Billie Holiday. Photographed by Phil Stern. (1955)
This Day in Jazz: Vocalist Billie Holiday records “I’ll Never Be The Same” on June 1, 1937 with a band led by pianist Teddy Wilson, including tenor saxophonist Lester Young.
Billie Holiday singing “Fine & Mellow,” accompanied by Cozy Cole on drums, James P. Johnson at piano, and other unidentified musicians during a jam session, 1943.
1. Young Volcanoes - Fall Out Boy 2. Renegades - X Ambassadors 3. Irresponsible - Voltaire 4. Let’s Spend The Night Together - The Rolling Stones 5. I’m On Fire - Bruce Springsteen 6. Reckless - Alabama 7. Thrill Seeker - Warrior Soul 8. Run This Town - Jay Z & Rihanna 9. Fly Away From Here - Aerosmith 10. Thrill Seeker - Aurea 11. Ring Of Fire - Johnny Cash 12. Uprising - Muse 13. Play With Fire - The Rolling Stones 14. The Pursuit Of Happiness - Kid Cudi 15. Reckless - Papa Roach 16. Playing The Field - Billie Holiday 17. Movers And Shakers - The Clash 18. Cocky - Tilian 19. Ladies Man - Hank Snow 20. My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark - Fall Out Boy
Lady Writes The Blues: Billie Holiday’s Singing and Songwriting Artistry (LISTEN)
Lady Writes The Blues: Billie Holiday’s Singing and Songwriting Artistry (LISTEN)
[Billie Holiday, from March 23, 1949. Photographer: Carl Van Vechten. from the Yale University Archives at Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library] by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson) In continued celebration of #JazzAppreciationMonth, today we drop in on Billie Holiday, the singer and artist who not only influenced peers and progeny alike with her innovative interpretation of and…
Celebrating Jazz Piano Virtuoso Oscar Peterson for #JazzAppreciationMonth (LISTEN)
by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson) In continued celebration of #JazzAppreciationMonth, today we drop in on virtuoso pianist Oscar Peterson, who hailed from Canada, composed the de facto Civil Rights Movement anthem “Hymn to Freedom,” and was dubbed the “Maharaja of the Keyboard” by none other than fellow piano master Duke Ellington. To read about Peterson, read on. To hear about him,…
Billie Holiday on the cover of her album, Lady in Satin. It was the last album released in her lifetime. Last Recording (originally and simply titled, Billie Holiday) was released shortly after her death.
“Later, you’ll open your vanity case and take a trip on the light fantastic—but right at this moment you’re grateful for your little dog. You did have a huge great dog, a while back, but she was always knocking glasses off the side tables, and then she went and died on you, so now you got this tiny little angel. Pepi. A dog don’t cheat, a dog don’t lie. Dogs remind you of you: they give everything they’ve got, they’re wide open to the world. It’s a big risk! There are people out there who’ll kick a little half-pint dog like Pepi just for something to do. And you know how that feels. This little dog and you? Soul mates. Where you been all my life? He’s like those dogs you read about, that sit on their master’s grave for years and years and years. Recently, you had a preview of this. You were up in the stratosphere, with no body at all, floating, almost right there with God, you were hanging off the pearly gates, and nobody and nothing could make you come back. Some fool slapped you, some other fool sprayed seltzer in your face—nothing. Then this little angel of a dog licked you right in your eye socket and you came straight back to earth just to feel it, and three hours after that you were on a stage, getting paid. Dogs are too good for this world.”
Continuing the celebration of the photographer’s birthday today, a selection of Carl Van Vechten’s brilliant color portraits of African American performers: Billie Holiday, Geoffrey Holder, Pearl Bailey, Carmen De Lavallade, Ella Fitzgerald, Joyce Bryant, Harry Belafonte, Ethel Waters, James Earl Jones, and Blanche Dunn.
“I saw the whole world in that face. All of the beauty and all of the misery.” From the documentary Billie(2020).
Born on this day: tormented but resilient jazz diva Billie Holiday(née Eleanora Fagan, 7 April 1915 – 17 July 1959). All these decades later Lady Day’s hauntingly soulful voice still incites goosebumps. My favourite songs of hers will always be “I’m a Fool to Want You” and “Don’t Explain.”
