Dee Dee Bridgewater: Barbican, London

DEE DEE BRIDGEWATER has a technique and musicality that bests most performers of her generation, and her understanding of the "great American songbook" makes pretenders pale in comparison. But she's rarely content to just come on stage and sing. There's usually a story. Her last Barbican visit featured her Red Earth collaboration with instrumentalists and singers from Mali, with original songs alongside moving reinventions of classics such as 'Footprints' and Nina Simone's 'Four Women'.