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).
Les feuilles mortes
Dee Dee Bridgewater Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Des jours heureux où nous étions amis
En ce temps là, la vie était si belle
Et les souvenirs plus brûlants qu'aujourd'hui
Les feuilles mortes se rammassent à la pelle
Tu vois, je n'ai pas oublié
Les feuilles mortes se rammassent à la pelle
Mais le vent de nord les emporte dans la nuit froide de l'oubli
Tu vois, je n'ai pas oublié
La chanson que tu me chantais
The autumn leaves drift by my window
The falling leaves of red and gold....
I see your face, the summer kisses
The sunburned hands, I used to hold
Since you went away, the days grow long
And soon I'll hear ol' winter's song.
But I miss you most of all, my darling,
When autumn leaves start to fall.
The autumn leaves drift by my window
The falling leaves of red and gold....
I see your face, the summer kisses
The sunburned hands, I used to hold
Since you went away, the days grow long
And soon I'll hear ol' winter's song.
But I miss you most of all, my darling,
When autumn leaves start to fall.
The song "Les Feuilles Mortes" by Dee Dee Bridgewater evokes the melancholic feeling of a past love and the bittersweet memories that come along with it. The opening line "Je voudrais tant que tu te souviennes" translates to "I wish you would remember" in English and sets the tone for the rest of the song. The singer is longing for a time when they were happy together, and the memories of those moments are still vivid in their mind. The line "Et les souvenirs plus brûlants qu'aujourd'hui" ("And the memories are more burning than today") emphasizes the intensity of those memories and how they still affect the singer's emotions.
The chorus "Les feuilles mortes se ramassent à la pelle, les souvenirs et les regrets aussi" ("The dead leaves are gathered with a shovel, memories and regrets as well") provides a powerful metaphor for the passing of time. The dead leaves represent the past, and the act of collecting them with a shovel symbolizes the singer's attempt to let go of those memories. However, the memories and regrets are also collected along with the leaves, showing that they are not easily forgotten.
The final verse of the song, which is in English, continues the theme of missing a past love during the fall season. "When autumn leaves start to fall" is a reminder of the singer's profound sadness and longing for the person they miss so much.
Line by Line Meaning
Je voudrais tant que tu te souviennes
I wish so much that you remember
Des jours heureux où nous étions amis
The happy days when we were friends
En ce temps là, la vie était si belle
Back then, life was so beautiful
Et les souvenirs plus brûlants qu'aujourd'hui
And memories were more intense than today
Les feuilles mortes se rammassent à la pelle
The dead leaves are gathered with a shovel
Tu vois, je n'ai pas oublié
You see, I haven't forgotten
Les souvenirs et les regrets aussi
Memories and regrets as well
Mais le vent de nord les emporte dans la nuit froide de l'oubli
But the wind from the north carries them away into the chilly night of oblivion
La chanson que tu me chantais
The song that you used to sing to me
Contributed by Mia R. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Pedro Benedetti
Estive em Columbia nos EUA numa viagem de trabalho e fui convidado pela representante da empresa americana a assistir uma apresentação desta cantora.Fui e gostei muito,o melhor foi mesmo ir pra casa da gringa depois da apresentação ...
Ano 1988
stella V.M.
Ela foi uma cliente na Companhia aérea que eu trabalhava... Muito lady!
Magnífica e a filha China Moses vai no mesmo estilo.
Lucineuda Vasconcelos
Beleza de interpretação. Música linda! Obrigada Bocaiúva. Video perfeito.
stella V.M.
Great Lady. !!!
A'Doris A
I once had the pleasure of meeting her at Yoshi's in Oakland, CA. She was very friendly. I hope our paths can cross again someday.
Alexander Kuenzi
One of the best song ever
Théo Goldberg
How graceful