HUSL Today Salutes

Billie Holiday

Image source: http://g.virbcdn.com/i/resize_500x500/Image-115898-564464-BillieHoliday.jpg 

Billie Holiday was born Elinore Fagan (her birth certificate says Elinore Harris yea I'm confused too) on April 7, 1915. She spent most of her childhood in Baltimore, Maryland.  At the age of 18, Holiday was discovered by producer John Hammond while she was performing in a Harlem jazz club. Hammond was instrumental in getting Holiday recording work with an up-and-coming clarinetist and bandleader Benny Goodman. With Goodman, she sang vocals for several tracks, including her first commercial release Your Mother's Son-In-Law and the 1934 top ten hit Riffin' the Scotch.

Nicknamed Lady Day by her friend and musical partner Lester

Young, Holiday was 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. Above all, she was admired all over the world for her deeply personal and intimate approach to singing. Critic John Bush wrote that she "changed the art of American pop vocals forever." 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.

 Image source: http://www.mp3lyrics.org/b/billie-holiday/billie-holiday_3.Jpg

Holiday toured with the Count Basie Orchestra in 1937. The following year, she worked with Artie Shaw and his orchestra. Holiday broke new ground with Shaw, becoming one of the first female African American vocalists to work with a white orchestra. Promoters objected to Holiday—for her race and for her unique vocal style—and she ended up leaving the orchestra out of frustration.

She became famous for singing jazz standards including Easy Living and Strange Fruit. Strange fruit, a story about African American lynching, debuted in 1939  and was banned by some radio stations-a practice which helped make it famous.

Although she had her share of struggles in her final years, Holiday remains one of the most greatest  jazz vocalists of all time. Her autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues (1956), was written in collaboration by William Dufty. Her raw emotion is easily felt in her songs Holiday passed away on July 17, 1959.

Her autobiography was made into the 1972 film Lady Sings the Blues with famed singer Diana Ross playing the part of Holiday. In 2000, Billie Holiday was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Diana Ross handling the honors.

Check out footage of her singing my favorite tunes below:





Source: Biography.com

HUSL Today Salutes Billie Holiday!  
Happy belated Birthday Billie!!!