Dee Dee Bridgewater & Bill Charlap

This week on Fridays Live, SFJAZZ presents a night of intimate duo performances from two storied jazz masters. Three-time GRAMMY winner and 2017 NEA Jazz Master Dee Dee Bridgewater enjoyed a Tony-winning stint on Broadway, an extended stay in Paris where she spent more than a decade as France’s greatest champion of jazz, to a string of sublime studio albums. She is joined by GRAMMY-winning pianist Bill Charlap, a consummate soloist and bandleader, known for work with Tony Bennett and his own superb trio.

When jazz is played well enough, it becomes conceptual art without really trying.
The New York Times

ABOUT DEE DEE BRIDGEWATER
A restless explorer who has collaborated with master musicians of Mali, interpreted the cabaret of Kurt Weill, and embraced the hard bop of Horace Silver, 2017 NEA Jazz Master Dee Dee Bridgewater is joined by GRAMMY-winning pianist Charlap for these intimate duo performances.

Since she first gained recognition in the early 1970s with the great Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, Bridgewater has thrived wherever she’s landed, from Broadway, where she earned a Tony Award for her work in the original production of The Wiz, to Paris, where she spent more than a decade as France’s greatest champion of jazz.

She hosted NPR’s syndicated radio show JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater, which ran for a staggering 23 years before its end in 2014, and her most recent O’Keh release, Memphis… Yes, I’m Ready, is a celebration of the Memphis soul and R&B of her youth.

ABOUT BILL CHARLAP
Charlap is a consummate soloist and bandleader, known for work Tony Bennett, Phil Woods, Barbra Streisand, and his own superb trio. In recent years, Charlap has established himself as one of the most respected keyboardists in jazz and leader of one its great piano trios. His newest Blue Note release, Street of Dreams, was released in 2021.