DEE DEE BRIDGEWATER
We Exist!

DEE DEE BRIDGEWATER “We Exist!”

Dee Dee Bridgewater voice
Carmen Staaf piano
Rosa Brunello electric bass, double bass
Julie Saury drums

The seasons pass, new talents emerge, but she always remains on the throne: the queen of jazz singing is indeed always her, Dee Dee Bridgewater. And a great diva never does things by chance: her current touring band is in fact an all-female quartet with an international cast, including the Americans Carmen Staaf and Julie Saury and the Italian Rosa Brunello, a line-up assembled to launch a battle cry, “We Exist!”. The project brings together protest songs such as “Mississippi Goddam” by Nina Simone, “Compared to What” by Gene McDaniels, “I Got You (I Feel Good)” by James Brown, “Gotta Serve Somebody” by Bob Dylan and other songs that are not mere melodies with committed lyrics, but true manifestos in music, repositories of strong messages that everyone can understand. Art and activism thus materialise in the multifaceted, refined and powerful vocals of a legend not only of jazz.
Winner of three Grammy Awards and a Tony Award for best actress, Dee Dee Bridgewater was born in Memphis as Denise Eileen Garrett, later taking the surname of trumpeter Cecil Bridgewater, to whom she was married in the early 1970s. It was also during this period that she first performed in the “A” jazz series, with the orchestra of Thad Jones and Mel Lewis, Dexter Gordon, Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Sonny Rollins.
But Dee Dee's complete artistic maturation came during the 1980s, after she moved to France. In addition to refining her jazz interpretations, she flirted with pop music, thus managing to create a strong bond with the public, which has never failed ever since. In Italy, in particular, she entered the public's appreciation thanks to her duet with Ray Charles at the Sanremo festival in 1989 and her victory, also at Sanremo, in 1990, paired with Pooh.
In recent decades, the singer has gradually concentrated on projects that have from time to time emphasised and exalted the different nuances of her voice, from the French chansons of J'ai deux amours (2005) to the music of Mali in Red Earth (2007), from the confrontation with Billie Holiday's repertoire, Eleanora Fagan (2010), to the gestures of love to New Orleans and Memphis (2010), to the gestures of the pooh;love for New Orleans and Memphis in Dee Dee’s Feathers (2015) and Memphis... Yes, I’m Ready (2017). We Exist! reaffirms the versatility, authenticity, and authority of a timeless performer.