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).
Sunset & Blue
Dee Dee Bridgewater Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And now I'm crying
God made me strong, so what went wrong ?
Cold thoughts are flying
My heart beats lonely to the bar
My eyes are hazy
Can't seem to focus anymore
Just want to see you baby
And all around I hear a sad, uncertain sound
Another sunset blue
The silent room has seen it all
I look around and
All I can see is you and me, and all what we planned
Outside the world is in slow-motion, as it drags
By and sunlight streams.
Trough broken dreams… As if to wonder why I pace the floor
And cry some more, behind the door
Another sunset hue
Sad lonely blue
Sunset red see me through
To the night and I'll cry to the stars
No one to blame, but we're strangers again
Me and you like sunset and blue
Day by day
Now as the nighttime steals the light
I'm shat… shattered
Bright cigarette
Try to forget you're all that matters baby
The city sleeps
And silence creeps
Across my sunset and blue
My sunset and blue
My sunset and blue
You and ???
My sunset and blue
Sunset and blue
Sunset and blue
Sunset and blue
Sunset and blue
Sunset and blue
Sunset and blue
…
Sunset and blue
(Sunset and blue)
Sunset and blue
(Sunset and blue)
The lyrics of Dee Dee Bridgewater's song "Sunset & Blue" are filled with melancholy and longing. The singer expresses her heartbreak and confusion after being rejected by someone she cares about. She wonders what went wrong and feels lost and alone. The image of a sunset is used throughout the song to represent the end of a relationship and the sadness that comes with it.
In the first verse, the singer describes how she called the person she loves but was turned down. She is crying and can't seem to focus on anything else. The second verse paints a picture of a silent room where she is surrounded by memories of her lost love. She looks around and all she can see is the two of them together and all the plans they had made. She is stuck in a world that is moving slowly and is consumed by her sadness.
The chorus repeats the image of a "sunset blue," which is meant to convey the sadness and pain that comes with the end of a relationship. The singer is all alone and can't seem to escape her heartbreak. The repetition of this phrase emphasizes the central theme of the song.
Overall, "Sunset & Blue" is a deeply emotional song that captures the pain of losing someone you love. The singer's powerful voice and the haunting melody create a sense of longing and sadness that is both beautiful and heartbreaking.
Line by Line Meaning
I called you up, you turned me down
I reached out to you but you rejected me.
And now I'm crying
I am feeling sad and emotional.
God made me strong, so what went wrong ?
I used to be strong but now I'm wondering why things aren't going my way.
Cold thoughts are flying
Negative thoughts are filling my mind.
My heart beats lonely to the bar
I am feeling lonely and my heart is aching.
My eyes are hazy
I am having trouble seeing clearly.
Can't seem to focus anymore
I am having trouble concentrating.
Just want to see you baby
All I want is to be with you.
And all around I hear a sad, uncertain sound
The atmosphere is sad and uncertain all around me.
Another sunset blue
The sunset is a sad, blue color.
The silent room has seen it all
The room has witnessed everything that has happened.
I look around and All I can see is you and me, and all what we planned
I am reminiscing about the plans we made together.
Outside the world is in slow-motion, as it drags By and sunlight streams.
Everything outside seems slow and my surroundings are dimly lit.
Trough broken dreams… As if to wonder why I pace the floor And cry some more, behind the door
I am walking back and forth and crying, wondering why everything has fallen apart.
Sad lonely blue
I am feeling sad and alone.
Sunset red see me through
The red sunset is helping me get through this tough time.
To the night and I'll cry to the stars
I will be alone at night and cry under the stars.
No one to blame, but we're strangers again Me and you like sunset and blue
We have become strangers again and it's like we're from two different worlds.
Now as the nighttime steals the light I'm shat… shattered Bright cigarette Try to forget you're all that matters baby
As the night comes, I am feeling shattered and trying to forget you with a cigarette.
The city sleeps And silence creeps Across my sunset and blue My sunset and blue My sunset and blue You and ??? My sunset and blue Sunset and blue Sunset and blue Sunset and blue Sunset and blue Sunset and blue
The city is silent and everything is still, as I am left with the blue and red sunset.
Contributed by Makayla A. Suggest a correction in the comments below.