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JAZZ ROOTS BILLIE HOLIDAY
b. 1915, Baltimore, MD ~ d. 1959 New York City
T
Magic
H E PERSONAL,
of
INTENSE
Lady
AND RETROSPECTIVE
Day
www.WineandJazz.com
15
Billie Holiday was born into poverty. Her
mother was roughly thirteen years-old when
she gave birth. Billie noted, “I never had a
chance to play with dolls like other kids. I
started working when I was six years old.”
As a teenager, she was singing in Harlem’s
clubs. Her first break came in 1933 when
Benny Goodman invited her to record. That
same year she joined Teddy Wilson’s band.
Gradually, Billie developed her own style.
“If you copy,” she said, “it means you’re
working without any real feeling. No two
people on earth are alike, and it’s got to be
that way in music or it isn’t music.”
Even when performing popular “Tin
Pan Alley”-type songs, her personal,
intense, and retrospective manner shined
through: “If you find a tune that’s got
something to do with you, you just feel it
and when you sing it, other people feel it,
too.” French actress Jeanne Moreau said
of her: “She could express more emotion
in one chorus than most actresses can in
three acts.” Holiday was inspired both by
the singers and horn players: “... I liked
the feeling that Louis got and I wanted the
volume that Bessie Smith got. But I found
that it didn’t work with me, because I didn’t
have a big voice. So anyway, between the
two of them, I sorta got Billie Holiday.”
Her way of phrasing slightly behind the
beat and using her voice as an instrument
came from her collaboration with the finest
instrumentalists, such as Ben Webster,
Hawkins, Buddy DeFranco, Armstrong,
Oscar Peterson, Buck Clayton, and Lester
Young, who called her “Lady Day.” Billie
said, “When Lester plays, he almost seems
to be singing. One can almost hear the
words ... I don’t think I am singing ... I feel
like I am playing a horn. I try to improvise
like Les Young, like Louis Armstrong, or
someone else I admire. What comes out is
what I feel. I hate straight singing. I have to
change a tune to my own way of doing it.
That’s all I know.”
In 1938 she recorded “Strange Fruit”
on the subject of lynchings. It established
Holiday as one of our greatest jazz artists.
Strange Fruit Lyrics by Abel Meerpol:
“Southern trees bear strange fruit, Blood on the
leaves and blood at the root, Black bodies swinging
in the southern breeze, Strange fruit hanging from
the poplar trees.”
~ THE DEFINING ARTISTS, THEIR THOUGHTS,
WORDS AND STORIES © GHIGO PRESS
SUGGESTED LISTENING:
The Quintessential Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday 1939-44
The Complete Decca Recordings
The Complete Billie Holiday On Verve 1945-59
Jazz Roots