Over the course of a multifaceted career, Grammy and Tony Award-winner Dee Dee Bridgewater has ascended to the upper echelon of vocalists, uniquely spinning standards and taking intrepid leaps of faith re-envisioning jazz classics.  Fearless pioneer and keeper of tradition, the three-time Grammy-winner’s most recent win was for Best Jazz Vocal Album - Eleanora Fagan (1915-1959): To Billie With Love From Dee Dee. Bridging genres, her first professional experience was as a member of the legendary Thad Jones/Mel Louis Big Band. Throughout the 70’s, she performed with jazz notables Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon and Dizzy Gillespie, among others. With a parallel career in musical theater, Bridgewater won a Tony Award for her role as “Glinda” in The Wiz (1975). Her other theatrical credits include, Sophisticated Ladies, Black Ballad, Carmen, and Cabaret. She revived her Laurence Olivier nominated role as Billie Holiday in Lady Day (West End and Off-Broadway) and recently appeared in the Anna Deveare-Smith penned Ella Broadway workshop. With film, television and soundtrack credits, Bridgewater is an accomplished entertainment “polymath.”

Grammy award winning pianist Bill Charlap has performed with many of the leading artists of our time including Phil Woods, Tony Bennett, Gerry Mulligan, Wynton Marsalis, Freddy Cole and Houston Person. Born in New York City, Charlap began playing the piano at age three. His father was Broadway composer Moose Charlap, whose credits include Peter Pan, and his mother is singer Sandy Stewart, who toured with Benny Goodman, and was a regular on the Perry Como show. She earned a 1963 Grammy nomination for her recording of “My Coloring Book." In 2005, Charlap and Stewart released the acclaimed CD, Love Is Here To Stay (Blue Note). In 1997, Charlap formed his trio with bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington, now recognized as one of the leading groups in jazz. In 2000, he was signed to Blue Note Records and received two Grammy Award nominations, for Somewhere: The Songs of Leonard Bernstein and The Bill Charlap Trio: Live at the Village Vanguard. He is known for his interpretations of American popular song.. Time magazine wrote, “Bill Charlap approaches a song the way a lover approaches his beloved…no matter how imaginative or surprising his take on a song is, he invariably zeroes in on its essence.