Results for "Billie Holiday"
About Billie Holiday
Instrument: Voice / vocals
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Billie Holiday

Born:
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
Cheryl Richards: Another Spring, Another Song

by Jakob Baekgaard
It can be hard to find new things to say in old songs, but after many years of singing the standards, some singers are still able to discover the secret of a song. Cheryl Richards is a shining example of a singer who has been able to prove the relevance of the standards for a modern ...
Wadada Leo Smith: String Quartets Nos. 1-12

by Mark Corroto
Wadada Leo Smith's seven CD boxset String Quartets Nos. 1-12 summons two words, epic and ineffable. The 5½ hours of music chronicle three of his four periods writing for string quartets from 1965 until 2019. The remaining work, String Quartets Nos. 13, 14, and 15" inspired by the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the US ...
Sheila Jordan: From Motor City Vocalese to Pinball with Charlie Parker

by Scott Gudell
The dynamic big bands of the 1920s-1940s were led by charismatic and confident kings of swing including Artie Shaw, Duke Ellington, Chick Webb and Gene Krupa. Smooth and sophisticated dance sounds could easily cross pollinate with other styles including the syncopated rhythms bubbling up from the streets of Harlem such as 'Swing Street.' Beyond a lineup ...
Take Five with Anita Donndorff

by AAJ Staff
Meet Anita Donndorff Anita Donndorff is a 26 year-old Argentinean singer. She began her musical journey in 2017, and has become one of the most influential singers in the jazz scene in Buenos Aires. She has performed at some of the most important music venues in Argentina, such as Teatro San Martin, Virasoro Bar, Bebop Club, ...
Celeste: Not Your Muse

by Chris May
The mega-concert staged in front of London's Buckingham Palace on June 4, 2022 to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee was not an obvious save-the-date event for British jazz fans or non-monarchists. It was, however, brilliantly staged, and worth watching for that reason alone. And as it turned out, it contained three-and-a-half minutes of transcendent song ...
Michael Robinson's Piano Improvisations: Seven Albums of Unique Takes on Standards

by Hrayr Attarian
Keyboardist Michael Robinson is a prolific and creative artist who is best known for his haunting, Eastern-inspired, musical soundscapes. He usually utilizes his own invention, the digital Meruvina, for these recordings. Robinson, however, is also an accomplished pianist and has self-produced several superb solo albums of piano improvisations. In 2021 and 2022 he released seven of ...
Brian Auger's Revolution In Jazz

by Jim Santella
This interview first appeared at All About Jazz in November 2000. Born and raised in jny: London, Brian Auger came up through those crazy years in music. The 1960s were all about change. Things were being done in jazz that hadn't been considered earlier. Lifestyles and values were changing too, and that was affecting ...
Javon Jackson: Wading In Spiritual Waters

by R.J. DeLuke
Saxophonist Javon Jackson, he of the sonorous tenor tone and the inquisitive musical mind, embarked last year on a musical project with a different twist. Jackson, a follower of Sonnys Stitt and Rollins, is known as a a jazz fiend, one of the dauntless players of his era. His superb playing is marked by ...
Billie's Last Chorus

by Rob Mariani
This article first appeared at All About Jazz on December 27, 2006. She came on last at a concert that started at midnight at the Lowe's Sheraton on Seventh Avenue in The Village. It was one of those big, everybody-gets-to-play jam sessions they called concerts then, and it probably cost the promoters less than ...