a biography of the day-billie holiday ("lady day", jazz singer, songwriter, actress)

[niyad]

Also known as Lady Day
Born April 7, 1915[2]
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States[2]
Origin Harlem, New York, United States
Died July 17, 1959 (aged 44)[2]
New York City, New York, United States[3]
Genres Vocal jazz, jazz blues, torch songs, swing, blues
Occupations Singer, songwriter, actress
Instruments Vocals
Years active 1933–1959
Labels Brunswick, Vocalion, Okeh, Bluebird, Commodore, Capitol, Decca, Aladdin, Verve, Columbia, MGM
Associated acts Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Lena Horne, Carmen McRae
Website Billie Holiday Official Site

Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan[1][4] April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo.

Critic John Bush wrote that Holiday "changed the art of American pop vocals forever."[5] She co-wrote only a few songs, but several of them have become jazz standards, notably "God Bless the Child", "Don't Explain", "Fine and Mellow", and "Lady Sings the Blues". She also became famous for singing "Easy Living", "Good Morning Heartache", and "Strange Fruit", a protest song which became one of her standards and was made famous with her 1939 recording. Music critic Robert Christgau called her "uncoverable, possibly the greatest singer of the century".[6]

. . .


Holiday was recording for Columbia in the late 1930s when she was introduced to "Strange Fruit", a song based on a poem about lynching written by Abel Meeropol, a Jewish schoolteacher from the Bronx. Meeropol used the pseudonym "Lewis Allan" for the poem, which was set to music and performed at teachers' union meetings.[36] It was eventually heard by Barney Josephson, proprietor of Café Society, an integrated nightclub in Greenwich Village, who introduced it to Holiday. She performed it at the club in 1939, with some trepidation, fearing possible retaliation. Holiday later said that the imagery in "Strange Fruit" reminded her of her father's death and that this played a role in her resistance to performing it.[37]
When Holiday's producers at Columbia found the subject matter too sensitive, Milt Gabler agreed to record it for his Commodore Records. That was done on April 20, 1939, and "Strange Fruit" remained in her repertoire for twenty years. She later recorded it again for Verve. While the Commodore release did not get any airplay, the controversial song sold well, though Gabler attributed that mostly to the record's other side, "Fine and Mellow", which was a jukebox hit.[38] "The version I did for Commodore," Holiday said of "Strange Fruit", "became my biggest selling record."[citation needed] "Strange Fruit" was the equivalent of a top twenty hit in the 1930s.
For her performance of "Strange Fruit" at the Café Society, she had waiters silence the crowd when the song began. During the song's long introduction, the lights dimmed and all movement had to cease. As Holiday began singing, only a small spotlight illuminated her face. On the final note, all lights went out and when they came back on, Holiday was gone

. . . .

Frank Sinatra admired Holiday, having been influenced by her performances on 52nd Street as a young man. He told Ebony in 1958 about her impact:

With few exceptions, every major pop singer in the US during her generation has been touched in some way by her genius. It is Billie Holiday who was, and still remains, the greatest single musical influence on me. Lady Day is unquestionably the most important influence on American popular singing in the last twenty years

. . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billie_Holiday

[Warpy]

1. Heroin eventually got her

First, it made her unreliable, although I've heard recordings when she was having trouble standing up through them and they were still light years ahead of anyone else of the time.

Eventually, it took her life, quite possibly through suicide.

Johnny Cash said it best about why he got into drugs, "Because you have to feel great at eight PM every night." Then they make you feel like shit when you come down so you compulsively do more.

Most performers become dependent to one extent or another.

RIP, Lady Day, and thank you for what you gave us while you were here.