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Born in Philadelphia and raised in Baltimore, Billie Holiday's early life is
fairly obscure. Clarence Holiday, her father, was a guitarist and banjoist who
played with Fletcher Henderson among others. Billie's father abandoned the
family early, and refused to acknowledge his daughter until her later success.
She first heard Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith records while doing odd-jobs at
a Baltimore brothel. Known as Eleanora during childhood, she eventually took the
nickname Billie.
In 1929, Holiday moved to New York to join her mother who was already living
there. Billie was recruited by a brothel and subsequently jailed for
prostitution. After 1930, she began singing in a small club in Brooklyn. A year
later, she moved to the Harlem club Pods' and Jerry's. It was in Harlem, while
singing in the club Monette's, that she was discovered by producer and talent
scout John Hammond.
Hammond arranged three recording sessions for Billie with Benny Goodman. Hammond
also got her gigs in New York clubs. In November 1934, she made her first
successful appearance at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. In 1935 Hammond began
recording Holiday under the direction of pianist Teddy Wilson. Wilson's studio
bands included many of the finest jazz musicians of the day, including tenor
saxophonist Lester Young. Young would give her the nickname, 'Lady Day.'
While Holiday's records were marketed to African-Americans, they became popular
with musicians throughout the nation. In 1937, she joined Count Basie's band and
the next year she performed with Artie Shaw. In 1939, Billie began a famous
engagement at the Cafe Society in Greenwich Village that was fashionable with
downtown intellectuals. She recorded a string of distinctive hits: " Strange
Fruit"
described a lynching, " God Bless the Child" celebrated financial
independence.
Although a popular star by the end of the 1940s, her public success was
accompanied by increasing personal tragedy. She began using hard drugs in the
early 1940s and, after a highly publicized trial, was jailed in 1947. She had
associations with abusive, destructive men, and she drank heavily. As her health
deteriorated, so did her voice. Billie wasted most of the substantial money she
had made singing. While she continued to sing, record, and tour, her abilities
declined significantly.
Billie Holiday made her final appearance in New York in June 1959. Many consider
Holiday the most important and influential female singer in jazz history.
Although not trained musically, she had an excellent ear and approached singing
like an instrumentalist. Her distinctive phrasing was intensified by a sense of
drama, perhaps rooted in her personal struggles.
Billie Holiday appeared in the 1946 film " New Orleans" with Louis Armstrong and
Kid Ory. Holiday also made a stirring performance on the famous television show
"
The Sound of Jazz" in 1957.
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