Billie Holiday - Music Sage

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Topic: Billie Holiday


  
 VH1.com : Billie Holiday : Biography
Billie Holiday's highly stylized reading of this blues tradition revolutionized traditional pop, ripping the decades-long tradition of song plugging in two by refusing to compromise her artistry for either the song or the band.
Often bored by the tired old Tin Pan Alley songs she was forced to record early in her career, Holiday fooled around with the beat and the melody, phrasing behind the beat and often rejuvenating the standard melody with harmonies borrowed from her favorite horn players, Armstrong and Lester Young.
Though Holiday initially expressed doubts about adding such a bald, uncompromising song to her repertoire, she pulled it off thanks largely to her powers of nuance and subtlety.
http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/billie_holiday/bio.jhtml   (1819 words)

  
 HOLIDAY, Billie : MusicWeb Encyclopaedia of Popular Music
The Complete Billie Holiday On Verve 1945--1959 on ten CDs was a fan's bonanza, with live tracks including Newport and Jazz At The Philharmonic concerts, very informal rehearsal sessions, all the Norman Granz studio tracks, the European concert and the last album with Ray Ellis.
It is not true that the songs were second-rate; she and Wilson chose the ones she liked best from a stack of 30 or 40 for each recording session, and many of them were hits at the time; they were all current pop songs and nobody knew which ones would become standards.
HOLIDAY, Billie : MusicWeb Encyclopaedia of Popular Music
http://www.musicweb.uk.net/encyclopaedia/h/H126.HTM   (1636 words)

  
 Billie Holiday - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
She explained the sense of overpowering drama that featured in her songs, saying "I've lived songs like that." and she had.
They were separated at the time of her death.
She made her final public appearance at a benefit concert at the Phoenix Theater in Greenwich Village, New York City on May 25, 1959.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billie_Holiday   (1440 words)

  
 Jazz . Jazz Greats . Billie Holiday PBS KIDS GO!
Billie got a record deal with Vocalion Records.
Billie managed to make beautiful music despite her personal struggles.
Her father, a banjo and guitar player, left his family to tour with a jazz band.
http://pbskids.org/jazz/nowthen/billie.html   (551 words)

  
 Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday will always be admired for her ability to communicate the underlying tragedy of life in a song.
Billie often turned her pain and persecution into music in songs like “Don’t Explain” (addressing her husband’s extra-marital affairs), “Good Morning Heartache,” or “Gloomy Sunday.” In 1952 she signed a new record contract and began rebuilding her career.
Yet Billie’s voice sounded ravaged, the music more melancholy.
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=18561   (903 words)

  
 Billie Holiday - Verve Records
Billie Holiday (1915-59) was one of jazz& greatest song stylists.
In early 1958 Holiday recorded the album Lady in Satin with Ray Ellis’s orchestra.
Here at the Verve Music Group we are fortunate and honored to have so many of Billie Holiday's classic recordings in our jazz catalog.  Billie's recordings from Commodore, Decca, and Verve all reside here.
http://www.vervemusicgroup.com/verve/artist.asp?aid=2675   (726 words)

  
 Billie Holiday News
As a jazz vocalist and violinist, Betty MacDonald respects Billie Holiday.
MacDonald says music lovers enjoy hearing stories about Holiday and can sympathize with her emotions and struggles.
Mixing an Americana/roots music sensibility with the dusky jazz timbres of Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, and Ella Fitzgerald, Knoxville's Robinella will appear at Johnson City's The Down Home on Saturday,...
http://www.topix.net/who/billie-holiday   (585 words)

  
 PBS - JAZZ A Film By Ken Burns: Selected Artist Biography - Billie Holiday
In 1935, he began recording her regularly, usually under the direction of Teddy Wilson, with studio bands that included many of the finest jazz musicians of the day.
Critic Nat Hentoff describes Billie Holiday's legendary 1957 performance of this song, a selection from National Public Radio's list of the 100 most important American musical works of the 20th Century.
Although she continued to sing and record, and to tour frequently until the mid-1950s, it was no longer with her former spirit and skill.
http://www.pbs.org/jazz/biography/artist_id_holiday_billie.htm   (867 words)

  
 Billie Holiday Sessionography by Alberto Varela Varela
THE ESSENTIAL BILLIE HOLIDAY CARNEGIE HALL CONCERT -Label : Verve Records -Year : 1989 Company: Polygram Records Number : 833 767 2 - CD Verve 777 - CD Polygram 527777.
Billie Holiday At Stratford ' 57 - Baldwing Street Music BHJ 308.
This is a Database of the original records of Billie Holiday.
http://varelasite.com.ar/billieholiday.htm   (1732 words)

  
 American Masters . Billie Holiday PBS
They were close friends throughout their lives—giving each other their now-famous nicknames of "Lady Day" and the "Prez." Sympathetic to Holiday’s unique style, Young helped her create music that would best highlight her unconventional talents.
By slowing the tone with emotive vocals that reset the timing and rhythm, she added a new dimension to jazz singing.
Songs such as "God Bless the Child" and "Gloomy Sunday" expressed not only her undeniable talent, but her incredible pain as well.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/holiday_b.html   (706 words)

  
 Untitled Document
Holiday was discovered by John Hammond singing in Harlem night clubs and he arranged for her to record with Benny Goodman in 1933.
We are pleased to bring you this special collection of Billie Holiday recordings.
These are live recordings, unreleased studio out takes and rehearsal tapes that until now have not been made available.
http://www.srirecords.com/holiday.html   (166 words)

  
 Amazon.com: Billie Holiday - Greatest Hits (Sony): Music: Billie Holiday
Billie was the first female singer with Count Basie's band, but because she was booked to Columbia and the Count had been shanghied by Decca, there were no studio recordings of Billie singing with the Basie Orchestra.
With Billie who recorded for about 30 years on a lot of labels, the tendency was, particularly back in the days of LPs, for every owner of some Billie material to put out whatever they could crip together as Billie's greatest hits.
Nor are any of the outstanding live performances by Billie for Jazz at the Philharmonic or in her Carneige Hall concerts on this CD.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00000FC7M?v=glance   (1542 words)

  
 Billie Holiday
Holiday, who was mainly known for her love songs, boldly stepped out of a stereotyped mold and sang a song that stood defined the injustices performed against her people.
Holiday was openly communist and when she was only twenty four years old, poet Lewis Allen reluctantly offered his song "Strange Fruit" for Holiday to record.
She took the song and personally made it her own.
http://www.newpaltz.edu/wmnstudies/3women/billie.html   (517 words)

  
 Billie Holiday
The ladies who sing the blues; Echoes of Billie Holiday can be heard in the singing stars who dominate the charts.
BILLIE HOLIDAY: The most important recordings by the greatest female vocalist of all time are gathered for the first time in 20-CD boxed set
They are soon to pay tribute to her as a jazz legend and role-model.
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0823969.html   (438 words)

  
 Billie Holiday: The Ultimate Collection: Pitchfork Review
Holiday's music got heavier by the late 30s, the time of the darkly brilliant allegory "Strange Fruit" and "God Bless the Child".
Her signature song was "Lady Sings the Blues", and while she preferred to think of her work in the tradition of smooth, sophisticated pop, her life was filled with sadness from the beginning.
The second disc begins with Holiday getting the string section she always wanted, the sweetness of the orchestrations serving as a steadily contrasting frame to her deteriorating voice.
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/h/holiday_billie/ultimate-collection.shtml   (422 words)

  
 Billie Holiday's Song ''Strange Fruit'' (Lesson Plan)
At the time Billie Holiday was ready to record "Strange Fruit" her record company thought the song was too controversial to release.
This lesson focuses on Billie Holiday's signature song, "Strange Fruit," a protest song Lewis Allen (Abel Meeropol) wrote in 1938 about the ongoing and intransigent problem of lynching in the American South.
For further information about Billie Holiday's life, view Episode Six beginning approximately 47 minutes into the video with the title "Musical Kinship" and ending about five minutes later.
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/civil-rights/lesson-plan/4839.html   (3883 words)

  
 Billie Holiday: Lady in Autumn-The Best of the Verve Years ---Ink Blot Magazine
Billie Holiday made her first recordings in 1933 with Benny Goodman, but it wasn't until 1935 that her talent truly began to blossom.
Kessel's blues-drenched guitar and Webster's ethereal solo boost "Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You" as Holiday proves she's still capable of convincing vocal performances, using dramatic slurs and low growls to her benefit.
Five songs are included from this period, with "Sweets" Edison, Benny Carter, Jimmy Rowles, and Barney Kessel on board.
http://www.inkblotmagazine.com/rev-archive/holiday.htm   (644 words)

  
 Apple - Pro/Video - Yan Shvalb, pg. 1
“Whether you are new to Billie Holiday’s music or a serious jazz/blues enthusiast, this set will become an important part of your music library,” says Yan Shvalb about “The Ultimate Collection,” the DVD portion of which he authored using DVD Studio Pro.
“Whether you are new to Billie Holiday’s music or a serious jazz/blues enthusiast, this set will become an important part of your music library,” predicts Yan Shvalb, who served as project director, designer and author of the DVD.
Find numerous Billie Holiday titles at the iTunes Music Store.
http://www.apple.com/pro/video/shvalb   (865 words)

  
 billie holiday
They were obviously in New York on Monday 13th September, when Billie made her next recordings with a group which included five members of the Basie organization.
The first is of Billie in her dressing room prior to her performing on stage in
SATURDAY NIGHT SWING CLUB:- BILLIE HOLIDAY took part in a CBS radio broadcast with Duke Ellington and his orchestra, Paul Douglas(ann).
http://www.billieholidaycircle.freeserve.co.uk   (1960 words)

  
 Open Directory - Arts: Music: Vocal: Singers: Jazz: H: Holiday, Billie
Billie Holiday at Past Perfect - Songs and music digitally remastered.
Verve and Decca Records: Billie Holiday - Official label site showcases her discography.
The Billie Holiday Circle - Fan club dedicated to the jazz singer.
http://dmoz.org/Arts/Music/Vocal/Singers/Jazz/H/Holiday,_Billie   (214 words)

  
 Amazon.co.uk: The Essential Billie Holiday [Box set]: Music
There are also tenderer moments, Holiday's love songs are some of the most moving you'll ever hear 'The man I love' and and 'I can't give you anything but love' are keynotes, but all the tracks on this box set have much to recommend them.
Customers who bought music by Billie Holiday also bought music by these artists:
Her voice cuts angrily through the song with an anguish which feels very potently real.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000077JRZ   (475 words)

  
 Billie Holiday
The Commodore Records were the first only-jazz label in the USA, created in 1938 by the legendary mid-Manhattan record store.
Lady Day or Lady of Pain, as she was called, recorded her greatest commercial successes with Commodore: Strange Fruit, the song about a victim of lynch-mob, and Fine and Mellow.
Besides these two tracks one can find on the CD Yesterdays, I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues - in contrast to its title a very joyful tune -, I Cover the Waterfront and As Time Goes By, a song well-known since Casablanca - of course not sung by Billie Holiday in the film.
http://www.cosmopolis.ch/english/cosmo5/billie.htm   (201 words)

  
 Jazz - Billie Holiday
Six of the nine CDs "The Quintessential Billie Holiday" covering all the Columbia work from 1933 to 1942
  My own Billie Holiday  record collection contains about 600 different recordings,  most of them on CD, some rare ones only on LP.
Both are very helpful when you want to verify facts about Billie's recordings. 
http://www.hanshekler.de/hh/jazz/jazz.html   (147 words)

  
 Billie Holiday - Love Songs
Yet that’s just a start—as is often the case on Holiday’s recordings, one uncovers a virtual who’s who of jazz.
To tell you the truth, I simply own too many Billie Holiday albums.
That brings us to Love Songs, a collection released by Legacy and part of an ongoing series that includes Duke Ellington, Johnny Mathis, Dave Brubeck and others.
http://www.porthalcyon.com/reviews/200501/billie.shtml   (345 words)

  
 Billie Holiday
Frank Sinatra paid tribute to Billie in 1958 stating that, "Billie Holiday was the greatest single musical influence on me and the most important influence on American popular singing in the last 20 years.
She began working with Benny and recorded her first song, "
Billie began singing at small speakeasies and clubs beginning in 1930 or 1931.
http://multirace.org/firstday/stamp34.htm   (451 words)

  
 Billie Holiday : Lady in Satin - Listen, Review and Buy at ARTISTdirect
Ellis' arrangements do not help, veering close to Muzak; most of this record is very difficult to listen to.
Billie Holiday : Lady in Satin - Listen, Review and Buy at ARTISTdirect
This is the most controversial of all Billie Holiday records.
http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,103054,00.html?src=search   (221 words)

  
 Glossary: Holiday, Billie
Inspired by her love of singing, she talked the manager of a club into letting her sing a few tunes with the house band - she made $57.00 in tips.
She was discovered by John Hammond, who organized her first recording session in 1933 with Benny Goodman.
The Billie Holiday home page has an excellent set of lyrics, a discography, and pointers to other Billie Holiday information
http://www.harbour.sfu.ca/~hayward/van/glossary/holiday.html   (251 words)

  
 Jerry Jazz Musician Billie Holiday
The song's powerful, evocative lyrics -- written by a Jewish communist schoolteacher who, late in life, adopted the children of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg -- portray the lynching of a black man in the South.
Six-plus discs chronologically present 151 masters, with the rest of the 10 CDs' space given to alternate takes and radio air checks.
Highly regarded biography, as told by jazz writer and musician, John Chilton...
http://www.jerryjazzmusician.com/portraits-single.cfm?CatalogName=holidaybillie   (1004 words)

  
 Billie Holiday
By the end of the 1930s she had sung in the bands of Count Basie and Artie Shaw, but life with a big band was too restrictive for her, and in 1938 she became a solo act.
Billie Holiday began singing in New York clubs as a teenager, and by the time she was old enough to drink legally she had established a reputation as a stirring jazz singer.
He arranged for her to appear with the best musicians of the day.
http://www.edwardsly.com/holidayb.htm   (804 words)

  
 WHAT'S MY STYLE — Billie Holiday
"Billie Holiday was, and still remains, the greatest single musical influence on me" -Frank Sinatra
While her Profile surely changed often through the span of her life, Holiday's ability to be completely absorbed by her music have the distinct mark of Evokateur Working while her strong need for independence and her passion indicate to us Realist Thinking.
Despite a lack of technical training, Holiday's unique diction, inimitable phrasing and dramatic intensity made her the most incredible jazz singer of her time.
http://personal.ansir.com/wms/billieholiday.htm   (605 words)

  
 Billie Holiday In Baltimore
Billie Holiday's Pennsylvania Avenue connection is commemorated by a rather grotesque larger-than-life statue between Lafayette and Lanvale Streets.
Conversely, while walking in the quiet of a Sunday afternoon it is impossible not to hear a sobbing baby or the clatter of plates being set wafting through open windows.
As a child, Billie Holiday shunted from relative to relative and moved frequently even when she was living with her mother.
http://www.victoriansecrets.net/billiebalto.html   (610 words)

  
 Billie Holiday biography
She poured her heart and soul into every song and her ability to interpret a song and make you feel it was unheard of.
While it is more commonplace today, Billie Holiday pioneered the style, and this is how she took ordinary 2nd-rate songs and made them extraordinary.
She endured a hard childhood -- her musician father left the family early, and her mother wasn't able to keep her consistently which resulted in Billie often being put in care or relatives who abused her.
http://airjudden.tripod.com/jazz/billieholiday.html   (656 words)

  
 Colored Reflections - The Fifties, Billie Holiday
She started to sing about lynching, the song, "Strange Fruit" became her signature song.
Billie was left with family members who mistreated her.
Billie "Lady Day" Holiday was one of the most famous jazz singers of the 20th century.
http://www.coloredreflections.com/decades/Decade.cfm?Dec=1&Typ=2&Sty=1&SID=20   (304 words)

  
 Today in History: April 7
Search the Today in History Archive on the terms singer or jazz to find more American Memory material on musical legends including Jelly Roll Morton, W.C. Handy, Ella Fitzgerald, and George Gershwin.
Although she had no formal musical training, she became one of the greatest jazz singers of all time, and her recordings are now regarded as masterpieces.
She made her professional singing debut in Harlem nightclubs in 1931, and made her first recordings in 1933.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/apr07.html   (604 words)

  
 The Golden Age of Jazz: Billie Holiday
In 1948, Billie Holiday was at her peak, musically and physically.
Ironically, her splendid condition was largely due to her having spent most of the previous year in a federal reformatory, serving time for the possession of narcotics.
I replaced my notebook in my pocket, put a lens cap on my camera, and walked away, choosing to remember this remarkable woman as she once was.
http://www.jazzphotos.com/stbillie.htm   (288 words)

  
 Billie Holiday (Reference)
Soon she was performing with big band leaders like Benny Goodman and Count Basie.
Nicknamed "Lady Day," Holiday became a popular musical legend and often used her tragic life as an inspiration for her music.
Billie always appeared in a white gown with a white gardenia in her hair.
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/african-americans/biography/4580.html   (230 words)

  
 BBC - Radio 3 Jazz Profiles - Billie Holiday
Few singers in jazz history had the ability to inject as much emotion into a song as Billie Holiday.
From her subtle changes in the melody and timing of a piece to her ability to inject sorrow, heartache, and also joy and enthusiasm into a lyric, she brought a unique, personal interpretation to dozens of songs.
BBC - Radio 3 Jazz Profiles - Billie Holiday
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/jazz/profiles/billie_holiday.shtml   (312 words)

  
 Malaspina Great Books - Billie Holiday (1915-1959)
She explained the sense of overpowering drama that featured in her songs, saying: "I've lived songs like that." Holiday's success was marred, however, by a growing dependence of drugs, alcohol&; and abusive relationships.
Once before an audience, she was transformed into "Lady Day" with the white gardenia in her hair.
For rare and hard to find works we recommend our Alibris list of titles about Billie Holiday.
http://www.malaspina.org/home.asp?topic=./search/details&lastpage=./search/results&ID=821   (448 words)

  
 Harlem Renaissance - Audio Gallery
Billie Holiday - Lover Man Oh Where Can You Be Billie Holiday
Here you will find links to all of the audio files used in the Harlem Renaissance site and to the pages they can be found on.
Billie Holiday - What Is This Thing Called Love
http://www.jcu.edu/harlem/Audio/Page_1.htm   (55 words)

  
 Billie Holiday.org - Billie Holiday.net
10 Discs - everything Billie recorded on Verve including
Eventually it will include fan reflections, discography, original art, and historical archives.
"Billie's Blues" by John Chilton and Buck Clayton
http://www.billieholiday.org   (121 words)

  
 English 253 Billie Holiday Page
To listen to the songs below, you need to have your browser configured to play MP3 files or have an MP3 player.
The author of this page takes no responsibility for any legal infringement that results from the downloading of these files.
For biography, discography, pictures and a full selection of Billie Holiday materials, go to the
http://cla.calpoly.edu/~smarx/courses/253/billie/billie.html   (173 words)

  
 The Austin Chronicle Music: Phases and Stages
Holiday later led her own sessions, returning periodically to record with Wilson's band, which for a time featured the tenor saxophonist with whom she would form a special bond, Lester Young.
The same morose side that created her most famous composition, "God Bless the Child," led to abusive relationships, addictions, and myriad legal problems that ultimately consumed her.
Lady Day spares us the pain that haunts Holiday's later work, and instead presents a singer at the peak of her powers, one that captivated the world in a way few entertainers ever have.
http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2001-12-07/music_phases.html   (540 words)

  
 St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture: Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday, certainly one of the foremost American song stylists and often called the greatest American jazz singer&; was born Eleanora Harris on April 7, 1915 in Philadelphia.
The truth about her life is as interesting, if not more so, than her invention--recent biographers benefitted from extensive oral interviews done for a projected biography by Linda Kuehl (who died before completing it).
What was painful to Billie was often transformed in the narrative; the circumstances of her birth being a good example.
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g1epc/is_bio/ai_2419200555   (224 words)

  
 Billie Holiday: Tutte le informazioni su Billie Holiday su Encyclopedia.it
Tra le canzoni più famose del repertorio di Billie Holiday ricordiamo God Bless the Child (da lei composta), I Love You Porgy e The Man I Love di George Gershwin, Fine and mellow, Strange fruit.
Billie Holiday: Tutte le informazioni su Billie Holiday su Encyclopedia.it
Alla fine degli anni Ottanta, gli U2 le dedicarono la struggente Angel of Harlem: "Lady Day got diamond eyes, she sees the truth behind the lies" (Lady Day ha occhi di diamante, vede la verità dietro le bugie).
http://www.encyclopedia.it/b/bi/billie_holiday.html   (466 words)

  
 Tower Records - Billie Holiday's Greatest Hits (Decca) - Billie Holiday
Holiday was a full-fledged star by the time she came to Decca, with the youthful exuberance and light vocal approach of the 1930's behind her.
Holiday produced some of her best-known work during her tenure with Decca in the '40s.
While there are a few missteps in arrangement (namely the choral intro to "God Bless The Child"), classic takes of "Good Morning, Heartache" and "Lover Man" are beyond criticism, standing as perfect examples of this jazz legend's art.
http://www.towerrecords.com/product.aspx?pfid=1116964   (309 words)

  
 Billie Holiday - Presenting Billie Holiday
The legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday had as distinguished and illustrious career as she had a painful and inglorious demise.
PRESENTING BILLIE HOLIDAY is a collection of 3 rare performances culled from recently discovered archives.
In addition, some of Billie's most personal items--letters, unpublished lyrics, birth and death certificates, cancelled checks, shopping lists, and more--are included.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/billie_holiday_presenting_billie_holiday/about.php   (322 words)

  
 Billie Holiday
I intended to create a contrast between the glamour of being a singer and the pain that is overlooked of being a celebrity.
The sketch was more less based on a picture of Billie Holiday singing.
This tribute to Billie Holiday might be seen as a bit biting, but I see as accepting all of Billie Holiday.
http://home.earthlink.net/~crawley/gallery/computer/billie.html   (236 words)

  
 Peninsula CatWorks - Billie Holiday
Billie is a delicate beauty with fur as soft as a rabbit's and a lovely, gentle personality.
She would love to be the apple of your eye, either as an only kitty or with other friendly animals (she even likes her foster dog).
This cat needs a home with no young children
http://www.peninsulacatworks.org/adoption/profile.php?id=445   (100 words)

  
 Billie Holiday
Now, Legacy Recordings has captured all three dominant feelings of jazz in a new series, Jazz Moods, featuring 12 of the most important improvising artists of the past half century, including Billie Holiday, Dave Brubeck, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, and Thelonious Monk.
http://billie-holiday.net/main.html   (77 words)

  
 The Billie Holiday Theatre
The Theatre is the original New York producer of many hit shows, including LOTTO; INACENT BLACK AND THE FIVE BROTHERS, which went on to Broadway and starred Melba Moore; ONE MONKEY DON'T STOP NO SHOW, which toured nationally with Kim Fields and Ted Lange and the musical, OVER FORTY.
The "Billies" is a mostly fun but partly serious poll that gives our valued audience a chance to talk to us.
Serving some 30,000 people annually for more than 30 years, the AUDELCO and Obie award-winning Billie Holiday Theatre has garnered a well-earned reputation for providing outstanding professional theater productions at affordable prices.
http://www.thebillieholiday.org   (533 words)

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