Billie Holiday: biography, best songs, interesting facts, listen

Billie Holiday

Lady Gardenia ... Such a beautiful poetic and gentle name was called by enthusiastic fans of their idol - the legendary jazz and blues singer Billie Holiday. The romantic beauty, traditionally stepping on the stage with a clip of white flowers, already fascinated the listeners with the first sounds of her songs, as if she had a hypnotic effect on them. The history of jazz knows a lot of talented performers with magnificent and brightest voices, but it was believed that only "Lady Day", as her friends called her, could so soulfully, excitingly, the heart and soul to perform their compositions. The singer gave them personal feelings, so she had the reputation of being the most honest jazz singer. A little bit hoarse, but at the same time inimitable voice of Billie Holiday turned cheap songs into unique masterpieces that sound like real confession. She had a lot of fans, and critics admired her work, despite the fact that it was perceived as quite revolutionary at that time, because the singer was able to skillfully combine the traditional performance of Negro blues and instrumental swing, brightening all this with very bright emotionality.

short biography

April 7, 1915 in Baltimore, a girl was born, which the whole world later learned as Billie Holiday. The girl’s real name was Eleanor Fagan. She was the fruit of transient love, her parents Sadie Fagan and Clarence Holiday came together in early adolescence and were not married to each other. Thirteen-year-old Sadie, who worked as a maid in a white family home, lost her job due to pregnancy, and in order to give birth under normal conditions, she asked for a hospital to clean the floors for free and care for the sick. After some time, after the birth of her daughter, Sadie left the child, left the slums of Baltimore and moved to New York to stay away from parental moralizing. The girl's father also disappeared from the life of her daughter, not even giving her his name.

The girl did not know the maternal care as a child: she remained in the care of heartless relatives. The only person with affection for the little Nora was her great-grandmother, whose sad story also deserves special attention. Great-grandmother was a black slave and mistress of her master, a planter-slave owner, originally from Ireland. As a result of this connection, seventeen children were born, one of them was the grandfather of little Nora.

The girl loved her old grandmother very much and often, they hugged each other and slept in the same bed. One night the old woman died in a dream, and in the morning Nora barely freed her grandmother from her numb embrace. After such a shock, the girl went to the hospital with a nervous breakdown. Eleanor's childhood can not even be called difficult, it was terrible. The girl never played dolls, she was severely punished for no reason, and at the age of six she was forced to work. From injustice and humiliation Eleanor often ran away from home. Her main habitat was the street, here she knew life. For school absenteeism and vagrancy, a girl was nine years old assigned to a black correctional institution run by Catholic nuns. By judicial decision, Eleanor was to stay there until her majority and leave from there at the age of 21. In this school, the girl was not beaten for misdemeanors, but her obstinate character was cruelly morally suppressed.

Once it was closed for the night in a room with a dead man. At the next meeting with her mother, after serving time in the punishment cell, Eleonora warned that she would not withstand such conditions and most likely they will not see again. The mother, from whom teenage frivolity had already disappeared, having heard such words, used the help of friends: she hired a lawyer and pulled her daughter out of the correctional colony. Having gained her freedom, Eleonora, a ten-year-old, in order to somehow help her mother earn money for a piece of bread, began to hire floor and stairs in just a few cents. Among her employers was the owner of a brothel, in which the girl for the first time heard gramophone records of blues compositions played by Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith. This music made such a strong impression on the girl that she made a deal with the hostess: she washes floors for free, but for that she listens to music without any restrictions. At about the same time, Eleanor had been quietly getting into the cinema, where films were shown with Billy Dove. The actress charmed the girl to such an extent that she subsequently took a pseudonym with the name Billy, especially since the name Eleanor simply enraged her.

A more or less quiet life did not last long; on one of the Christmas evenings, a misfortune happened to Nora: a forty-year-old neighbor tried to expose her to violence. The police who came to the rescue in time, which was caused by the girl's mother, took both the rapist and the victim. The villain subsequently received five years in prison, and the victim was again sent to a correctional institution for allegedly provoking a man with temptation.

New York

Two years later, the girl left the colony and went to New York, where her mother again went in search of a better life. They could not live together, because Sadie worked as a nanny and lived in the house of her masters. For Nora had to rent an apartment. It turned out that the hostess kept a den in the house. And after a few days Nora was among the girls involved in the "ancient profession." Some time later, after a police raid, Eleanor was arrested and again appeared before a judge. This time she went to prison for four months.

After her release, Nora found her mother seriously ill. The financial situation was deplorable, all accumulated savings were spent on treatment. There was no money not only to pay for the apartment, but also for bread. Everything changed one evening, when Nora, in search of work, began to bypass all the shops and bars in her way. Going to another club, she asked the owner about the work. When asked what she could do, the girl replied that she could dance. After the first movements, with which Nora wanted to depict a step, the owner called her a liar, but he immediately asked if she could sing. The pianist began to play the melody of a popular song, and Nora sang. Visitors to the club stopped talking, left their drinks and began to approach the young singer closer. The first song followed the cheers of the visitors following the next. The result of this spontaneous performance was the praise of the owner of the club who offered the work, and eighteen dollars left by grateful listeners. Nora at that time was only fourteen years old - the age from which her creative career began.

The first vocal universities of the young singer, who took the pseudonym Billie Holiday, took place on the small stages of nightclubs, which at that time were very popular. In one of these establishments, Holiday in 1933 met John Hammond, then a young producer at the beginning. Hammond, having heard Billy singing, was so impressed by her performance that he soon wrote a small eulogy about a young singer in one of the fashion magazines, which attracted the attention of society to her work. John, who became the first producer of Holiday, introduces her to the "King of Swing" Benny goodman, and in the fall of 1933, Billy, together with a small instrumental group under the management of an outstanding jazzman, recorded a couple of singles, one of them instantly becoming popular. In 1934, Billy continued to work not only with the Goodman team, but also with other ensembles, making his way onto the stage of prestigious concert halls such as the Apollo Theater, where she debuted in 1935. At the same time, D. Hammond again builds projects to draw attention to the singer's work and organizes Billy studio recording, which invites the talented pianist - "black star" Teddy Wilson and wonderful saxophonist Lester Young, who later became a great friend of the singer. Because of these studio recordings, which were intended to be played on jukeboxes, usually installed in bars and clubs, Holiday has grown in popularity. Himself Duke Ellington, drawing attention to the young singer, offered her to play in the short film "Symphony in Black".

The next stage in the life of the singer is marked by active touring activities. First, Billy traveled with groups of D. Lanceford and F. Henderson, and then with the big band of Count Basie himself, unwittingly becoming a rival to his future friend Ella Fitzgerald. Holiday collaborated with Basie because of the obstinate nature of the singer did not last more than a year, but she was not rested for a long time after her dismissal: less than a month later, Billy became the soloist of the “white orchestra” conducted by famous clarinetist Artie Shaw. At first, her affairs in this group went well, her colleagues and the head of the orchestra treated her with great respect, but then a rift arose because of humiliating situations on the basis of racial discrimination. For example, during the touring tours (this was especially evident in the southern regions of the United States) there were such concert venues where the organizers forbade Billy to go on stage, and she spent the whole concert sitting on the bus. Unable to withstand such humiliation, Holiday leaves the orchestra of Artie Shaw, but, thanks to the support of Hammond, once again becoming in demand.

The producer introduces the singer to Barney Josephson, who, having gone to a desperate experiment, opened a cafe, where the audience gathered with different skin color. This institution quickly gained popularity, as it was famous for visiting movie stars, famous artists and representatives of high society. Speaking in this cafe, Billy spread the music of the “blacks” among the broad masses and became famous among rich and influential people. At the same time, she continues to record various musical compositions, among which was the piercing song "Strange fruits", which later became the singer's calling card. In the early 40s, Holiday's creative career was in its prime. The songs performed by her sounded from jukeboxes and on the radio. Such singer very actively worked with such major recording companies as Columbia, Brunswick, and a little later and Decca. In 1944, she successfully performed a solo concert at the New York Metropolitan Opera, in 1947 at the Town Hall, in 1948 she was honored to sing from the prestigious Carnegie Hall, and in 1947 Louis Armstrong invited Holiday to play in a small role in the film "New Orleans". However, it was at this time that one after another, personal problems arose. Billy got married very badly several times. Despite her fabulous income of $ 2,000 a week, she never had any money: everything was spent on alcohol and drugs.

The biggest shock for Holiday was the death of the person most dear and close to her - the mother. This loss greatly undermined Billy's nervous system, which she calmed with the help of a strong deadly dope. The singer hated herself for this weakness, but she could not do anything about it.

In the end, she made a desperate decision and voluntarily sought treatment at a private clinic. While in the hospital, Billy came under police sights from the department for combating drugs, which established her constant surveillance, and as a result, Holiday went to prison for possession of prohibited substances for several months. After the end of the term of imprisonment, the power of her beloved New York gave the singer an unpleasant "surprise": Billy was forbidden to perform in all establishments where alcohol was sold, and it was these clubs that were the source of the singer’s main earnings.

In the 50s, the health of Holiday due to various kinds of abuse was severely undermined, her voice was losing its former beauty, but despite this, the singer continued to actively perform and record. She signed a contract with jazz entrepreneur Norman Granz, the owner of several well-known record labels. At the same time, the popularity of Billy has greatly increased as a result of the triumphal tour that she made in Europe in 1954, and also because of the book entitled Lady Sings the Blues published in 1956. In this autobiographical edition of the singer with priukraskoy told about his life path, adding a few interesting moments that brought her even greater fame. In 1956, Holiday again sensationally performed at the famous Carnegie Hall. The concert was a great success, not only listeners were delighted, but also musicians who applauded her while standing. In 1958, the singer recorded her final album "Lady in Satin". This was followed by a failed European tour. In May 1959, Billy gave his last concert, and at the end of the month in a state of coma enters the hospital, where, according to an official medical opinion, she died from an overdose of narcotic substances on July 17, 1959 at the age of 44.

Interesting Facts

• Billie Holiday suffered from racial discrimination. For example, during one of the tours with Kaunt Basie's group, the impresario of the Detroit Concert Hall considered the singer insufficiently "black" (Irish ancestors), because if the light falls on her somehow wrong, the listeners might think that the white girl sings with a black orchestra, and this would have caused incredible indignation. Billy reluctantly had to obey and make up his face with black paint, otherwise the concert would have been frustrated, and the musicians would not have received money.

• From racial segregation, Billie Holiday suffered in a different manner. During a tour of the United States with an Artie Shaw band, in which only “white” musicians played, Billy was often humiliated because of her dark skin: the singer was not allowed to go to cafes and public toilets, and also did not provide hotel rooms intended only for "white" people. Instead of passenger elevators she had to use freight.
• From an early age, Billy suffered from injustice, for example, the girl was punished for writing in the bed that she had to sleep with her cousins ​​and brother every night. And even after Billy managed to prove his innocence (she persuaded her sister to sleep on the floor one night and catch her brother), the girl still got from her aunt “by the first number”: her brother was weak and he had to be sorry. In the future, the “little brother” became a boxer and then a priest.
• One time, preparing for the concert, Billi Holiday, with tongs, burned a strand of hair. In order to somehow fix the spoiled hair, she stuck gardenia into her hair. Since then, the flowers of this plant constantly decorated the image of the singer, became her trademark and talisman.
• Admirers affectionately called Billie Holiday "Lady Gardenia". Once before the concert, one of the admirers sent a box with her favorite flowers to the singer. Hurrying Holiday so carelessly attached gardenia, that pin hurt his head. During the concert, Billy began to pour blood on her neck and dress, the musicians who saw it were horrified. Having finished singing the last song, after the curtain closed, the singer began to lose consciousness.

• At the beginning of her creative career, Billie Holiday’s fees were very low, for example, she received only $ 35 for a week of club performances. Therefore, Kaunt Basie’s proposal to earn extra money on a tour of America, in which the singer was paid $ 14 a day, she gladly agreed. However, due to unreasonable expenses during the tour she traveled home with a few cents in her wallet, constantly thinking about how she would make excuses to her mother. Out of despair, Billy decides to play the bones with the musicians of the orchestra for money. The result of such enterprise was one and a half thousand dollars.
• Billie Holiday loved her mother, who was for her the most intimate and trusting person. Once, while on a touring trip, the singer seemed as if a mother had approached her from behind. A few hours later, Billy received a message that her mother died at that very time.
• Father Billie Holiday dreamed of becoming a trumpeter, but after being called into war with Germany in Europe, he damaged his lungs during the German gas attack. However, the desire to be a musician prevailed, he quickly retrained, learning how to play guitar, and subsequently even appeared in the orchestra of the outstanding Fletcher Hendorson. Billy met with her father when her creative career was in full bloom, but never invited him to participate in their studio recordings.
• The record companies on the Billie Holiday songs earned millions, while she was paid only $ 75 to record a double-sided disc, and this fee did not change for a long time. Только по истечении пятнадцати лет с начала работы с записывающими лейблами, певица узнала, что ей положены были авторские отчисления и процент от выручки с продаж пластинок.
• Билли Холидей обладала достаточно своевольным и резким характером, что довольно часто мешало её творческой карьере. Например, она могла запросто не придти на репетицию или отказаться петь ту или композицию, которую предлагал дирижёр. Предполагают, что именно из-за этого она прекратила свою работу с Каунтом Бейси, который всегда требовал от музыкантов дисциплины и неукоснительного выполнения его распоряжений.
• Billie Holiday had a good friend with whom she was associated not only with comradely feelings, but, unfortunately, by the will of fate, they could not be together. The friend was Lester Young, he was a very talented saxophonist working in the Count Basie Orchestra. Delighted with the elegance of the singer, he affectionately called her "Lady Day", a nickname that subsequently became very firmly attached to Billy. In retaliation, Holiday called him "President of the Saxophone", and in short, simply "Prez." This name is also firmly stuck to an outstanding musician.
• Billie Holiday was the first African-American female artist to be honored to perform in the Metropolitan Opera.

• Even during the life of the singer in 1956, an autobiographical book of Billie Holiday called "The Lady Sings the Blues" was published, which the singer wrote in collaboration with journalist and writer William Dafty. The content was very embellished and did not always truthfully reflect certain moments in the singer's life. Sensational material and commercial success - that was the most important thing in this edition. In 1972, based on this book, the film was shot, in which the main role was played by the popular American singer and actress Diana Ross.

Creation

Creativity Billie Holiday - this is a special and very interesting page in the history of jazz vocals. She managed mediocre, unremarkable songs like reinventing and transforming them into masterpieces, which had a unique brilliance and a certain energy. The famous, but at the same time, unusual manner of performance of the singer was based on vocal improvisation. The melodic line of her compositions was completely free and did not submit to strong beats of tact. Such free phrasing, which could not be better demonstrates the indomitable character of Lady Day, was the corporate style that she borrowed from wind jazz musicians such as B. Goodman (clarinet), L. Young (tenor saxophone), B. Clayton ( trumpet), B. Webster (tenor saxophone), C. Berry (tenor saxophone), R. Eldridge (trumpet), D. Hodges (alto saxophone).

Billie Holiday did not have a strong voice and a large vocal range, like other jazz performers, such as Ella Fitzgerald. But her singing, based on personal feelings, filled with shrill drama, made the singer one of the most popular performers of jazz music.

Best songs

During her career, Billie Holiday collaborated with many well-known recording companies, so she left a rather significant creative legacy for her descendants, which includes 187 songs, many of them became hits and were among the ten most popular tracks. Here are some of them:

"Lover Man" - a very touching song recorded in 1944 and subsequently becoming a hit, on the initiative of the singer was very interestingly decorated with the sound of violin instruments. In 1989, the composition was awarded an introduction to the Grammy Hall of Fame.

"Lover Man" (listen)

"God Bless the Child" - the song, written by the singer herself after a quarrel with her mother, appeared in the repertoire of Holiday in 1941 and immediately gained popularity, but the composition was added to the Grammy Hall of Fame only in 1976.

"God Bless the Child" (listen)

"Riffin 'the Scotch" - this is a song related to second-rate melodies, recorded by the singer in 1933, accompanied by a group led by Benny Goodman, instantly became a hit, because in the emotional performance of Holiday she sounded quite differently: passionately and confidentially.

"Riffin 'the Scotch" (listen)

"Crazy He Calls Me" - the composition recorded by Holiday in 1949 is today the jazz standard included in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2010.

"Crazy He Calls Me" (listen)

"Strange fruits"

Billie Holiday has always suffered greatly from the racial injustice that existed in the United States, and especially in the southern part of the country. Billy had a dark skin color, and therefore the American reality gave her many reasons to feel very disadvantaged. The singer, who has a heightened sense of dignity, was greatly impressed by the poems of a Jewish teacher with the communist views of Abel Miropol, who, fearing persecution, took the pseudonym Alan Lewis. In the poetic narration of the author called “Strange fruits” it was bitterly told about the unfortunate Negroes who had been lynched for their wrongdoings - execution without trial and investigation, usually by hanging. Billy, who took this work with particular pain, decided to turn it into a mournful ballad and composed a melody for the verses, which, in combination with her voice and manner of performance, produced a very strong effect on the listeners. There were problems with the recording of the composition, as the major labels refused to implement it due to the sharpness of the text content. Then Billy agreed with one independent record company, and the song, which subsequently gained great popularity and how the anthem was perceived by black Americans, was presented to a wide audience.

Personal life

As much as Billie Holiday was talented, her personal life was full of disappointments, for some reason, female happiness avoided her. The singer was constantly attracted by not very worthy gentlemen. The first husband of Billy was the owner of the night club of Harlem (one of the districts of New York), Jimmy Monroe. This marriage did not last long, but became fatal, since this “husband” was addicted to the constant use of narcotic drugs by Billy.

The second husband of singer Joe Guy is a trumpeter who traded in drug trafficking and hoisted Holiday on the igloo. Acquired dependence was the beginning of the fateful end of the singer.

The singer's third husband was John Levy. At first, Billy thought that happiness, finally, she smiled, and she went to heaven on earth. Levy was the owner of one of the most popular clubs in New York - "Ebony". He helped Billy, after another prison jail, return the license for performances in New York clubs, filled up Holiday with gifts: jewelry, dresses, fur coats and even bought a chic apartment, but he did not give her a penny. It took a little time, and Levy’s whole vile essence crawled out: he began to beat and publicly humiliate Billy. And later, she learned that he was a southerner and a police informer, who later surrendered her to the servants of the law. After the next release, Holiday decided to get rid of her nasty husband, but it was not so easy to do, because the singer was actually the property of Levy because of the cleverly drafted contract. However, having a masterful character, Billy decided to escape and she succeeded.

The fourth and last husband of Holiday was her concert manager, petty mafia Luis MacKay - a disgusting type who constantly pumped Billy with drugs, took everything she earned and brutally beat from the singer. McKay himself treacherously escaped from Holiday after the failure of his tour of Europe, but after the death of the singer brazenly received the interest due Billy from the sold records.

Singer and her "Mister"

There is one more important moment in the tragic fate of Billie Holiday, which simply cannot be ignored - she loved dogs very much. Billy at different times were pets of different breeds: poodle, Chihuahua, Great Dane, beagle, terrier, even a pooch, and she treated everyone with love and great attention, considering them to be her true friends. Those no less favorite favorites of the singer was a boxer named "Mister." The dog accompanied the singer everywhere: she walked with him in the evening New York, took with her on the recordings and concerts, he and the mistress were allowed even to the bars. Billy knitted him sweaters and sang songs for him, and when in 1947 the singer was again arrested they had to leave for a whole year, Holiday was very worried that Mister would forget her, but the faithful dog remembered and waited for its owner. This is a story about true devotion, loyalty and love! The singer has always dreamed of only one thing: that she would have a big house somewhere in the village, in which many children and dogs would live.

Awards

Billie Holiday was highly respected not only by its fans, but also by critics. However, according to surveys of listeners - readers of fashionable music magazines, she usually did not rise higher than second place, although the popular magazine "Esquire Magazine" awarded the singer gold in 1944 and 1947, and in 1945 and 1946 the silver prize as ". The singer many times was awarded various honors, awards and awards, but, unfortunately, some of them were awarded to her only after her death. Among them:

• Grammy Awards Hall of Fame - 1976; 1978; 1979; 1989; 2000; 2005; 2010;
• "Grammy Award for Life Achievement" - 1987,
• "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame" - 2000;
• Jazz Hall of Fame - 2004;
• "National Hall of Fame Women of the United States" - 2011.

Billie Holiday is a great American singer, whose work has left an indelible mark on the history of jazz art. She was not just a singer, but a real artist, who greatly influenced her universal approach to music, tireless ingenuity and brilliant technique of performance for many vocal performers of this genre. She was loved by the audience. They called it the “Queen of Jazz and Blues”, and it became not only for her contemporaries, but also for subsequent generations, considerable interest is shown in the singer’s work even nowadays, and her discs are constantly reissued using great popularity.