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Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday ("Lady Day") is considered by many to be the greatest of all jazz singers. In a tragically abbreviated singing career that lasted less than three decades, her evocative phrasing and poignant delivery profoundly influenced vocalists who followed her. Although her warm, feathery voice inhabited a limited range, she used it like an accomplished jazz instrumentalist, stretching and condensing phrases in an ever-shifting dialogue with accompanying musicians. Famous for delivering lyrics a bit behind the beat, she alternately endowed them with sadness, sensuality, languor, and irony. Rarely singing blues, Holiday performed mostly popular material, communicating deep emotion by stripping down rather than dressing up words and lines. "If you find a tune that's got something to do with you, you just feel it, and when you sing it, other people feel it, too," Holiday once explained. According to the Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music, "She was the first and is perhaps still the greatest of jazz singers, if the essence of jazz singing is to make the familiar sound fresh, and to make any lyric come alive with personal meaning for the listener."

Holiday's life was a study in hardship. Her parents married when she was three, but her musician father was seldom present and the couple soon divorced. Receiving little schooling as a child, Holiday scrubbed floors and ran errands for a nearby brothel so she could listen to idols Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith on the Victrola in its parlor. Brutally raped at ten, she was sent to a reformatory for "seducing" her adult attacker; at fourteen she was jailed for prostitution. Determined to find work as a dancer or singer in Harlem, Holiday moved to New York City in 1928 and landed her first job at Jerry Preston's Log Cabin, where her vocals moved customers to tears. Discovered in another Harlem club by jazz record producer John Hammond in 1932, she made her first recording a year later with Benny Goodman's orchestra. She began to record regularly for Columbia, usually under the direction of Teddy Wilson, backed by small studio bands comprised of the day's best jazz sidemen. These included saxophonist and soulmate Lester Young, whose style approximated Holiday's own; it was he who gave the pretty, dignified young singer the nickname "Lady Day."

Intended largely for a black jukebox audience, the Wilson discs were quickly and cheaply made. But Holiday and company transformed them into jazz treasures, immediately appreciated by musicians, critics, and jazz afficianados, if not the public at large. These hundred-odd songs—delivered in a light, bouyant style—are today considered among Holiday's most significant work. Forgoing club engagements in l937 to tour with Count Basie's orchestra, Holiday went on to become one of the first black vocalists to be featured with a white band when she fronted for Artie Shaw a year later. Life on the road proved bitter for the singer, though; racial segregation made simple things like eating, sleeping, and going to the bathroom logistically difficult. Fed up when she could not enter one hotel through the front door with the rest of the Shaw orchestra, Holiday abandoned touring, returning to New York clubs and cabarets as a solo artist.

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Jazz Fiction

What A Little Moonlight Can Do

Read "What A Little Moonlight Can Do" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


The birthday bash for my granddaughter Marisol went down at my son's house, on the other side of town. And since her other abuelo was on the patio cooking chicken taquitos in a makeshift deep fryer, I'd offered to buy the pizzas. I phoned in the order: five pepperonis, extra cheese all around. They wouldn't take my credit card info. They said they'd been hacked, their customers pulled into financial danger, so they'd send in a drone with a card ...

4
Radio & Podcasts

April In My Heart: Celebrating Spring With Carmen McRae and Billie Holiday

Read "April In My Heart: Celebrating Spring With Carmen McRae and Billie Holiday" reviewed by Mary Foster Conklin


Midway through Jazz Appreciation Month, this broadcast continues the Spring celebration with songs of April plus birthday shoutouts to Carmen McRae, Freddie Hubbard, Dorothy Donegan, Andre Previn, Marilyn Maye and Billie Holiday, among others. Thanks for listening and please support the artists you hear by purchasing their music during this time of lockdown. Playlist Dr. Lonnie Smith “Up Jumped Spring" from All In My Mind (Blue Note) 00:00 Suzanne Pittson “We're Having a Crisis (Crisis)" from Out of ...

15
Film Review

Billie

Read "Billie" reviewed by Ian Patterson


Billie New Black Films 96 minutes 2020 A victim of her own self-destructive excesses is a common trope when assessing Billie Holiday. Yet James Erskine's handsome documentary Billie makes a convincing case for Holiday—arguably the greatest of all jazz singers—as more a victim of poverty, racism, manipulation and brutal misogyny. Holiday's story has been amply documented in the past and Erskine sketches the basic biographical details of her life with the aid ...

Book Review

Billie Holiday: la vita e la voce

Read "Billie Holiday: la vita e la voce" reviewed by Emmanuel Di Tommaso


Billie Holiday: la vita e la voce Guido Santato 151 pagine ISBN: 978-88-290-0287-0 Carocci Editore 2020 Il principale merito di Guido Santato nel suo Billie Holiday: la vita e la voce, pubblicato da Carocci Editore, è la capacità di districarsi abilmente nella selva di materiale bibliografico e discografico prodotto nel corso degli anni da vari autrici e autori sulla figura della cantante originaria di Philadelphia. Incrociando innumerevoli testi autobiografici e biografici, articoli di ...

2
Radio & Podcasts

I'll Remember April - Happy Jazz Appreciation Month!

Read "I'll Remember April - Happy Jazz Appreciation Month!" reviewed by Mary Foster Conklin


A smooth segue from Women's History into Jazz Appreciation Month, commencing with a celebration of Gene Bertoncini, Freddie Hubbard and John Pizzarelli's birthdays in the first hour and concluding with a celebration of Billie Holiday in the final hour, plus new releases from Ashley Pezzotti, Ulysses Owens, Jr., Alicia Olatuja and Claire Martin & Jim Mullen and more birthday nods to Alberta Hunter, Doris Day and Andre Previn, among others. Playlist Tom Wolfe & Gene Bertoncini “I'll Remember ...

5
Book Review

Billie Holiday: Lady Sings The Blues

Read "Billie Holiday: Lady Sings The Blues" reviewed by Ian Patterson


Lady Sings The Blues Billie Holiday/William Dufty 180 Pages ISBN: 978-0-241-35129-1 Penguin Modern Classics 2018 For many, Billie Holiday was the greatest of all the jazz singers, while her emotive delivery and tragic persona seemed to embody the early jazz life in all its boho chic and with all its dark undertones. Six decades after her death from alcohol-related illness at the age of forty four, Holiday remains a hugely admired and somewhat ...

6
Book Review

Tracy Fessenden: Religion Around Billie Holiday

Read "Tracy Fessenden: Religion Around Billie Holiday" reviewed by S.G Provizer


Religion Around Billie Holiday Tracy Fessenden 280 pages ISBN: #9780271080956 Cambridge University Press 2018 This is one of the most unusual books about a jazz figure that I've encountered in a long time. The premise, as spelled out in this interview with author Fessenden, is fascinating. She is the Steve and Margaret Forster Professor and interim Director of the School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies at Arizona State University. Her previous ...

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TV / Film

Documentary: Billie

Documentary: Billie

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

In the late 1960s, journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl planned to write the definitive biography of Billie Holiday. Beginning in 1970, she spent eight years tracking down and recording interviews with key artists and personalities who knew the singer, who died in 1959. These interviews included conversations with Charles Mingus, Tony Bennett, Sylvia Syms, and Count Basie as well as Holiday's cousin, school friends, lovers, lawyers, pimps and even the FBI agents who arrested her. Kuehl's Holiday archives included interviews on ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Billie Holiday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Billie Holiday

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Billie Holiday's birthday today!

Billie Holiday ("Lady Day") is considered by many to be the greatest of all jazz singers. In a tragically abbreviated singing career that lasted less than three decades, her evocative phrasing and poignant delivery profoundly influenced vocalists who followed her. Although her warm, feathery voice inhabited a limited range, she used it like an accomplished jazz instrumentalist, stretching and condensing phrases in an ever-shifting dialogue with accompanying musicians. Famous for delivering ...

1

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Billie Holiday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Billie Holiday

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Billie Holiday's birthday today!

Billie Holiday ("Lady Day") is considered by many to be the greatest of all jazz singers. In a tragically abbreviated singing career that lasted less than three decades, her evocative phrasing and poignant delivery profoundly influenced vocalists who followed her. Although her warm, feathery voice inhabited a limited range, she used it like an accomplished jazz instrumentalist, stretching and condensing phrases in an ever-shifting dialogue with accompanying musicians. Famous for delivering ...

TV / Film

Documentary: Billie Holiday

Documentary: Billie Holiday

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers


Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Billie Holiday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Billie Holiday

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Billie Holiday's birthday today!

Billie Holiday ("Lady Day") is considered by many to be the greatest of all jazz singers. In a tragically abbreviated singing career that lasted less than three decades, her evocative phrasing and poignant delivery profoundly influenced vocalists who followed her. Although her warm, feathery voice inhabited a limited range, she used it like an accomplished jazz instrumentalist, stretching and condensing phrases in an ever-shifting dialogue with accompanying musicians. Famous for delivering ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Billie Holiday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Billie Holiday

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Billie Holiday's birthday today!

Billie Holiday ("Lady Day") is considered by many to be the greatest of all jazz singers. In a tragically abbreviated singing career that lasted less than three decades, her evocative phrasing and poignant delivery profoundly influenced vocalists who followed her. Although her warm, feathery voice inhabited a limited range, she used it like an accomplished jazz instrumentalist, stretching and condensing phrases in an ever-shifting dialogue with accompanying musicians. Famous for delivering ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Billie Holiday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Billie Holiday

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Billie Holiday's birthday today!

Billie Holiday ("Lady Day") is considered by many to be the greatest of all jazz singers. In a tragically abbreviated singing career that lasted less than three decades, her evocative phrasing and poignant delivery profoundly influenced vocalists who followed her. Although her warm, feathery voice inhabited a limited range, she used it like an accomplished jazz instrumentalist... Read more.

Place our Musician of the Day widget on your website or blog. ...

1

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Billie Holiday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Billie Holiday

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Billie Holiday's birthday today!

Billie Holiday ("Lady Day") is considered by many to be the greatest of all jazz singers. In a tragically abbreviated singing career that lasted less than three decades, her evocative phrasing and poignant delivery profoundly influenced vocalists who followed her. Although her warm, feathery voice inhabited a limited range, she used it like an accomplished jazz instrumentalist... Read more.

Place our Musician of the Day widget on your website or blog. ...

1

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Billie Holiday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Billie Holiday

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Billie Holiday's birthday today!

Billie Holiday ("Lady Day") is considered by many to be the greatest of all jazz singers. In a tragically abbreviated singing career that lasted less than three decades, her evocative phrasing and poignant delivery profoundly influenced vocalists who followed her. Although her warm, feathery voice inhabited a limited range, she used it like an accomplished jazz instrumentalist... Read more.

Place our Musician of the Day widget on your website or blog. ...

1

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Billie Holiday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Billie Holiday

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Billie Holiday's birthday today!

Billie Holiday ("Lady Day") is considered by many to be the greatest of all jazz singers. In a tragically abbreviated singing career that lasted less than three decades, her evocative phrasing and poignant delivery profoundly influenced vocalists who followed her. Although her warm, feathery voice inhabited a limited range, she used it like an accomplished jazz instrumentalist... Read more.

Place our Musician of the Day widget on your website or blog. ...

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Vicki Burns
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Maci Miller
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Marlina Teich
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Nancy Kelly
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Saskia Laroo
trumpet
Dina Blade
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Martha J.
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Greg Nathan
bass, acoustic
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multi-instrumentalist
Duo Laroo/Byrd
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Ryan Baker
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Cara Dineen
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Deelee Dube
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Sarah LeMieux
guitar and vocals
LILLY
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Maria Emrik
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Lucia Fodde
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Kate Thomas
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Jonathan Ng
violin
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Zardis
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Ella Mar
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Larry Wolf
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Darcy Cooke
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Tibor Debreceni
guitar, electric
Lucy Iffla
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Willie D
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Miriam
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Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Rare West Coast...

Nimbus West Records
2014

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Music For Torching +...

Nimbus West Records
2013

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The Ben Webster/Harry...

Nimbus West Records
2012

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Lady Day - The...

Nimbus West Records
2012

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Anthology

Nimbus West Records
2011

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