Billie Holiday . She is one of the great vocalists in the history of jazz , her performances and her beautiful voice enchanted those who attended the venues where she sang, also her concerts and the tours she did; Although in his later years his voice was not the same, he continued singing with the same enthusiasm, even so he captured viewers.
Summary
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- 1 Biographical data
- 1 Success and Fame
- 2 Resounding failure
- 3 Death
- 2 Discography
- 3 Sources
Biographical data
Born in Philadelphia , United States ; the 7 of April of 1915 , with the name of Eleanora Fana Gough, after he moved to Baltimore ; She grew up with her mother (her father, Clarence Holiday , left home as a baby), who was a teenager when she gave birth. At the age of 10, after admitting to having been raped, she was confined in a Catholic reformatory, although she left two years later thanks to a relative. Together with his mother, in 1927 he moved to New Jersey and, soon, to Brooklyn. After working as a prostitute, at the age of thirteen she made her first audition, and although it is not certain, it seems that, if it was not at that age, she did, at least, start singing regularly at speakeasys in the early 1930s. . Its discovery was made thanks to the legendary producer John Hammond , who wrote about it and took Benny Goodman to one of his concerts: on November 27 , 1933 he made his commercial debut with a group led by Goodman himself.
In 1935 he performed at the Apollo Theater , participated in a film with Duke Ellington and recorded up to four sessions, with a band supervised by the pianist Teddy Wilson . The following year she toured with groups led by Fletcher Henderson and Jimmie Lunceford and, in 1937 , she recorded with the Count Basie Orchestra (with whom she toured for a year, until she was fired), where she met saxophonist Lester Young ( nicknamed Pres) and trumpeter Buck Clayton, with whom she began a friendship relationship and with whom she would record some of her most memorable songs at the end of the 1930s. After her experience with the Count Basie orchestra, she was signed, in 1938 , by Artie Shaw . The problem is that the clarinetist’s big band was made up exclusively of white musicians and, at that time, it was not usual for a black singer to be part of a white orchestra, so, due to the prevailing racism in the United States, and after suffering all kinds of harassment and discrimination, he had to leave the group, much to his regret.
Success and Fame
After this new frustration, he began to sing at the Café Society club , supported by John Hammond and created by Barney Josephson , in which black and white shared both tables and stage, something revolutionary in those years. It was there that he first sang the song that would lead him to fame, the controversial ” Strange fruit .” It is a denunciation of the murder of blacks, composed by Lewis Allen that, naturally, was banned by most of the American radios and even in England . Although, initially, Holiday was not interested in the subject (as he did not understand the lyrics), it became his signature subject, with which he closed his performances at the Café Society every night.
The song was recorded by Commodore , when it was rejected by John Hammond, with whom he tied a contract for Columbia and, therefore, led to his recording freedom. Despite the aforementioned radio censorship, the growing jukebox market made Strange fruit a success (something that was also contributed to by the fact that, on side B, the song Fine and mellow was included ). Until 1944 he continued recording for Columbia Records, achieving a new success with his best-known composition, God bless the child . Already in Decca, he achieved a third great success with Lover man , also recording pieces as memorable asTain’t nobody’s business if I do, Them there eyes or Crazy he calls me .
Resounding failure
The second half of the decade was not so favorable, because his complicated love life, the death of his mother, his addiction to opium and, later, to heroin and the commercial failure of the big band that he had created with Joe Guy , supposed the beginning of a decline that would lead her to spend eight months in prison for possession of heroin. Her drug problems ended her performances, and she was only musically active in the studio, first for Decca and, since 1952 , for Norman Granz and his Verve Records label . In these recordings from the 50s, especially those of the second half, the loss of their vocal faculties is appreciated, but they are still equally recommended for the intensity of their interpretations.
In the final stretch of his life, he went on a successful European tour ( 1954 ), published the autobiography Lady sings the blues ( 1956 ), appeared for the last time on television for CBS , alongside Wester, Young and Hawkins ( 1957 ) and recorded Lady in satin , one of the LPs with which he closed his impressive discography. The 17 of July of 1959 died of a heart attack. Since then, his prestige and popularity have not stopped growing and, fortunately, almost all his work has been republished. Billie Holiday is one of the great vocalists in the history of jazz. Clearly influenced by the blues singerBessie Smith , was one of the first who stood out, not only for her technical virtuosity, that is, for her amazing mastery of a voice with which nature had been generous, but, above all, for the personal stamp that she impressed on each one of the themes. Even though it was a nondescript composition, a second-row piece meant to fill in the B-side, Lady Day (as Lester Young dubbed for her elegance) left her mark, lent depth and feeling.
In short, he sang as if what was told in the lyrics had really happened to him and, therefore, it was enough for him to remember what he felt to convey it with his voice. Her emotional capacity was such that, in the second half of the 50s, when her voice lost much of its power and splendor (due to the consumption of drugs and alcohol ), she remained an excellent vocalist, because even without a great voice she could continue exciting the listener. Perhaps that has to do with the fact that he sang as if he were a wind instrument, often compared to a saxophone, or as if he tried to imitate, with his voice, the trumpet interpretation of Louis Armstrong . Without a doubt, one of the great artists of the 20th century .
Death
He died on July 17 , 1959 ; in New York , United States .
