Dee Dee Bridgewater

Hailed by Time Out as the last of the great jazz divas and arguably the best jazz singer of her generation, Dee Dee Bridgewater is jazz royalty. In the 1970’s she sang with Roy Ayers and the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis orchestra and appeared in the Broadway musical The Wiz. But it was in the late '80s with a series of fantastic albums for the Verve label that she received international acclaim – from her Grammy award-winning celebration of Ella, recordings of French Chanson, Kurt Weill to the recent ‘To Billie With Love’, a heartfelt celebration of Billie Holiday. Indeed, following her 2010 Billie Holiday show at the Barbican, Dee Dee became stranded in London due to the volcanic ash cloud leading to an impromptu performance at the club.

She had such a great time performing in the more intimate environs of the club that she vowed to come back and is now something of a club regular and a firm Ronnie Scott’s favourite. Of a recent show The Guardian commented, “Dee Dee Bridgewater has a technique and musicality that bests most performers of her generation and her understanding go the “the great American Songbook” makes pretenders pale into comparison”