Dee Dee Bridgewater

Fresh from her successful off-Broadway headlining run in the Billie Holiday musical Lady Day in 2013, Dee Dee Bridgewater arrives to open Mosaic Music Festival 2014 with a concert in tribute to Billie Holiday, singing her songs and sharing her stories.

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. The fearless explorer made her phenomenal jazz debut as the lead vocalist of the much-celebrated Thad Jones/Mel Louis Jazz Orchestra, going on to perform and record throughout the '70s with other jazz giants such as Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon and Dizzy Gillespie.

Since signing on the Universal Music Group and releasing Keeping Tradition in 1993, Bridgewater has released a series of acclaimed albums, all but one receiving Grammy nominations. These include her double Grammy Award-winning 1997 ode to Ella Fitzgerald Dear Ella and the Grammy Award-winning 2010 tribute to Billie Holiday Eleanora Fagan (1915-1959): To Billie with Love from Dee Dee Bridgewater.

Not caring much for labels, Bridgewater also pursued a parallel career in musical theatre, receiving a Tony Award for her role as Glinda, the Good Witch of the South in the musical The Wiz in 1975. She also received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for the West End production of Lady Day.

As UN Goodwill Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Bridgewater is active in the effort to end world hunger and foster sustainability. The irrepressible entertainer is also into her 11th year as the host of NPR's award-winning weekly syndicated show JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater, as she continues to tour and perform to sold-out shows all around the world.