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).
Strange Fruit
Dee Dee Bridgewater Lyrics
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Blood on the leaves
Blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
Pastoral scene of the gallant south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
The scent of magnolia sweet and fresh
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck for the rain to gather for the wind to suck
For the sun to rot for the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop
Dee Dee Bridgewater's song "Strange Fruit" is a poignant and disturbing portrayal of the lynching of African Americans in the southern United States. The "strange fruit" referred to in the lyrics are the bodies of lynched black men and women hanging from trees, a haunting image of violence and injustice. The opening lines of the song describe the "blood on the leaves" and "blood at the root," which suggests the deep and enduring pain caused by systemic racism.
The next two lines detail the grotesque scene of black bodies "swinging in the southern breeze," their lives taken by hatred and bigotry. The phrase "strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees" is repeated throughout the song, emphasizing the horror of the sight. Bridgewater then describes the "pastoral scene of the gallant south," a stark juxtaposition to the violence being committed. The description of the "bulging eyes and twisted mouth" of a lynched individual adds to the harrowing imagery.
The second half of the song shifts focus to the response to these atrocities. The juxtaposition of the sweet smell of magnolia and the smell of burning flesh represents the stark contrast between the beauty of the land and the ugliness of the racism that plagues it. The final lines, "Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck, for the rain to gather, for the wind to suck, for the sun to rot, for the tree to drop. Here is a strange and bitter crop," suggest that the legacy of lynching cannot be ignored or forgotten.
Line by Line Meaning
Southern trees bear strange fruit
In the South, peculiar and abnormal events are occurring
Blood on the leaves
Bloody and gorey remnants are evident
Blood at the root
The grotesque events that are taking place are at the core and foundation of Southern society
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
African-American individuals are being publicly lynched
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
The lynching victims' bodies look like bizarre, unknown objects hanging from trees
Pastoral scene of the gallant south
Despite the horrific events, the South still tries to maintain a façade of a beautiful, graceful landscape
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
The victims' faces contort in agony and terror before their deaths
The scent of magnolia sweet and fresh
The natural beauty and sweet scents of the South still exist, despite the violence that occurs
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh
The gruesome events of lynching result in the smell of burning flesh permeating the air
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck for the rain to gather for the wind to suck
The victims' bodies serve no purpose besides providing entertainment for animals and being decomposed by natural elements
For the sun to rot for the tree to drop
The deceased victims' bodies will decompose in place and return to the earth, polluting the land
Here is a strange and bitter crop
The widespread and normalized brutal lynchings of African Americans are a bitter and horrifying reality for Southern society
Lyrics © MUSIC SALES CORPORATION, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Lewis Allen
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind