“My dad and mom were still children when they got married. He was eighteen, she was sixteen and I was merely three.”

              So begins the autobiography of Billie Holiday.

Her life in a time of racial unrest and discrimination was hard since it started. She suffered, struggled, went through many correction facilities and eased her pain with drugs and music. She would record improvising when getting off the coach after a trip of 500 miles without music, without having anything to eat, but sandwiches and coffee, not knowing how to read notes. She did not want to perform a song the same way more than one night, she believed that without feeling you can not do anything. With her peculiar voice, the slow pace, the unique way she expressed herself and conquered you, she became the voice of jazz which was never forgotten.

Denise Eileen Garrett as is the actual name of Dee Dee Bridgewater, first heard of Billie Holiday when she was 19 years old, following a recommendation from her ex-husband Cecil Bridgewater, but she fell in love with her after reading her autobiography “Lady sings the blues” and decided to perform her songs.

She was awarded her third Grammy Award for the album “Eleanora Fagan (1915-1959) To Billie With Love From Dee Dee Bridgewater”, where she performs favorite songs of Billie Holiday in different ways, showing with her seductive voice the dual identity of the legendary performer, her strength and not only her tragic side.

On 12 March, Dee Dee Bridgewater, one of the most important voices in modern jazz having more than forty years career and many awards, presents to Megaron Mousikis Athinon a celebration dedicated to Eleanora Fagan, Billie Holiday, the “Lady Day” as she was called.

With her the musicians:

Edsel Gomez Rentals Piano
Kenny Davis Bass
Lewis Nash Drums
Craig Handy saxophone, flute

Renata Dikeopoulou 10 March 2011