Jazz legend Dee Dee Bridgewater + China Moses live in concert

A stunning double-bill paying tribute to two of the greatest jazz voices of all – Billie Holiday and Dinah Washington.

A Grammy- and Tony Award-winning artist, a producer and a UN Ambassador, Dee Dee Bridgewater is probably the most electrifying stage presence in vocal jazz today. Returning to one of her prime inspirations, the great Billie Holiday, Dee Dee brings her Lady Day show to the Barbican for the first time. Created in the 1980s, the show won her an Olivier award nomination during its London residency. 

The show coincides with the release of her new album, Eleanore Fagan: To Billie With Love From Dee Dee on DDB Records /Emarcy (Universal). The album brings to fruition a musical love affair with Billie Holiday which dates back to reading Holiday’s autobiography Lady Sings The Blues in the 1970s: ‘I saw a lot of her in me, that similar unsettling things had happened in my life,’ Dee Dee said recently.

After making her New York debut in 1970 as the lead vocalist for the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band, Dee Dee went on to work may of the great names in jazz including Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Max Roach and Roland Kirk.  Branching out into musical theatre, she created a successful one-woman show dedicated to Billie Holiday, Lady Day, and brought it to Europe in the 1980s..

Of the new show, she says, ‘I want people to come away feeling so good that it piques their curiosity to learn more about the real Billie Holiday – the joy, the love, her courage and power as a songwriter … not just the dark, tragic parts of her life. Billie deserves to have her music heard in another light.’

China Moses – Dee Dee Bridgewater’s daughter – has moved from pop and soul success in her native France to creating a powerful tribute to the hard-living blues and jazz diva Dinah Washington. Recorded by Blue Note France, This One’s For Dinah has been a major hit on the European jazz scene and showcases Moses’ sassy, blues-drenched voice and her profound – and clearly hereditary - sense of swing.

Friday 16 April 7.30pm

Dee Dee Bridgewater: To Billie with Love - A Celebration of ‘Lady Day’ +

China Moses: This One’s For Dinah

Tickets £20/30 Produced by the Barbican and Serious