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November 27, 2005
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Billie Holiday
Born Eleanora Fagan in 1915, Billie Holiday was raised in Baltimore. Her father, a gifted guitarist named Clarence Holiday who would eventually join Fletcher Henderson’s Orchestra, left the family when Eleanora was a baby. Unable to cope with the pressures of motherhood, Eleanora’s mother, Sadie Fagen, often left her daughter with relatives. At a young age, Eleanora acquired the nickname “Billie.” As a teenager, Billie took her father’s name and began her training as a singer, working alongside such Baltimore jazz luminaries as Eubie Blake and Chick Webb. In 1929, Holiday relocated to New York with her mother and, by 1930, began working her way up through the ranks of the city’s jazz scene. In 1933, Holiday was discovered by a young record producer and Vanderbilt heir named John Hammond, who arranged for her to record with Benny Goodman. During 1934 and 1935, she appeared on film with Duke Ellington and continued to record with Goodman and his pianist, Teddy Wilson. By 1937, Holiday developed a strong working relationship with Lester Young and worked briefly with him as Count Basie’s featured female vocalist. Young and Holiday kept a close musical affinity, bestowing on one another their most famous nicknames (Holiday dubbed Young “The President,” and Young called Holiday “Lady Day”). In 1938, she joined Artie Shaw’s orchestra, making her one of the first black singers to perform with a white swing band. By 1940, Holiday focused on more intimate performing and recording situations and began working with more-substantial musical material. She established a residency at the Café Society, a Greenwich Village cabaret known for its racially mixed audiences and performing groups, its liberal politics, and its intellectual elitism. Holiday sang show tunes, Tin Pan Alley pieces, blues songs, and eventually, a protest song called “Strange Fruit.” Written by Café Society regular Abel Meeropol, the song protests southern lynchings in graphic detail. Although Hammond objected to the song’s imagery, he allowed Holiday to record it for Commodore Records. After its release, the song was banned by numerous radio stations, and the resulting publicity allowed Holiday to cross over from jazz to pop radio. During 1940s, she released a series of hit recordings, including her 1941 composition “God Bless The Child” and “Lover Man,” written especially for her in 1944. In her vocal phrasing, Holiday separates the melodic line from the underlying pulse more consistently than any jazz singer before or since. This fluid phrasing allows her vocal to float effortlessly over even the most animated rhythm section. Attributing this trait to her great love of Louis Armstrong and Lester Young, Holiday often remarked that she tried to sing like a horn player. She continually used inflections of pitch, rhythm, and diction to add nuance, surprise, and expression of deep emotion to her performances. Holiday is often cited as the most influential and masterful vocalist in jazz. She died in 1959 of heart and liver disease while struggling with heroin addiction.
Bibliography
Bush, John. 2005. Billie Holiday: Biography. All music guide. http://www.allmusic.com.
Collier, James Lincoln, and Barry Kernfeld. Billie Holiday. Grove dictionary of jazz online, edited by Barry Kernfeld. http://www.grovemusic.com.
Huang, Hao, and Rachel V. Huang. 1994. Billie Holiday and Tempo Rubato: Understanding rhythmic expressivity. Annual Review of Jazz Studies 7: 1818211;199.
O’Meally, Robert. 1991. Lady Day: The many faces of Billie Holiday. New York: Arcade.
Musical Example
"Strange Fruit" (Lewis Allan). Performed by Billie Holiday (vocal) with Milt Raskin (piano). Lady in Autumn: The Best of the Verve Years (Verve 849 434-2).
Billie Holiday『I COVER THE WATERFRONT』
Born Eleanora Fagan in 1915, Billie Holiday was raised in Baltimore. Her father, a gifted guitarist named Clarence Holiday who would eventually join Fletcher Henderson’s Orchestra, left the family when Eleanora was a baby. Unable to cope with the pressures of motherhood, Eleanora’s mother, Sadie Fagen, often left her daughter with relatives. At a young age, Eleanora acquired the nickname “Billie.” As a teenager, Billie took her father’s name and began her training as a singer, working alongside such Baltimore jazz luminaries as Eubie Blake and Chick Webb. In 1929, Holiday relocated to New York with her mother and, by 1930, began working her way up through the ranks of the city’s jazz scene. In 1933, Holiday was discovered by a young record producer and Vanderbilt heir named John Hammond, who arranged for her to record with Benny Goodman. During 1934 and 1935, she appeared on film with Duke Ellington and continued to record with Goodman and his pianist, Teddy Wilson. By 1937, Holiday developed a strong working relationship with Lester Young and worked briefly with him as Count Basie’s featured female vocalist. Young and Holiday kept a close musical affinity, bestowing on one another their most famous nicknames (Holiday dubbed Young “The President,” and Young called Holiday “Lady Day”). In 1938, she joined Artie Shaw’s orchestra, making her one of the first black singers to perform with a white swing band. By 1940, Holiday focused on more intimate performing and recording situations and began working with more-substantial musical material. She established a residency at the Café Society, a Greenwich Village cabaret known for its racially mixed audiences and performing groups, its liberal politics, and its intellectual elitism. Holiday sang show tunes, Tin Pan Alley pieces, blues songs, and eventually, a protest song called “Strange Fruit.” Written by Café Society regular Abel Meeropol, the song protests southern lynchings in graphic detail. Although Hammond objected to the song’s imagery, he allowed Holiday to record it for Commodore Records. After its release, the song was banned by numerous radio stations, and the resulting publicity allowed Holiday to cross over from jazz to pop radio. During 1940s, she released a series of hit recordings, including her 1941 composition “God Bless The Child” and “Lover Man,” written especially for her in 1944. In her vocal phrasing, Holiday separates the melodic line from the underlying pulse more consistently than any jazz singer before or since. This fluid phrasing allows her vocal to float effortlessly over even the most animated rhythm section. Attributing this trait to her great love of Louis Armstrong and Lester Young, Holiday often remarked that she tried to sing like a horn player. She continually used inflections of pitch, rhythm, and diction to add nuance, surprise, and expression of deep emotion to her performances. Holiday is often cited as the most influential and masterful vocalist in jazz. She died in 1959 of heart and liver disease while struggling with heroin addiction.
Bibliography
Bush, John. 2005. Billie Holiday: Biography. All music guide. http://www.allmusic.com.
Collier, James Lincoln, and Barry Kernfeld. Billie Holiday. Grove dictionary of jazz online, edited by Barry Kernfeld. http://www.grovemusic.com.
Huang, Hao, and Rachel V. Huang. 1994. Billie Holiday and Tempo Rubato: Understanding rhythmic expressivity. Annual Review of Jazz Studies 7: 1818211;199.
O’Meally, Robert. 1991. Lady Day: The many faces of Billie Holiday. New York: Arcade.
Musical Example
"Strange Fruit" (Lewis Allan). Performed by Billie Holiday (vocal) with Milt Raskin (piano). Lady in Autumn: The Best of the Verve Years (Verve 849 434-2).
Billie Holiday『I COVER THE WATERFRONT』
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