Track Listing

1. J'Ai Deux Amours (Two Loves Have I)
2. Mer (Beyond the Sea)
3. Ne Me Quitte Pas (If You Go Away)
4. Mon Homme (My Man)
5. Et Maintenant (What Now My Love)
6. Que Reste-T-Il de Nos Amours (I Wish You Love)
7. Dansez Sur Moi (Girl Talk)
8. Belle Vie (The Good Life)
9. Avec le Temps (About the Time)
10. Vie en Rose (You're Too Dangerous, Ch�rie)
11. Feuilles Mortes (Autmn Leaves)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34802 in Music
• Released on: 2005-09-13
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Magnifique!!!
I purchased this CD this weekend and have been unable to stop playing it. I bought the CD based on Josephine Baker's rendition of J'ai Deux Amours. Ms. Bridgewater takes the song to another level. She puts her signature on every song and her voice is exquisite.

Fabulous Job by a Living Legend
Year in and year out, Dee Dee Bridgewater is named as one of the top singers in both critics' and readers' Down Beat polls. Considering that she was a French denizen for some time (nearly 20 years) and records very seldomly (last American recording: 1998), and considering all of the enormously talented young chanteusses out there, that's pretty remarkable.

But with the status of being a living legend, comes responsibility. You do have to knock out a recording once in awhile that secures your status. And that's exactly what Ms. Bridgewater does here. This album is fabulous, and is one of the best of 2005. I adore this album!

The album is sung primarily in French, although on a few standards, Ms. Bridgewater favors us unilinguists with the English "translation" in the second verse, such as "Mon Homme" ("My Man"), La Mer ("Beyond the Sea"), "Dansez Sur Moi" ("Girl Talk") and "La Belle Vie" ("The Good Life"). I'd swear that I heard "What Now My Love", "I Wish You Love" and "Autumn Leaves" without translations, however.

What makes this c.d. so special, IMO, is the flexibility in Ms. Bridgewater's approach. She sings "J'ai Duex Amours" seductively and coquettishly; "My Man" with a strong calypso beat; and "Girl Talk" as a strong, shouting funk. Then she does "La Belle Vie", starting with breathless seduction and morphing into strong, solid cabaret-style lines.

And my favorite on this c.d. is her unique take on "La Vie en Rose." The c.d. features accordion, thus adding to the European flavor of the standards. On this one, though, with just the accordion the song takes on its usual dreamy flair; but with the strong African beat of the drums, the tune takes on almost a schizoid feel. Ms. Bridgewater negotiates the gap between the two grooves, and makes it work.

This c.d. is worthy of high five stars any year. For 2005, it is one of the best of the year. RC

p.s. (2-17-07)--Since writing this, the knocks I've read on this c.d. is on Ms. Bridgewater's French pronunciations. One amateur critic labelled them as "awful." That may be true; as I noted on my later review of Anne Duclos' "Piano Piano", it is extremely difficult to be flawlessly bilingual in English and French because the vowel sounds are so different in the two languages. But insofar as I'm concerned, I don't care. Ms. Bridgewater could be singing this c.d. in a broken Slavic language, and the emotion would move me nonetheless. RC

Excellent!
The package lets you know right away that you are getting a beautiful cd. The music is fantastic. The French/English lyrics are terrific. This is a stellar album from a truly gifted artist.