'J'ai Deux Amours' Dee Dee Bridgewater in cabaret at Le Jazz Au Bar

Howard Stein and Le Jazz Au Bar will present J'ai Deux Amours: Dee Dee Bridgewater in cabaret from the 6 - 17 Apr 2005.

Ms Bridgewater will perform an eclectic evening of jazz, including selections from her new CD "J'ai Deux Amours," a collection of French love songs in which she pays tribute to French icons such as Josephine Baker (J'ai Deux Amours), Edith Piaf (La Vie En Rose) and composer Sacha Distel (La Belle Vie/The Good Life). Ms. Bridgewater will be accompanied by a musical quartet consisting of piano, bass, percussion and accordion.

Dee Dee Bridgewater's career has always bridged musical genres and she earned her first professional experience as a member of the 'Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band'. 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 1980's, she relocated to Paris and began to turn her attention back to jazz. She signed with the Verve label as both a performer and producer, and released a series of titles beginning with 'Keeping Tradition' in 1993. All of them, including her wildly successful double Grammy Award-winning tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, 'Dear Ella', have received Grammy nominations.

Dee Dee Bridgewater has also pursued a parallel career in musical theater. She won a Tony Award for her role as 'Glinda' in The Wiz in 1975. Her other credits include 'Sophisticated Ladies', 'Black Ballad', 'Carmen Jones', and 'Lady Day', a Billie Holiday tribute for which Bridgewater received a Laurence Olivier Nomination for Best Actress in a Musical. She became the first African-American actress to play the role of Sally Bowles in 'Cabaret', a production staged at the Mogador Theatre in Paris.

Ms Bridgewater currently splits her time between the U.S. and France. She is the host of NPR's JazzSet, now in its second decade on the air, and is also an honorary Ambassador to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization. Her recordings are available worldwide and she continues to tour globally, performing to venues both domestically and internationally. Her 16th CD, 'J'ai Deux Amours', "is my way of thanking France, a country that opened its arms to me," says Bridgewater. "Me, a little girl from Flint, Michigan!".