame. She has performed across major jazz festivals in the United States, Europe, and Asia.

Early Life and Background

Dee Dee Bridgewater was born Denise Eileen Garrett on May 27, 1950, in Memphis, Tennessee, into an African-American family. After her early years in the South, she was raised Catholic in Flint, Michigan, where the local music scene helped shape her formative years. Her father, Matthew Garrett, worked as a jazz trumpeter and taught music at Manassas High School, and his nightly playing introduced her to jazz at home from an early age.

By the age of 16, Bridgewater was already performing professionally as a member of a Rock and R&B trio, singing in Michigan clubs. The experience of working local venues before finishing high school gave her an unusually early start on stage and helped confirm that music would be her career path.

She continued her training at Michigan State University before transferring to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. While touring the Soviet Union in 1969 with the university’s jazz band, she broadened both her musical outlook and her sense of jazz as an international language.

Path to Jazz

After meeting trumpeter Cecil Bridgewater, she married and moved with him to New York City, where Cecil played in Horace Silver’s band. The move placed her at the center of the active New York jazz scene and opened the door to collaborations with leading instrumentalists of the era.

In the early 1970s, Bridgewater joined the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra as lead vocalist, a position that marked her formal entry into the jazz world. She went on to perform and record with Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Max Roach, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and Wayne Garfield, and she made her first major festival appearance at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1973.

Her Broadway breakthrough came in 1974 with the musical The Wiz, where she originated the role of Glinda the Good Witch. The performance brought her mainstream attention and established her dual identity as both a jazz vocalist and a stage actress.

Dee Dee Bridgewater Career

Early Career (1966–1974)

Dee Dee Bridgewater began working professionally at 16 with a Michigan-based Rock and R&B trio, then continued her education at Michigan State University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After relocating to New York City with Cecil Bridgewater, she toured internationally with the university’s jazz band and joined the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra as its featured vocalist.

Her first solo album, Afro Blue, was released in 1974, the same year she appeared on Broadway in The Wiz. The album and the stage role together signaled her arrival as both a recording artist and a theatrical performer.

Breakthrough (1974–1986)

Bridgewater’s Broadway portrayal of Glinda the Good Witch in The Wiz brought her a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in 1975, and the cast album won the 1976 Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album. The recognition made her a prominent name on the New York stage and led to additional theatrical work.

She followed The Wiz with other stage productions and screen appearances, including the 1979 film The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh and the 1984 film The Brother from Another Planet. She also made guest appearances on the sitcom Benson and the science-fiction series Highlander: The Series. After touring France in 1984 with the musical Sophisticated Ladies, she settled in Paris in 1986 and took on the role of Billie Holiday in Lady Day, a performance that earned a Laurence Olivier Award nomination.

Notable Works and Milestones

Her signature works include the 1974 debut album Afro Blue, the 1997 tribute album Dear Ella, and the 2007 Africa-inspired album Red Earth. The Dear Ella album won the 1998 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album, and Live at Yoshis the same year earned a Grammy nomination. She has received three Grammy Awards overall, the Tony Award, the NEA Jazz Masters Award in 2017, and induction into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2019.

Dee Dee Bridgewater Award Nominations

Across her career, Dee Dee Bridgewater has received eight Grammy Award nominations, including a Best Jazz Vocal Album nod for the 1998 live recording Live at Yoshis. Her stage work as Billie Holiday in Lady Day drew a Laurence Olivier Award nomination after her move to Paris.

Dee Dee Bridgewater Awards Won

Dee Dee Bridgewater has earned a Tony Award, three Grammy Awards, the NEA Jazz Masters Award, and induction into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame. Her Grammy wins include the 1976 cast recording of The Wiz for Best Musical Show Album and the 1998 tribute album Dear Ella for Best Jazz Vocal Album.

Dee Dee Bridgewater Family

Dee Dee Bridgewater was born to Matthew Garrett, a jazz trumpeter and music educator at Flint’s Manassas High School, and was raised in Flint, Michigan. Her father’s work as a performer and teacher gave her a daily connection to jazz throughout her childhood and teenage years.

Personal Life

Bridgewater has been married three times. Her first marriage was to trumpeter Cecil Bridgewater, with whom she had her eldest daughter, Tulani Bridgewater. Her second marriage to theater, film, and television director Gilbert Moses produced her daughter China Moses, a singer, songwriter, producer, and radio host. Her third marriage to French concert promoter Jean-Marie Durand produced her son, Gabriel Durand.

China Moses has built her own international career as a recording artist and occasionally shares concert bills with her mother. Tulani Bridgewater-Kowalski serves as her mother’s manager through Bridgewater Artists Management and oversees the production company and record label DDB Productions, Inc., and DDB Records.