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).
Love Vibrations
Dee Dee Bridgewater Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Surrounds my lonely heart
And life has lost its thrill
Wondering why, my mind's been torn apart
Have no dreams left to feel
And then you came my way
The Strength of love
Love stepped in
To gently plant its seed
and then things begin to grow
In my heart, I feel there is a need
and I want you to know
You are my one true love
The one I've waited for alone
You're meant for me
Emptiness
Surrounds my lonely heart
And life has lost its thrill
Wondering why, my mind's been torn apart
Have no dreams left to feel
And then you came my way
To wash away the???
The Strength of love
Love stepped in
To gently plant its seed
and then things begin to grow
In my heart, I feel there is a need
and I want you to know
You are my one true love
The one I've waited for alone
You're meant for me
The lyrics of Dee Dee Bridgewater's song "Love Vibrations" convey the feeling of emptiness and loneliness that the singer is experiencing. She describes how life has lost its thrill, and she's left with a torn apart mind and no dreams left to feel. But then, someone comes into her life, and with them, the strength of love. The person is like a seed that's planted in her heart and helps her grow. With this new growth, she acknowledges that there is a need for love, and this person is her one true love, the one she's been waiting for. They are meant for her.
The lyrics indicate that the singer had been feeling lost and empty, but with the power of love, she has found purpose and direction. The seed of love represents a metaphorical rebirth, where the singer is being renewed and given hope for the future. The song is a testament to the transformative power of love, and how it can change one's life for the better.
Line by Line Meaning
Emptiness
Feeling of isolation and loneliness
Surrounds my lonely heart
The feeling of emptiness is closely associated with my heart
And life has lost its thrill
Life is no longer exciting or interesting
Wondering why, my mind's been torn apart
My mind is in a state of confusion, trying to make sense of my feelings
Have no dreams left to feel
I am not inspired by anything, I have stopped dreaming
And then you came my way
You entered my life
To wash away the???
To relieve me of the pain and confusion I was experiencing
The Strength of love
The power of love to heal and overcome obstacles
Love stepped in
Love took control of my life
To gently plant its seed
To patiently start a new relationship, like planting a seed and watching it grow
and then things begin to grow
As our relationship develops, so does my happiness and hope for the future
In my heart, I feel there is a need
I now realize that I needed love in my life
and I want you to know
I want to express my feelings to you
You are my one true love
You are the only person I have feelings for
The one I've waited for alone
I have been waiting for someone special for a long time
You're meant for me
It is destiny that we are together
Writer(s): ROGER RAMIREZ, Horace Silver, JAMES DAVIS, JAMES SHERMAN
Contributed by Nathaniel A. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Jazziz Café
Love this tune! Wow! Thanks for sharing! Fue en 1974 cuando la cantante @ddbprods grabó en Japón su primer álbum en solitario, "Afro Blue" y este "Love Vibrations" de Horace Silver es uno de mis temas favoritos de ese trabajo. Nacida en Memphis en 1950 como Denise Eileen Garrett ella adopto el apellido de su primer marido, el trompetista Cecil Bridgewater responsable de la trompeta y la kalimba en este tema. #NowAndTHEN #JazzVocals
nefferteri2
Sheer Artistry!!
patg78
Great song
Conray Powell
Superb cut.