A Presentation by Kathryn Ibrahim Billie Holiday A Presentation by Kathryn Ibrahim

Billie Holiday

Biography Born: Eleanora Harris Fagan April 7, 1915 Parents were never married and her father left soon after she was born. She often would roam the streets of Baltimore as a young girl, which led to an independent spirit. At age 11 she was raped by a neighbor. The man was sent to jail for a brief period. Billie was sent to the House of Good Shepard for Colored Girls.

biography In 1928, at the age of 12, she and her mother Sadie moved to Harlem. Both her and her mother worked at a brothel. At age 14, she was arrested for prostitution and was sent to Welfare Island for 100 days. Its been said that Billie had a great appetite for sensation. After she quit prostitution, she started singing in clubs for tips.

Biography Changed her name to Billie Holiday after Billie Dove, her favorite silent film star, and her musician father Clarence Holiday. Was discovered by record producer John Hammond in a club called Covan’s. Hammond says, “She was the first girl singer I’d come across who actually sang like an improvising jazz genius.” Age 18 she made her recording debut, singing “Your Mother’s Son-in-Law” and “Riffin’ the Scotch” with Benny Goodman.

Biography From 1935-1938 she was signed to Brunswick records and recorded with Teddy Wilson and Lester Young, a tenor saxophonist, who often would accompany the recordings. Lester Young and Holiday formed a very special bond and Young gave her the famous nickname “Lady Day.” In 1938 she started performing for the Artie Shaw band, making her the first black woman to perform in an all-white band. Touring life was difficult for Holiday, and she endured lots of racism. By the late 1930’s she left the band.

Billie Holiday: Emotional power through song Billie sang from the heart, and had enough heartache to fill a songbook. “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.” –Billie Holiday The emotional power of Holiday’s vocals comes from the way she sings the melodies. It’s about rhythm and phrasing, which Holiday learned from the best. Her idol was Louis Armstrong, and she often mimicked his singing style.

Billie Holiday: Singing style “So-called great singers love their notes more than their text…[Holiday] never forgot what she was singing about, so that the note played second position to the text…the emphasis was on telling the story from the heart.” –Joni Mitchell Holiday’s vocal technique owed more to individualism than trained skill. She never learned to read music. She had a limited range and a lack of power. She used her warm feathery voice like an accomplished jazz instrumentalist, stretching and condensing phrases in an ever- shifting dialogue with accompanying musicians. She was famous for delivering lyrics a bit behind the beat, and she alternately endowed them with sadness, sensuality, languor, and irony.

Billie Holiday: quotes

“Strange Fruit” In the late 1930’s, while performing at Café Society, the first and only integrated night club, she was introduced to “Strange Fruit”. “Strange Fruit” was a poem set to music written by Abel Meeropol, and was a haunting protest against the inhumanity of racism. In 1999 Time Magazine named “Strange Fruit” the “Song of the Century” Became her biggest selling record. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4ZyuULy9zs&list=RDh4Z yuULy9zs Listen for: haunting metaphorical lyrics, stretching of lyrics, emotion portrayed in performance.

biography Holiday battled drug and alcohol addiction her entire adult life. She was arrested twice for possession of narcotics. Her first arrest she was sentence to 1 year and 1 day in Alderson, VA. She was released after 8 month, but didn’t sing a single note the entire time she was there. After arrest she lost her cabaret card and was no longer able to sing at clubs that sold alcohol. It was because of this that she played Carnegie Hall on March 27, 1948 to a sold-out crowd.

Billie Holiday: Quotes

“God Bless the child” Written by Billie Holiday and Arthur Herzog Jr. in 1939. Recorded May 9, 1941 under the Okeh label. Recipient of the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1976 and was included in lists of songs of the century by Recording Industry Association of America. In her autobiography Lady Sings the Blues, Holiday indicated an argument over money with her mother led to the song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKNtP1zOVHw Listen for: lyrics slightly behind the beat, stretching of lyrics, light feathery voice, emotion

Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday Holiday had a hugely successful tour in Europe in 1954. Her autobiography Lady Sings the Blues was published in 1956, and she released an LP that same year under the same name. Years of alcohol and drug abuse took its toll on Lady Day, she passed away from pulmonary edema and heart failure caused by cirrhosis of the liver, on July 17, 1959 at the age of 44.

Works cited "Billie Holiday." Billie Holiday. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2015. <http://www.billieholiday.com/#bio>. Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2015. <http://www.biography.com/people/billie-holiday- 9341902>. Kirker, Tim. "Billie Holiday." All About Jazz. N.p., 30 Sept. 2005. Web. 18 Apr. 2015. http://www.allaboutjazz.com/billie-holiday-by-tim- kirker.php?&pg=. Vitale, Tom. "Billie Holiday: Emotional Power Through Song." NPR. NPR, 22 Nov. 2010. Web. 18 Apr. 2015.