StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Dig these dueling divas

Next week will be another busy one for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, and among the visitors to our fair city will be two well-known female vocalists, Dee Dee Bridgewater and Ann Hampton Callaway.

Callaway will be in town on Friday night at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis to sing at the kickoff event for the 2009 U.S. Women's Chess Championship, while Bridgewater will perform her tribute to Billie Holiday on Saturday at the Sheldon Concert Hall. While the two divas won't actually be dueling in person - yr. humble editor's fondness for alliterative headlines notwithstanding - we do have an opportunity to compare and contrast samples of their work right here.

Up top, you can see both women swinging, as Bridgewater sings "Shiny Stockings" with the Italian Big Band and Callaway revisits the famous Ella Fitzgerald arrangement of "How High The Moon" with the Boston Pops Orchestra. Down below, it's ballad time from the same two gigs, with Bridgewater crooning "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" and Callaway singing "Body and Soul".