Billie Holiday at 100

The following post was written by Beth Fleming (Oklahoma City University), coordinator of the Music Library Association's Women in Music Round Table:

Billie Holiday (April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959 ) was born 100 years ago today, and so we honor one full century spent with the remarkable voice and unbelievable musical influence of the incomparable woman Lester Young dubbed “Lady Day.” 

Her name at birth was Eleanora Fagan and her childhood was less than optimal, complicated by a completely absent father and a mother who had been disowned by her own family when she became pregnant and thus often left her child with other people in an attempt to make a living during an era when there were few jobs available for single mothers. Eleanora was pressed into prostitution while living in Harlem with her mother in 1929 and she was arrested and then released shortly after her fourteenth birthday.  Her singing career began after this and so in an effort to somewhat cleanse her reputation, Eleanora created her pseudonym by taking “Billie” from an actress she admired named Billie Dove and using the last name Holliday from a musician named Clarence Holiday, who was allegedly her own father. 

Billie’s voice was completely untrained, but her unique way of catching the rhythmic drive and intensity of articulation from the instrumentalists she worked with combined with her own distinctive soul-filled vocal quality made her an almost instant favorite among the most prominent jazz musicians in Harlem.  Her uncanny ability to imitate the instruments, to make her voice be and do and sound exactly like the most accomplished instrumentalists of her day seemed to mesmerize crowds.  Her musicality and superb ability to express the blues and make everyone in the room feel and know the truth in the texts she was singing also captured the audience’s attention. Soon she was a fan favorite as well, and became something of a pioneer by working regularly in the mixed race jazz clubs.  Her vocal popularity and wide ranging acceptance by crowds of any color allowed her to do songs such as “Strange Fruit,” a controversial song about lynchings in the South that sincerely pushed the boundaries on the issue of race relations in America.

Her personal demons followed her throughout her life, she was involved in the drug culture, was involved in several abusive relationships and she was an alcoholic so she broke performance contracts and ended up being sued because of her irresponsible actions.  Many blame her early childhood tribulations on her questionable adult behaviors, but whatever the reason for her actions, undoubtedly her style of living not only contributed to the unfortunate deterioration of her beautiful voice, but also was the cause of her untimely death at the relatively young age of forty-four.  Her influence on popular music in America is extremely significant and musicians such as Frank Sinatra and Wynton Marsalis freely admit their indebtedness to her.  Billie Holiday was the first popular jazz singer to move audiences with her highly personalized renditions of the music she sang.  Because of her influence popular music moved away from audiences accepting the relatively nameless interpretation of generic Tin Pan Alley songs toward an overwhelming desire for individualistic vocal interpretations.

For more information, visit her official website at:
http://www.billieholiday.com/

For a biographical video:
 

Photo credit: This photograph is from the William P. Gottlieb Collection which was purchased by the Library of Congress in 1995. The collection consists of jazz photographs taken from 1938 to 1948 by writer-photographer William P. Gottlieb. In accordance with the wishes of Gottlieb, the photographs in this collection entered into the public domain on February 16, 2010. Via Wikimedia Commons.