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Billie Holiday
American jazz singer (1915–1959)
Billie Holiday was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday made significant contributions to jazz music and pop singing.
Her vocal style, strongly influenced by jazz instrumentalists, inspired a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. Holiday was known for her vocal delivery and improvisational skills.
labels: Commodore Records, Vocalion Records, Verve Records, Aladdin Records, OKeh Records, Columbia Records, Capitol Records, MGM Records
genres: jazz, jazz blues, ballad, swing, vocal jazz, blues
awards: Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, National Women's Hall of Fame, Grammy Hall of Fame, Grammy Hall of Fame, Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, Grammy Hall of Fame, Grammy Hall of Fame, Grammy Hall of Fame
plays: voice
member of: Billie Holiday and her Orchestra, Teddy Wilson and his Orchestra
Facts from Wikidata and Discogs, free to use.
jazzbluesvocal jazzswing2008 universal fire victimcotm candidate
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1929–1935: Early career
As a young teenager, Holiday started singing in nightclubs in Harlem. She took her professional pseudonym from Billie Dove, an actress she admired, and Clarence Halliday, her father. At the outset of her career, she spelled her last name "Halliday", her father's birth surname, but eventually changed it to "Holiday", his performing name. The young singer teamed up with a neighbor, tenor saxophone player Kenneth Hollan. They were a team from 1929 to 1931, performing at clubs such as the Grey Dawn, Pod's and Jerry's on 133rd Street, and the Brooklyn Elks Club. Benny Goodman recalled hearing Holiday in 1931 at the Bright Spot. As her reputation grew, she played in many clubs, including the Mexico's and the Alhambra Bar and Grill, where she met...
American jazz singer and songwriter, born April 7, 1915, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, died July 17, 1959, New York City, New York, USA.
Daughter of jazz guitarist . Godmother of Mala Waldron and .
She made her debut circa 1930 singing in various nightclubs in Harlem. In early 1933, the producer heard her sing and was impressed by her talent. In 1935 he signed her to Records. She made her first recordings with . Also in 1935 she made her first appearance in a movie, with more roles in the 1940's. From 1939 she started recording songs with notable jazz artists of that time. In the 1950's, her voice was deteriorating as a result of unhappy relationships, heroin use and excessive drinking. In May 1959 she collapsed and was taken to the Metropolitan Hospital in New York City for treatment of liver and heart disease. She was arrested for heroin possession while she lay dying.
She was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1991 and the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 2000 (Early Influence).
Also known as: B Holiday, B. Holiday, B. Holliday, B. Holyday, B.Holiday
From Discogs (free to use). Their entry
Liner notes
Billie Holiday, the records, oldest first
Billie Holiday
1947 album
Lover Man
1951 album
Billie Holiday Sings
1952 album
Solitude
1952 album
wanted
An Evening With Billie Holiday
1953 album
Billie and Stan
1954 album
Billie Holiday
1954 album
Music for Torching
1955 album
Velvet Mood
1956 album
Jazz Recital
1956 album
Lady Sings the Blues
1956 album
Body and Soul
1957 album
wanted
Songs for Distingué Lovers
1958 album
Lady in Satin
1958 album
Stay With Me
1958 album
The Blues Are Brewin’
1958 album
All or Nothing at All
1959 album
Last Recording
1959 album
Songs & Conversations
1973 album
Billie Holiday at Storyville
1976 album
The voice
1992 album
On The Sentimental Side
1995 album
Love Me or Leave Me
1995 album
Billie Holiday
1998 album
Records from MusicBrainz; covers from the Cover Art Archive.
"Don't Explain" is a song written by jazz singer Billie Holiday and Arthur Herzog Jr. It was Holiday's final song.
Recording session
Session #52: New York City, November 8, 1944, Decca, Toots Camarata and His Orchestra, with Russ Case (trumpet), Hymie Schertzer, Jack Cressey (alto saxophone), Larry Binyon and Dave Harris (tenor saxophone), Dave Bowman (piano), Carl Kress (guitar), Haig Stephens (bass), George Wettling (drums), Billie Holiday (vocals), and six strings.
"Fine and Mellow" is a jazz standard written by Billie Holiday, who first recorded it on April 20, 1939 on the Commodore label. It is a blues lamenting the bad treatment of a woman at the hands of "my man".
Notable performances and recordings
The song was famously performed by Billie Holiday in 1957 in a television special, The Sound of Jazz.
"Strange Fruit" is a song written and composed by Abel Meeropol and recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939. The lyrics were drawn from a poem by Meeropol, published in 1937.
Billie Holiday's performances and recordings
One version of events claims that Barney Josephson, the founder of Café Society in Greenwich Village, New York's first integrated nightclub, heard the song and introduced it to Billie Holiday. Other reports say that Robert Gordon, who was directing Holiday's show at Café Society, heard the song at Madison Square Garden and introduced it to her. Holiday first performed the song at Café Society in 1939. She said that singing it made her fearful of retaliation but, because its imagery reminded her of her father Clarence Halliday, she continued to sing the piece, making it a regular part of her live performances. Because of the power of the song, Josephson drew up some rules: Holiday would close with it; the waiters would stop all service in...
Cover versions
Other notable cover versions of the song include the renditions of Nina Simone, Georgia Lee, Jill Scott, UB 40, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Jeff Buckley.
"Now or Never" is a jazz song written by singer Billie Holiday, and composer Curtis Reginald Lewis.
Recording session
Studio Session No. 63, New York City, September 30, 1949, Sy Oliver and His Orchestra (Decca), with Bernie Privin (trumpet), Sid Cooper, Johnny Mince (alto saxophone), Artie Drellinger, Pat Nizza (tenor saxophone), Billy Kyle (piano), Everett Barksdale (guitar), Joe Benjamin (bass), Jimmy Crawford (drums), and Billie Holiday (vocal).
"This Year's Kisses" is a popular song written in 1936 by Irving Berlin for the musical film On the Avenue (1937) and introduced by Alice Faye. Popular recordings in 1937 were by Benny Goodman, Hal Kemp, Shep Fields and by Teddy Wilson with Billie Holiday.
Billie Holiday recording
Billie Holiday recorded the song on January 25, 1937, accompanied by Teddy Wilson & His Orchestra (Brunswick 7824), an historic session that marked her first collaboration with tenor saxophonist Lester Young. Benny Goodman (clarinet) also performed on the recording, along with several members of the Count Basie Orchestra, including Buck Clayton on trumpet, Freddie Green on guitar, Walter Page on double bass, and Jo Jones on drums. Jazz critic Gary Giddins, writes that the song "inaugurated the uncanny bond between Billie and Lester Young, whose tenor saxophone--borrowed from Hammond's favorite orchestra, the Basie band--invariably complements, echoes, spurs, and inspires her in one of the most gratifying, unusual, and far too brief musical...
