Bridgewater To Command Opening Performance For Jazz Series

DANBURY — Few entertainers have ever commanded such depth of artistry in every medium as Dee Dee Bridgewater. Fewer still have been rewarded with such an array of honors, including Broadway’s coveted Tony Award (Best Featured Actress in a Musical, The Wiz), nominated for the London theater’s West End equivalent, the Lawrence Olivier Award (Best Actress in a Musical, Lady Day), won two Grammy Awards (1998s Best Jazz Vocal Performance and Best Arrangement Accompanying a Vocal) and France’s 1998 top honor, Victoire de la Musique (Best Jazz Vocal Album).

Command Performance will sponsor a concert by Ms Bridgewater on Saturday, October 4, at 8 pm, at Ives Concert Hall.

Ms Bridgewater’s career has bridged many musical genres. She earned her first professional experience as a member of the legendary Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band. 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. Bridgewater has also pursued a parallel career in musical theater.

After four years of touring with Dear Ella, her wildly popular double Grammy Award winning tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater has set her sights on new challenges. This is New finds her plunging headfirst into a different songbook  — that of the trailblazing German theater composer Kurt Weill. His songs not only represent the highest level of musical craftsmanship, but they are perfectly suited to Bridgewater’s intensity of expression and keen wit, and the vocalist became the first in jazz history to record a full album of Weill’s works.

Tickets for Dee Dee Bridgewater at Ives Concert Hall are $25, $30 and $35. The next concert being presented by Command Performance will be Arturo Sandoval on Saturday, November 15. Patrons may purchase tickets to both shows and receive discounts.

Details and reservations are available at www.CPerformance.org or by calling 835-3131. The concert hall is on the midtown campus of Western CT State University at 181 White Street. Plenty of free parking is available in the university’s parking garage, across the street.