Billie Holiday
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Billie Holiday was the pre-eminent jazz singer of her day and among the most revered vocalists of the century. She is known for her distinctive phrasing and soulful, soft, yet strong voice. She is often considered the foremost female singer in jazz history, a view substantiated by her influence on later singers. Considered by many to be the greatest jazz vocalist of all time, she lived a tempestuous and difficult life. It was the song "Strange Fruit" that made her a popular singer.
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About
Billie Holiday or "Eleonora Fagan" in real was born on April 7, 1915 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Billie spent much of her young life in Baltimore, Maryland. Raised primarily by her mother.Her father, "Clarence Holiday", was a teenaged jazz guitarist and banjo player later to play in Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra. He never married her mother, Sadie Fagan, and left while his daughter was still a baby. He even refused to acknowledge his daughter until her first success. Billie was born into poverty and was working by the age of six. She was raped when she was ten and then sent to a home. She dropped out of school in the fifth grade. When she was twelve, Billie moved with her mother to Harlem, where she was eventually arrested for prostitution. According to her own story, she was recruited for a brothel and was eventually jailed briefly for prostitution.
In 1928 Holiday took a job as a singer at Jerry Preston’s Log Cabin in New York City. She found she had a powerful voice, full of expression, but she was unable to settle to a job and moved from nightclub to nightclub. Desperate for money, she looked for work as a dancer at a Harlem speakeasy. When there wasn’t an opening for a dancer, she auditioned as a singer. Long interested in both jazz and blues, Holiday wowed the owner and found herself singing at the popular Pod and Jerry’s Log Cabin. This led to a number of other jobs in Harlem jazz clubs, and by 1933 she had her first major breakthrough.
A producer and talent scout named, "John Hammond" reportedly discovered her while she was performing in a Harlem jazz club in 1933. He immediately arranged three recording sessions for her with "Benny Goodman" and found engagements for her in New York clubs. In 1935 Billie's career got a big push when she recorded four sides that went on to become hits, including "What a Little Moonlight Can Do" and "Miss Brown to You." In 1937, she was producing some of the greatest recordings of her career, with "Buck Clayton" and "Lester Young" who nicknamed her ‘Lady Day’.
In the 1930s, when Holiday was working with Columbia Records, she was first introduced to the poem "Strange Fruit," an emotional piece about the lynching of a black man. Though Columbia would not allow her to record the piece due to subject matter, Billie went on to record the song with an alternate label, Commodore, and the song eventually became one of Billie's classics.
It was not, however, until 1939, with her song "Strange Fruit," and "God Bless the Child," that she found her real audience. he recorded for Columbia Record through 1942 and moved on to Decca in 1944. She started to have success with slow, melancholy songs of unrequited love, particularly "Gloomy Sunday" in 1941, a suicide song, and "Lover Man" in 1944. By the end of the 1940s, she was a popular star, and in 1946 took part in the film New Orleans with "Louis Armstrong" and Kid.
While her popularity was growing, her personal life remained troubled.She started using hard drugs in the early 1940s and was jailed on drug charges in 1947 after a highly publicized trial. She compulsively attached herself to men who mistreated her, and she began drinking heavily. Her health suffered; she lost most of her by then substantial earnings, and her voice coarsened through age and mistreatment. Though plagued by health problems, bad relationships, and addiction, Holiday remained an unequaled performer. She continued to tour and record in the 1950s. However, it was no longer with her former spirit and skill.
She made her last great appearance in 1957, on the CBS television special The Sound of Jazz with Webster, Lester Young, and Coleman Hawkins providing a close backing. One year later, the Lady in Satin LP clothed her naked, increasingly hoarse voice with the overwrought strings of Ray Ellis. For the next seven years, Billie would slip deeper into alcoholism and begin to lose control of her once perfect voice. During her final year, she made two more appearances in Europe before collapsing in May 1959 of heart and liver disease. In 1959, after the death of her good friend Lester Young and with almost nothing to her name, Billie Holiday died on July 17, 1959 at the age of forty-four from alcohol- and drug-related complications.
Awards & Certifications
| Year | Award | Category |
|---|---|---|
| 1944 | Esquire Magazine Gold Award | Best Leading Female Vocalist |
| 1945 | Esquire Magazine Silver Award | Best Leading Female Vocalist |
| 1946 | Esquire Magazine Silver Award | Best Leading Female Vocalist |
| 1947 | Esquire Magazine Gold Award | Best Leading Female Vocalist |
Chart Toppers
News
Tours & Concerts
There are no current tour and concert schedules for Billie Holiday.
Announcements
There are no announcements as of this time
Discography
Albums
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Singles
| Date | Title | Label |
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| 2006 | Stick in Your Ear | Verve |
Compilations & Live Releases
 Billie Holiday (1933-1937)
Classics |
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 Complete Recordings
March 26, 2002,br>Jazz Factory |
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 The Best of Billie Holdiday (Collectables)
Collectables |
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Other artists
Similar artists
Contemporaries
Influences
Trivia
Reviews
External Links
Categories: Artist | Ballads | Vocal Jazz |