Billie Holiday (1915–59,) born Eleanora Fagan, was an American jazz singer. One of the most influential singers in jazz, she was one of the first to take up the subtleties of jazz phrasing in a serious manner.
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Holiday Worked as a singer in New York clubs in the early 1930s. Her soulful voice and remarkable jazz interpretation of popular songs led to her work with clarinetist Benny Goodman’s band in 1933 and recording sessions with such leading soloists as Teddy Wilson and Lester Young. They bestowed her familiar nickname, Lady Day.
Holiday’s memorable ballads include ‘Easy Living’ (1937,) ‘Yesterdays’ (1939,) and ‘God Bless the Child’ (1941.) In the late 1930s, she worked with pianist Count Basie and clarinetist Artie Shaw. During the 1940s, she appeared in several films (including New Orleans (1947) with trumpeter Louis Armstrong.)
By the end of the 1940s, Holiday fell victim to drug addiction. In 1947, she was arrested for a narcotics violation and spent a year in a rehabilitation center. Her voice deteriorated in the 1950s. Yet, she continued to make absorbing recordings until late in her career, without ever recapturing the glorious freshness and spontaneity of her pre-war music.
Holiday’s autobiography is Lady Sings the Blues (1956; with William Dufty;) it was made into a motion picture starring Diana Ross in 1972.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Billie Holiday
People don’t understand the sort of fight it takes to record what you want, to record the way you want to record it.
—Billie Holiday
If I don’t have friends, then I ain’t got nothin’.
—Billie Holiday
I can’t stand to sing the same song the same way two nights in succession, let alone two years or ten years. If you can, then it ain’t music, it’s close-order drill, or exercise or yodeling or something, not music.
—Billie Holiday
Topics: Singing
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