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. Ever the fearless voyager, explorer, pioneer and keeper of tradition, the three-time Grammy-winner recently won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album for Eleanora Fagan (1915-1959): To Billie With Love From Dee Dee. Bridgewater’s career has always bridged musical genres. She earned her first professional experience as a member of the legendary Thad Jones/Mel Louis Big Band, and throughout the 70s 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 1980s, she relocated to Paris and began to turn her attention back to Jazz. Signing with Universal Music Group as a producer (Bridgewater produces all of her CDs), Bridgewater released a series of critically acclaimed titles beginning with Keeping Tradition in 1993. All but one, including her wildly successful double Grammy Award-winning tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, Dear Ella, have received Grammy nominations. Bridgewater also pursued a parallel career in musical theater, winning a Tony Award for her role as “Glinda” in The Wiz in 1975. Having recently completed a run as the lead role of Billie Holiday in the off-Broadway production of Lady Day, her other theatrical credits include Sophisticated Ladies, Black Ballad, Carmen, Cabaret and the Off-Broadway and West End Productions of Lady Day, for which Bridgewater received the British Laurence Olivier Nomination for Best Actress in a Musical. As a Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Bridgewater continues to appeal for international solidarity to finance global grassroots projects in the fight against world hunger. She spent the last year on an extensive global tour in support of “Dee Dee’s Feathers” and was recently honored with a stage dedication in her name at the new People’s Health New Orleans Jazz Market. In June of 2016, it was announced that Bridgewater is the recipient of an NEA Jazz Masters Fellows Award with honors to be bestowed at the Kennedy Center in April 2017. She is currently in the studio at work on her next CD to be released in 2017.

Grammy award winning pianist BILL CHARLAP has performed with many of the leading artists of our time, from Wynton Marsalis and Tony Bennett to Phil Woods and Ron Carter. He is acclaimed for his interpretations of the American Popular Songbook and has recorded albums featuring the music of Hoagy Carmichael, Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers and Duke Ellington. Since 1997, he has led the Bill Charlap Trio with bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington, recognized as one of the leading groups in jazz. The trio earned Grammy nominations for Uptown Downtown (Impulse!/Verve), Somewhere: The Songs of Leonard Bernstein (Blue Note) and The Bill Charlap Trio: Live at the Village Vanguard (Blue Note). Their 2016 recording, Notes from New York (Impulse!/Verve) earned a five-star review in Downbeat, which hailed it as “a masterclass in class.” The trio’s most recent release, Street of Dreams marks their return to the Blue Note label. The Bill Charlap Trio tours all over the world and New York engagements include regular appearances at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Birdland and the Village Vanguard. Mr. Charlap was the Artistic Director of the 92NY’s Jazz in July Festival for 18 years. He has also produced concerts for Jazz at Lincoln Center, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), the Chicago Symphony Center and the Hollywood Bowl. He is currently Director of Jazz Studies at William Paterson University in New Jersey. Founded in 1973, it is one of the longest-running and most respected jazz programs in the world. Born in New York City, Mr. Charlap began playing the piano at age three. His father was Broadway composer Moose Charlap, who wrote the score for the Mary Martin production of Peter Pan, and his mother is singer Sandy Stewart, who toured with Benny Goodman, appeared on the Ed Sullivan and Perry Como shows, and she earned a Grammy award nomination for her 1963 recording, My Coloring Book. Mr. Charlap’s album with Tony Bennett, The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern (RPM/Columbia), won the 2016 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. It features Mr. Charlap and Mr. Bennett in duet, in collaboration with the Bill Charlap Trio and in duo piano performances with his wife, renowned jazz pianist and composer, Renee Rosnes. Mr. Charlap and Ms. Rosnes frequently perform two piano concerts. Of their recording, Double Portrait (Blue Note), Downbeat wrote: “The counterpoint and compatibilities are so perfectly balanced, the selections and arrangements so handsome, that ‘Double Portrait’ is a prize.”