The Wallis Presents DEE DEE BRIDGEWATER AND THE MEMPHIS SOULPHONY: MEMPHIS… YES, I'M READY

The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts presents Tony and triple Grammy Award-winning jazz legend Dee Dee Bridgewater in her Wallis debut with a tribute to the rich R&B tradition of Memphis - the city of her birth - on Saturday, March 23, 2019, 7:30 pm, in The Wallis' Bram Goldsmith Theater. The NEA Jazz Master and United Nations Goodwill Ambassador, joined by the Memphis Soulphony, returns to her roots to bring the sultry Memphis sound to Los Angeleswith Memphis...Yes I'm Ready, based on her acclaimed album of the same title recorded at Memphis' famed Royal Studios in 2016.

Bridgewater, who "spills with theatrics and sensuality" (The New York Times), proudly proclaims, "I made this record for me," adding, "These were songs I listened to on the famous Black radio station WDIA, where my own father, Matthew Garrett, was a young on-air DJ. I was born in Memphis, and although my family migrated north to Flint, Michigan, when I was 3 years old, the South has always remained buried inside me. Coming back for this recording project has brought me full circle in my life."

According to The Wallis' Artistic Director Paul Crewes, "We're thrilled to bring Dee Dee Bridgewater to The Wallis for the first time as she pays tribute to the greats who define the Memphis sound, with covers of hits by artists including BB King, Otis Redding and Al Green, to name a few."

Tickets, $25-$55, are on sale now and, available at TheWallis.org/Bridgewater. The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts is located at 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd, Beverly Hills. To purchase tickets and for more information, please call 310-746-4000 or visit: TheWallis.org/Bridgewater.

About the Artists:

Dee Dee Bridgewater , Grammy and Tony Award-winning jazz giant, 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. Over the course of a multifaceted career spanning four decades, the three-time Grammy-winner most recently won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album for Eleanora Fagan (1915-1959): To Billie With Love From Dee Dee. Ever the fearless voyager, explorer, pioneer and keeper of tradition, 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 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 1980s, she relocated to Paris and began to turn her attention back to jazz. She began self-producing with her 1993 album Keeping Tradition (Polydor/Verve) and created DDB records in 2006 when she signed with the Universal Music Group as a producer (Bridgewater produces all of her own CDs). Releasing a series of critically-acclaimed CD's, all but one, including her wildly successful double Grammy Award-winning tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, Dear Ella, have received Grammy nominations. Artist Theo Croker is signed to DDB Records, and Irvin Mayfield and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra also recorded a project with Bridgewater released by her label in 2014. She has 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 is currently on tour worldwide in support of Memphis, her new CD, and in April 2018 was the recipient of an NEA Jazz Masters Fellows Award with honors bestowed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Photo by Mark Higashino