Katrina L. Lloyd Grace Schwanda MUS LIS 110 12 December, 2013
MUSICAL HERITAGE OF BILLIE HOLIDAY
Katrina L. Lloyd Grace Schwanda MUS LIS 110 12 December, 2013
As a child growing up many musical genres played on the sound track to my life .My Dad was a huge music fan and he always had music playing Motown, the Bee Gees, Marvin Gay, The Carpenters, Johnny Mathis , and of course Billie Holiday. Hearing this type of music, I'm sure influenced my taste in music as I grew up and helped cultivate my musical heritage. I recall spending a lot of time with my God mother in the summers and hearing this magical voice on her record player. I would think to myself this woman sounds so sad, why is she so unhappy? As I grew older and the music of my childhood continued to play I begin to recognize some of the sadness this women was singing about .The phenomenon we call Billie Holiday sang with such passion that I was drawn to her. As a youngster I watched the movie "Lady Sings The Blues" with my God mother and I could see more explanations of why this beautiful talented women could sing those songs with such intent and feeling. Her life was from the beginning to the end was not very ideal. Her life was filled with many challenges and her experiences were reflected in her musical style and delivery. Many of her demons she invited into her own life not really realizing the danger and destruction these behaviors would manifest in her short life. Despite all of the negative things that followed Billie Holiday’s life she, was still able to achieve greatness in the world of Jazz and beyond. Her musical influence can be seen in the work of many artists that followed behind her .This body of work will carry you through her early childhood through her adult life. We will visit the experiences that lead her into the laid back and hazy world of jazz entertainment.
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Eleanora Fagan Gough was born April 7, 1915 in Philadelphia, PA to an unwed 13
year old mother and a 15 year old dad. Eleanora was oldest of 3 children which included a younger sister and brother .The beginning of her life was a perfect indication of the trouble she would find in her later years which greatly influenced the star she was to become, which was more of a necessity than an aspiration. She came from very modest and humble beginnings. Her mother was a housekeeper and cook for most of her life always struggling to take care of her family the very best she could on her own. Eleanora’s stepfather who entered their lives when she was a small girl around 8 or 9 years old and he helped raise her and her siblings. Eleanora’s biological father was said to be a jazz singer named Clarence Holiday of whom she didn’t meet until she was a young adult. It was not until her early adult years that she started using his last name which she kept for the remainder of her life. As a young girl growing up she longed for attention from her mother who was busy working most of the time or dating men. Feeling neglected and abandoned by her mother had a less than favorable effect on Eleanora’s emotional and psychological wellbeing. She had no real sense of security and being split up from her mother for such long periods of time had a devastating effect on her life. She would often be left behind to stay with an adopted grandmother named Martha Miller or friends when her mother was away. Eleanora was being taken care of but no one could replace her need to be with her mother. Feeling like an outcast Eleanora showed her desperation by skipping school and acting out so much that a probation officer had to intervene. She was placed in a reformatory school called the
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"House of Good Shepherd for colored girls in January of 1925. Spending 9 long months there in the care of the Sisters' after which she was paroled back to her mother in October of 1925. Her mother Sadie had opened a new diner where Eleanora worked with her washing dishes and helping her cook. She worked extremely long hours as a young girl and not being able to play with dolls like the other girls her age which caused her to grow up fast. At 11 she dropped out of the 5th grade at Thomas E. Hayes Elementary School Baltimore Maryland. She never really liked school to begin with and lacked any encouragement from her mother to go. Soon she and her mother were back on the move again this time they took up residency in Baltimore Maryland in the home of William and Mary Hill. Eleanora was left at home while her mother went out enjoying the night life. One night while she was home alone a neighbor or friend to the Hill family came in the home and raped Eleanora. Her mother came home and discovered the man having sex with her 11 year old daughter. The violator was arrested and taken to jail and served 3 months in a correctional facility before being released .After this time Eleanora found herself again on her way back to the House of Good Shepherd for her second stay. Ironically each time she went there she had to be baptized again as this would somehow make her change. This was said to be done to re-instill her sense of belonging and cleanse her of wrong doing. Her mother financed her release this time by borrowing money to get a lawyer to reverse the order and she was released into her mothers’ custody. In a way Eleanora seemed better off in the reformatory since her mother seemed to only want her around to help with the work. She never spent much time with her other than that. Once 3
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again she was left to her own mischief when she wasn't busy helping her mother cook, wait tables and wash clothes. The busy night life and assortment of different characters exposed Eleanora to some very seedy types of people. She was often befriended by people of the night otherwise known as prostitutes, pimps and gangsters. At only 13 years old she took a job working for a Madame in the bordello or house of prostitution doing cleaning, changing wash pains, setting out fresh towels and soap and running errands for the Girls. Before it was over she found herself trying her hand at prostitution .She wasn't drawn by the extra money this gave her she was more drawn to being able to listen to the record player called a Victrola that was left downstairs for the customers. This was a life changing moment where she discovered that she was in love jazz music. She said that hearing West End Blues by Louis Armstrong changed her life forever. Jazz was going to be her escape from her hard life so she thought. She got fed up with the life style in house and quit working for the Madame. Eleanora began getting around Baltimore auditioning at small clubs wherever she could get a chance. She started to develop a small following of admirers on the Baltimore jazz scene and as her popularity grew so did her ego. Eleanora took on the stage name Billie after her favorite movie star Billie Dove and the last name was that of her biological father Clarence Holiday a musician she had a very faint relationship with. Billie Holiday quickly became a house hold name and she took off traveling around to Harlem New York playing at all the famous clubs on Lenox Avenue. In the beginning she’d still help her mother at the diner but now she was singing from table to table learning more variations of the music very well. This all helped to prepare her for the stardom that was to come. She began to
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learn and develop her material into something unique, personal and individual .Billie began to rub elbows with some of Jazz's biggest stars such as Duke Ellington. Waiting on tables and singing jazz to the customers cause her to been seen and eventually recognized as a real talent. Soon many opportunities’ started coming her way and doors began to open for her. Her very first small time break came around 1930 at a club called Smalls in New York where she was forced learn what key she was singing in which Billie didn’t ever acquire any formal training. Having learned music by ear Billie had no solid knowledge of musical tone quality and pitching her notes. Being a quick study and a fast learner she caught on to a more proper way of singing. As her popularity grew in the Jazz circles she became known around town. She began to move into the fast lane of Harlem's night life. In the beginning she smoked marijuana casually as almost all of her peers did .She drank and smoked very heavily which was the social norm in the jazz culture. It was so much a part of the musical culture that many songs by Harlem bands celebrated what today we would consider to be a drug problem. Being use to this environment and already being exposed to so many things at a young age made this behavior somewhat normal to Billie. Being around musicians and in night clubs on a regular basis desensitized her to things most people would be uncomfortable with. Never really experiencing a positive loving relationship with a man since her dad wasn't around and her stepfather's only tolerated her, she was hungry for male companionship, and she had many male friends or boyfriends that would use her for her talent and or money. While working her way up the ranks in the jazz circuit it was inevitable that she was reunited with the man she was told was her father Clarence Holiday, he played guitar and banjo in a well-known jazz orchestra and was popular in
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his own right as he never made it to the big time, however that did not seem to strengthen the fragile condition of he and his daughters relationship. Despite this fact this was still the best time of Billie’s life she enjoyed living in the fast lane but her personal and professional life was beginning to be suffer. But not to the point where she could no longer get jobs but she lost some jobs in the process.
Between 1933 and 1935 Billie was finally getting her first official big break with Ralph Coopers Congo Knights. Cooper was one of Harlem’s most popular big band leaders at that time. For many years he scouted talent at the weekly amateur show competitions at the Apollo and Lafayette clubs. When he saw Billie and heard her sing he knew he found a star. She had a sound and still does that he'd never heard before. He called it a crying style of singing which describes it best. Her style was unique and all her own many tried to imitate her and still do today but no one can flow quite the way she did." Lady Day" as she was nicknamed by her collaborator Lester Brown, said, "She pioneered a new way of manipulating words and tempo, and also made famous a more personal and intimate style of singing". Billie said herself "You can't copy anybody and end with anything. If you copy, it means that you’re working without any real feeling."(page 45) She also said "If I'm going to sing like someone else than I don't need to sing it at all". (page 45) Billie continued to make a name and place for self as the leading lady of various big band jazz orchestras and ensembles under the direction of famous people such as Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and anybody who was somebody on the main stage of jazz. Often Billie was presented with songs that did not fall into the regular standard aaba format. 6
Katrina L. Lloyd Grace Schwanda MUS LIS 110 12 December, 2013
She was said to be a challenge to work with sometimes because she knew exactly how she wanted her songs to sound and she didn't feel comfortable changing her rhythm. Knowing already who she was vocally and what she intended to preserve as her signature sound, she did not compromise much at all musically. From time to time she struggled greatly with insecurity. Billy worried a lot about letting people down and not living up to the expectations set for her by others and by herself. When she set foot on the stage she was in her element, with no more worries no more troubles. She gave it everything she had every time she went on stage. In all Billie had recorded 153 titles for Columbia records since her debut in 1933. The songs she sang seemed to mimic her life both on and off the stage. Songs like Strange Fruit, Good Morning Heart Ache, My Man , God Bless The Child just name a few . From the titles alone you can hear and feel a young women’s plea to be loved by somebody, or just anybody. I can honestly say that when I was a teenager and into my mid -twenties I could relate to her songs in that in order, and not wanting be alone I would at times tolerate things from men that I shouldn’t have. I had allowed myself to be taken advantage of sometimes for sake of love or what I thought was love. No one wants to feel alone and everyone even those who say they don’t do need and want someone to love them. The problem is that depending on how you learned to love or to be loved will determine what treatment you may accept or not in relationships. Billie for much of her life or at least in her formative years felt lonely and abandoned. As an adult in her personal life she felt the need to keep people around no matter what the cost. I would conclude that was as a result of a less than favorable childhood. Her greatest fear was letting other people down who counted on her. Through her songs I can relate to some of what she’s communicating, 7
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the emotional need to be connected to someone. The emotional need to take care of everyone else except myself. By the end of 1943 or beginning of 1944 Billie became involved with illegal narcotics. During this time there wasn’t much knowledge about drugs and their adverse effects. People knew it wasn’t a good thing to do but there weren’t statistics or preventative measures to deter individuals from doing it. Already being desensitized by her environment nothing seemed to scare Billy she was a natural born risk taker. Ever Since Billie was a teenager she had already been drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana, so it was only natural for her to be a part of the fast crowd she associated with in the 30’s. It was a time when smoking opium was considered cool and you were actually looked up to for doing so. In the social circles Billie moved around in this was totally acceptable behavior and you were looked at negatively if you didn’t do it. She ended up graduating to opium from alcohol and marijuana and from there she started using hardcore drugs like Heroin. This choice of drugs was the beginning of her demise and decline. Billy was able to function and maintain a minimal sense of normalcy but the result of the addiction was followed by a life filled with several turbulent romances and abusive relationships. She became very difficult to work with often showing up to performances late or extremely high. Her circle of friends or entourage didn’t see anything wrong with this and encouraged her Diva attitude. Despite her turmoil within Billie was somewhat successful in her career. She had finally become somebody she could love the trouble was she didn’t love herself enough to know when to stop. Her daily life had now transformed into a cycle of singing in the clubs
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and trying to score drugs. The success she experienced and success she could have known had she been able to take control of her demons and except the kind of work she wanted to propel her career. The money she made was spent just as quickly as it took her to make it. Promoters cheated her out of money to protect themselves from her bad habits excessive lateness, drunkenness and other things. At this point her habits were standing in front of her talent and her art of singing. On May 27, 1947 Billie was arrested for possession of heroin and again in 1956 for use and possession of narcotics. These arrests resulted in Billie in the revocation of her cabaret singing card which allowed her to make a better living. After many appeals, and people and fans rallying for her come back. Despite Billie Holidays apparent struggles in her life from a child to adulthood, the choices she made that caused her life to spiral out of control. Her musical influence on my own listening taste has added a colorful rich layer to my musical heritage. Hearing her songs as a kid is quite different for me as an adult. Having experienced life and love I have a greater understanding for what she was communicating to us. The smooth velvety voice that rang out of speakers and the mellow flow helped me to appreciate jazz. Not only is jazz instrumental with the playing of horns and pianos, the vocal ability to deliver what an instrument could as her voice was the instrument. It’s the raw emotion that can and could command an audience’s attention .The great depth and richness that she seem to deliver each and every time. Sometimes when I hear her songs I think to myself that someone does understand .The stories she tells are real they were real back then and they are real now. If you are able to open your mind and listen perceptively
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you can hear so much of an individual singing from their very soul expressing in song what they can’t understand in life. I consider myself to be a somewhat complex person just as Billie Holiday obviously was. Musically I don’t possess the gifts she did but I believe I connect with her passion and how she sang and spoke from her heart. Through song she had the courage to say things and express feelings that she no doubt didn’t in her day to day life. The music was her release an escape. In her life she didn’t have much control over many things that happened to her but through her music she had all power and control. Billie’s footprint on the music world is huge as she has influenced great iconic singers like Frank Sinatra all the way to Shelby Lynne, Mary J Blige, Amy Winehouse and many more. Generations of younger singers have learned from Billie Holiday how to tell a story with their music, and how to emphasize the story that is being told from the heart rather than to only focus on the notes. Billie had the ability to innovate and improvise and compose at any moment. She was ahead of her time and a visionary. The way she could sing about her life through her music being very candid and open about her pain. This courage is very common to the world of music today where people say whatever they want to say. Having no technical training she possessed a uniquely different diction and phrasing that is inimitable. At first listen one may not be able to appreciate but over time her vocals permeate your soul.
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Billie didn’t get the recognition she deserved in life but many have to come to recognize how great and special she was after her death. Here is the timeline showcasing Billie Holidays musical influence and accomplishments on the world of Jazz and The Arts over all. Diana Ross stars as Holiday in the film “Lady Sings the Blues” 1972 “God Bless the Child” single inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame 1976 Strange Fruit” single inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame 1978 Billie Holiday – Giants of Jazz” wins a Grammy Award for Best Historical Album 1980 The city of Baltimore honors Billie Holiday with her first statue 1985 Billie Holiday is posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award 1987 - U2 releases the Billie Holiday tribute song “Angel of Harlem” 1988 - “Love Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?)” single inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame 1989 - Miki Howard stars as Billie Holiday in a club scene in “Malcolm X” - “Billie Holiday – The Complete Decca Recordings” wins a Grammy Award for Best Historical Album 1992 - Etta James receives first Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance for her “Mystery Lady: Songs of Billie Holiday” album - “The Complete Billie Holiday” wins a Grammy Award for Best Historical Album - On September 18, 1994, the United States Postal Service honored Holiday by introducing a USPS-sponsored stamp 1994 - Inducted into the ASCAP Jazz Wall of Fame 1997 Ranked #6 on VH1’s “100 Greatest Women in Rock n’ Roll” - Time Magazine declares “Strange Fruit” The Song of the Century 1999 Billie Holiday is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the fifteenth annual induction dinner. Diana Ross is her presenter. - “Lady in Satin” album inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame 2000 Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday” wins a Grammy Award for Best Historical Album - “Strange Fruit” honored by the Library 11
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of Congress as one of the 50 songs that year to be added to the National Recording Registry 2002 Billie Holiday is inducted into the Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame 2004 - “Embraceable You” single inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame 2005 “Crazy He Calls Me” single inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame 2010 Kanye West samples Nina Simone’s version of “Strange Fruit” - “Lady Day The Musical” opens for preview performances at Times Square’s Little Shubert Theatre starring multiple-Grammy Award winner Dee Bridgewater 2013. I selected Billie Holiday for my musical heritage paper because I wanted to choose someone whose music was not extremely mainstream. Her complex life intrigued me and her music I found to be as fascinating as her life. I really wanted to focus on her talent and her life because without the life she was given she most likely would not have had the songs to share with the world. Despite having such a rough and undesirable life she was determined to make something of herself through music. Her story is one that lets people know that they can still make it even though they come from a bad environment. Some may question if she really made it since she ended up the way she did. But I would say yes in that she was able to do what she loved and that was sing her music the way she wanted to sing it. She was able to break some of the color barriers of her time and sing in clubs that she could not have normally visited. The world lost one its greatest female Jazz Singers of all time when Billie Holiday died of complications of a kidney infection and substance abuse on July 17, 1959. As she laid in state at the New York Cathedral over 3000 fans and musicians came to pay their 12
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last respects to her. She sang so many songs to try to heal her pain. She ingested so many substances to alleviate her sorrow but nothing could save her from herself. Her body grew weary after years and years of abuse. The music she left behind will go on forever and in it we can hear and we can still learn. The legacy she gave and the wonderful songs of life, love and heart break are here for all of us to enjoy.
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Works Cited Nicholson, Stuart. Billie Holiday. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1995. N. page. Grand
Rapids
Community
College.
Web.
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Sept.
<http://lib.grcc.edu/search?/c782.42165+H717n/c782.42165+h717n/-3%2C1%2C0%2CE/frameset&FF=c782.42165+h717n&1%2C1%2C>.
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Katrina L. Lloyd Grace Schwanda MUS LIS 110 12 December, 2013
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