Jazz Articles about Billie Holiday

About Billie Holiday

Anatomy of a Standard

"Good Morning, Heartache" by Irene Higginbotham

by Tish Oney
April 29, 2026

"Good Morning, Heartache" by Irene Higginbotham with lyrics by Ervin Drake and Dan Fisher remains one of the most well-known songs composed by Higginbotham, a highly prolific female songwriter of the Tin Pan Alley era, writing over 1,000 songs. Originally recorded by Billie Holiday in 1946, “Good Morning, Heartache" was later recorded by hordes of other vocalists including Diana Ross for the 1972 film, Lady Sings the Blues, in which Ross portrayed Holiday. Twenty-six years after it was composed and ...

Radio & Podcasts

Isabella Isherwood, Katie Bull, Faye Carol, Judith Owen, Marilyn Maye, Flea &More

by Mary Foster Conklin
April 20, 2026

This broadcast continues the celebration of Jazz Appreciation Month with new music from Isabella Isherwood, Katie Bull, Faye Carol, Laura Chu Wiens (AurallaurA), Judith Owen, Marilyn Maye and Flea, plus birthday shoutouts to Carmen McRae, Billie Holiday, Randy Weston (100!), Dorothy Donegan, Herbie Hancock, John Pizzarelli, Michele Brourman, Vanessa Perica and Marilyn Maye, among others. Happy listening and please support the artists you hear--see them live, buy their music so they can continue to comfort, distract, provoke and remind the ...

Radio & Podcasts

Celebrating Billie Holiday, Carmen McRae Plus New Releases By Mafalda Minnozzi, Steve Knight, the Esthesis Quartet, Deb Bowman & More

by Mary Foster Conklin
April 21, 2025

This broadcast highlights Jazz Appreciation Month with new releases from Mafalda Minnozzi, Deb Bowman, Steve Knight and the Esthesis Quartet, with birthday shoutouts to Billie Holiday, Carmen McRae, Rosa Passos, Marilyn Maye and Herbie Hancock, among others. Happy listening and please support the artists you hear -see them live, buy their music so they can continue to comfort, distract, provoke and remind the world that A Woman's Place is in the Groove. Many thanks for tuning in. Playlist ...

Radio & Podcasts

New Releases, Birthday Celebrations For Dorothy Donegan, Alberta Hunter, Billie Holiday & More

by Mary Foster Conklin
April 15, 2024

This broadcast makes the graceful morph from Womens History to Jazz Appreciation Month with new releases from John Basile, Kandace Springs, Jamie Baum, Queen Esther, Leigh Pilzer, Lizz Wright and Tierney Sutton, with birthday shoutouts to Dorothy Donegan, Alberta Hunter, Billie Holiday, Doris Day, Christine Jensen, Tessa Souter, Teri Parker, Tia Fuller, and Amina Claudine Myers, among others. Thanks for listening and please support the artists you hear by seeing them live and online. Purchase their music so they can ...

Jazz Fiction

What A Little Moonlight Can Do

by Dan McClenaghan
December 11, 2022

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 ...

Radio & Podcasts

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

by Mary Foster Conklin
April 19, 2021

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 ...

Film Review

Billie

by Ian Patterson
January 20, 2021

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 ...