Born Denise Eileen Garrett in Memphis, Tennessee, she grew up in Flint, Michigan. Her father, Matthew Garrett, was a jazz trumpeter and teacher at Manassas High School, and through his playing, Denise was exposed to jazz early on. At the age of sixteen, she was a member of a rock and rhythm'n'blues trio, singing in clubs in Michigan. At 18, she studied at Michigan State University before she went to the University of Illinois. With their jazz band, she toured the Soviet Union in 1969. The next year, she met trumpeter Cecil Bridgewater, and after their marriage, they moved to New York City, where Cecil played in Horace Silver's band.
In 1971, Dee Dee Bridgewater joined the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra as the lead vocalist. The next years marked the beginning of her jazz career, and she performed with many of the great jazz musicians of the time, such as Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Max Roach, and others. In 1974, her first own album, entitled Afro Blue, appeared, and she also performed on Broadway in the musical The Wiz. For her role as Glinda the Good Witch she won a Tony Award in 1975 as "best-featured actress", and the musical also won the 1976 Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album.
She subsequently appeared in several other stage productions. After touring France in 1984 with the musical Sophisticated Ladies, she moved to Paris in 1986. The same year saw her in Lady Day as Billie Holliday, for which role she was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, she returned from the world of musical to jazz. She performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1990, and four years later, she finally collaborated with Horace Silver, whom she had admired for a long time, and released the album Love and Peace: A Tribute to Horace Silver. Her 1997 tribute album Dear Ella won her the 1998 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album, and the 1998 album Live at Yoshi's was also worth a Grammy nomination. She has also explored on This is New the songs of Kurt Weill, and, on her latest album J'ai Deux Amours, the French Classics.
Dee Dee Bridgewater is the first American to be inducted to the Haut Conseil de la Francophonie. She has received the Award of Arts and Letters in France.
Dee Dee Bridgewater is mother to three children, Tulani Bridgewater (from her marriage to Cecil Bridgewater), China Moses (from her marriage to theater, film and television director Gilbert Moses) and Gabriel Durand (from her current marriage to French concert promoter Jean-Marie Durand).
Et Maintenant
Dee Dee Bridgewater Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
De tout ce temps que sera ma vie
De tous ces gens qui m'indiffèrent
Maintenant que tu es partie
Toutes ces nuits, pourquoi, pour qui?
Et ce matin qui revient pour rien
Ce coeur qui bat, pour qui, pourquoi?
Et maintenant que vais-je faire
Vers quel néant glissera ma vie?
Tu m'as laissé la terre entière
Mais la terre sans toi c'est petit
Vous, mes amis, soyez gentils
Vous savez bien que l'on n'y peut rien
Même Paris crève d'ennui
Toutes ses rues me tuent
Et maintenant que vais-je faire?
Je vais en rire pour ne plus pleurer
Je vais brûler des nuits entières
Au matin je te haïrai
Et puis un soir dans mon miroir
Je verrai bien la fin du chemin
Pas une fleur et pas de pleurs
Au moment de l'adieu
Je n'ai vraiment plus rien à faire
Je n'ai vraiment plus rien
Et maintenant que vais-je faire? These are the opening lyrics of Dee Dee Bridgewater's song, Et Maintenant. In English, it means "And now what will I do?" The song is a poetic account of the pain, confusion, and sadness one experiences after a loved one has left them. In the first stanza, the singer reflects on the remaining years of their life and the people that once filled it, but now seem insignificant in the absence of the person they loved. With their lover gone, they are left with a sense of emptiness and despair.
The second stanza begins with the singer asking why they spent so many nights and mornings worrying about things that don’t matter, with their lover having gone. They also question the point of their existence now that the person they loved is no longer with them. The third stanza expresses the sadness and grief the singer feels over Paris, the city they once loved, becoming stale and lifeless in their eyes. The singer acknowledges the support of their friends, but no comfort or kindness can take away the pain of the loss they feel.
The bridge of the song marks a turning point, as the singer decides to try to find joy and meaning in life once more, despite their grief. They choose to "laugh instead of crying" and "burn the night away," only to "hate you [their former lover] in the morning." In the final stanza, the singer realizes that they have come to the end of the road and the time has come for them to say goodbye to the life they once knew. There will be no tears or flowers, but only an acceptance that there is nothing more they can do.
Line by Line Meaning
Et maintenant que vais-je faire?
What am I supposed to do now?
De tout ce temps que sera ma vie
What will become of my life now that you're gone?
De tous ces gens qui m'indiffèrent
All these people around me who I don't care about
Maintenant que tu es partie
Now that you left me alone
Toutes ces nuits, pourquoi, pour qui?
All these nights that pass, why, for whom?
Et ce matin qui revient pour rien
Morning comes again, but it's meaningless
Ce coeur qui bat, pour qui, pourquoi?
This heart that beats, who is it beating for, why?
Qui bat trop fort, trop fort
Beating too strongly, too strongly
Et maintenant que vais-je faire
What am I supposed to do now?
Vers quel néant glissera ma vie?
My life will lead to what emptiness?
Tu m'as laissé la terre entière
You left me the whole world
Mais la terre sans toi c'est petit
But the world without you feels small
Vous, mes amis, soyez gentils
You, my friends, please be kind
Vous savez bien que l'on n'y peut rien
You know that there's nothing you can do
Même Paris crève d'ennui
Even Paris is boring me
Toutes ses rues me tuent
All its streets are killing me
Et maintenant que vais-je faire?
What am I supposed to do now?
Je vais en rire pour ne plus pleurer
I'll laugh to avoid crying
Je vais brûler des nuits entières
I'll burn through endless nights
Au matin je te haïrai
By morning I'll hate you
Et puis un soir dans mon miroir
And then one night in front of my mirror
Je verrai bien la fin du chemin
I'll see the end of my path
Pas une fleur et pas de pleurs
No flowers, and no tears
Au moment de l'adieu
At the moment of goodbye
Je n'ai vraiment plus rien à faire
I really have nothing left to do
Je n'ai vraiment plus rien
I really have nothing left
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: Jean Hubert Leccia, Gilbert Becaud, Pierre Delanoe
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
juan manuel granados davila
Éloquent et avec caractère, écoute en vol (eloquent and with character, flight when listening to it).
youknowversecity knews Don M Williams
I love it Dee
Would love to hear you
Sing the translation