Your Guide to the Local Jazz Scene
Join us Sunday, June 16, 2024 on the Memorial Union Terrace for FREE jazz performances starting at 1:00pm and continuing throughout the evening. Grab a brat, a cold drink, and spend the afternoon and evening enjoying live jazz while overlooking Lake Mendota.
Approximate Schedule:*
1:00 PM: A.S.T.R.O. (Anders Svanoe’s Teleporting Rhythmic Orchestra)
3:00 PM: John Christensen Quartet with Russ Johnson
5:00 PM: Pawan Benjamin Trio with Javier Santiago and Jeremiah Collier
7:00 PM: Headliner: We Exist! Dee Dee Bridgewater Quartet
*please note schedule and exact starting times are subject to change
Over the course of a multifaceted career spanning four decades, Grammy and Tony Award-winning jazz giant Dee Dee Bridgewater 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.
A multi-hyphenate polymath and fearless voyager, explorer, pioneer and keeper of tradition, the three-time GRAMMY-winner most recently won a GRAMMY for Best Jazz Vocal Album for Eleanora Fagan (1915-1959): To Billie With Love From Dee Dee. Bridgewater’s career has always bridged musical genres. She earned her first professional experience as a member of the legendary Thad Jones/Mel Lewis 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. (Source: Wisconsin Union)