Search results
Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday made a significant contribution to jazz music and pop singing.
- She Gave Herself The Name Billie After A Silent Movie Star
- Louis Armstrong Was Among Holiday's Early Influences
- She Got The Nickname 'Lady Day' from Saxophonist Lester Young
- "Strange Fruit" Was One of Her Biggest and Most Controversial Hits
- Holiday's Life Inspired Her Art
- Holiday Wrestled with Her Addictions Until The Very End
Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan, though some sources say the name on her birth certificate was "Elinore Harris." Her parents, Sadie Fagan and Clarence Holiday, were both teenagers when she was born, and her musician father took off when she was still a baby. That strained relationship didn't stop her from borrowing his last name when she became a p...
As a child, she even took a job doing chores and running errands for a local madam in exchange for a chance to play records on the madam's Victrola. Holiday later got a chance to work with Louis Armstrong with the two of them starring in the 1947 musical New Orleans.
Holiday returned the favor, choosing to rename him "Pres" (or "Prez" depending on the source). The nickname was short for president of the saxophone, according to Donald Clarke's Billie Holiday: Wishing on the Moon. The pair became friends in the mid-1930s and later toured together with Count Basie. They also recorded together on a number of differ...
The song's lyrics came from a poem written by Abel Meeropol, a teacher and social activist. He was inspired to write it after seeing a photograph of a lynching. The image so deeply disturbed him that he penned the poem in protest of racial violence. Meeropol later set the poem to music, and the resulting song found its way to Holiday. She started p...
She wrote the lyrics for her much-beloved work "God Bless the Child" after a fight with her mother about money, according to Holiday's autobiography. Holiday worked with Arthur Herzog Jr. on this tune and several others, including "Don't Explain." The phrase "Don't Explain" is what Holiday uttered to her first husband, Jimmy Monroe, when he came ho...
According to several reports, she started using heroin in the early 1940s during her marriage to Monroe. She was arrested on drug charges in 1947 and ended up spending months in jail for possession. Two years later, Holiday was once again caught with drugs by the police. By the 1950s, Holiday's battle with drugs and alcohol was taking its toll on h...
May 30, 2024 · Her recordings between 1936 and 1942 marked her peak years. During that period she was often associated with saxophonist Lester Young, who gave her the nickname “Lady Day.”. Billie Holiday. Billie Holiday, 1947. In 1947 Holiday was arrested for a narcotics violation and spent a year in a rehabilitation centre.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Billie Holiday was one of the greatest jazz singers from the 1930s to the ’50s. She had no formal musical training, but, with an instinctive sense...
- As a singer, Holiday was known for her dramatic intensity, which could render the most banal lyric profound. Among the songs identified with her we...
- Holiday began her career singing in a Harlem nightclub and made her first recordings in 1933, with Benny Goodman and others. Two years later a seri...
Apr 3, 2014 · Around this time, Holiday met and befriended saxophonist Lester Young, who was part of Count Basie's orchestra on and off for years. He even lived with Holiday and her mother Sadie for a...
Holiday's relationship with Basie's star tenor saxophonist Lester Young (1909–1959) is the stuff of legend. They were great musical coworkers and great friends for life. Young named her "Lady Day" (or simply "Lady"), and that title became her jazz world name from the mid-1930s on.
Jun 16, 2007 · Her recording, “Riffin’ the Scotch,” sold five thousand copies and by 1935, Holiday had signed with Brunswick Records. She teamed with Bandleader Teddy Wilson and produced a number of jazz hits. She also reconnected with jazz saxophonist Lester Young, whom she first met in 1934.
People also ask
When did Billie Holiday become a saxophonist?
Why did Billie Holiday rename his saxophone Pres?
Who was Annie holiday's saxophonist Lester Young?
Was Billie Holiday a good singer?
Jun 8, 2006 · June 8, 2006. Considered by many to be the greatest jazz vocalist of all time, Billie Holiday lived a tempestuous and difficult life. Her singing expressed an incredible depth of emotion that...
