Billie Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan on April 7, 1915 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
but spent most of her poverty stricken childhood in Baltimore. Lady Day, as she was named by
Lester Young, had to overcome many tragedies in her lifetime and yet still became one of the
most popular jazz-blues vocalists of all time.
Billie's Parents, Sally Fagan and Clarence Holiday, were both born in Baltimore. They
married as teens and soon Sally gave birth to Eleanora Fagan. Shortly after the birth, Clarence
Holiday deserted his family to tour with Fletcher Henderson's band. Billie saw little of her
immediate family and she essentially grew up alone, feeling unloved and gaining a lifelong
inferiority complex that led to her taking great risks with her personal life. At age ten Billie was
victimized in a violent rape. When older she worked at a brothel were she cleaned the floors, it
was here that she first listened to the likes of Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith.
In 1927 she moved to New York City and not knowing any other life she made a living
prostituting herself. She still kept her dream of someday becoming a singer and eventually
convinced the manager of a small nightclub in the city to let her sing a few songs with the house
band. The crowd loved her singing and she was soon discovered by John Hammond. He arranged
for her to record a couple of titles with Benny Goodman in 1933. Although those were not all
that successful, it was the start of her career.
In 1935 she meet up with a pianist named Teddy Wilson, who was in a pick up band. She
traveled with the band for a while and hit it off. People were beginning to learn about a great
singer who had a fresh new style that was a combination of Louis Armstrong's swinging and
Bessie Smith's sound. Over the next seven years she would go on to record some of the greatest
songs of her career. Lady Day was with Count Basie's Orchestra during much of 1937 but, she
was soon kicked out by Count Basie for trying to be too "independent and temperamental." Later
Lester Young and Buck Clayton began recording with Holiday and the music that the three of
them made was timeless. She worked with Artie Shaw's Orchestra for a time in 1938 but still
some problems existed, only one song was recorded and she had to deal with racism, not only
during a Southern tour but in New York too.
In 1941 she married Johnie Monroe and shortly afterward began abusing drugs. The
marriage with Johnie did not last long and she soon remarried to a trumpeter named Joe Guy.
But even with the new marriage the marital and drug abuse continued. She was given a chance
to be in a movie with one of her early idols, Louis Armstrong in 1946. On top of the being
disgusted at the fact that she was stuck playing a maid, she was again feeling the effects of
racism, but still she could not pass up the chance to work with a great like Armstrong.
Billie Holiday's story from 1950 on is a gradual down slide. She was arrested several
times on drug charges and was divorced then remarried for a third time. In 1951 she met and
married Louis McKay, who similar to her other two husbands, turned out to be abusive as well.
Although her recordings, which started up again in 1952, placed her once again with all-star jazz
musicians, her voice was slipping fast. Her unhappy relationships distracted her, the heroin use
and excessive drinking continued and by 1956 she was way past her prime.
Holiday's 1958 album Lady in Satin found the 43-year old singer sounding old and worn
out and the following year she collapsed. On the summer day of July 17,1957 Billie Holiday's
problems finally caught up with her. She died at the early age of 44.
Holiday rarely sang traditional blues, but her reputation rests on her ability to transform
popular songs into emotionally profound pieces. The recordings that I decided to listen to were
on a cassette titled Billie’s Blues. Some of the feature tracks were I’m A Fool to Want You, Glad
to be Unhappy, Summertime, Am I Blue?, and Billie’s Blues. The cassette was a collection of the
original recordings of Billie Holiday.
The first song entitled I’m A Fool to Want You, featured Mel Davis, Billie Butterfield,
and Bernie Glow on trumpets. Urbie Green on trombone, Gene Quill on alt. sax, Hank Jones on
piano, Barry Galbraith on guitar, Milt Hinton on bass and Osie Johnson on drums On this track
Billie Holidays’ voice seems as if to be one of the instruments in the band. As she is singing and
the band is playing in the background it is as if her voice blends in with the music. The sound is
very mellow and in the song Billie is telling a story. She feels sorry for herself and the trumpet is
pitying her. “Pity me I need you.”
The second track on the recording is Glad to be Unhappy featured Ray Ellis and his
orchestra with Urbie Green, Tom Mitchell and J.J. Johnson on trombone. Ed Powell, Tom
Pashley, Romeo Penque and Phil Bodner on reeds. Mal Waldron on piano, Barry Galbraith on
guitar, Milt Hinton on bass, Don Lamond on drums, Bradley Spinney on xylophone and Janet
Putman on harp. This particular track, recorded on February 20, 1958, has a bit more rhythm
than the previous one. The song does not swing; however, the brush sound over the drums is
more distinguished and it ads more beat to the track. Also, the combination of the harp strings
and the piano paints a different storyline. It is as if she does not mind to be singing the Blues. In
this song Billie is singing about being unhappy, but considering that because it is over the one
she loves it is ok. “Unrequited love is a bore, and I’ve got it pretty bad, but for someone you
adore it’s a pleasure to be sad.”
The third track sounded as if no orchestra was playing in the background. The song
featured Billie Holiday and her orchestra who included Buck Clayton on trumpet, Edmond Hall
on clarinet, Lester Young on tenor sax, James Sherman on piano, Fredie Green on guitar, Walter
Page on bass and Jo Jones on drums. The sound of this song, A Sailboat in the Moonlight, was
nothing like the previous two. Recorded on June 15, 1937, this song had a more ragtime sound to
it. The sound was raw and the solo’s were more distinguished. Billie would completely stop
singing so that the musicians could play their solo’s where in the previous two tracks the time
given to the solo’s were shorter. It seems as though the music was more focused on the
instruments than the vocalists.
When A Woman Loves A Man, is the fourth track on this recording who also features
Billie Holiday’s orchestra, was recorded on January 12, 1938. This song has a more city blues
sound to it. The most recognizable instruments playing in the background was the piano, and the
most popular solo instrument on this track was the trumpet. Billie’s voice on this tune sounds so
sweet, as opposed to the previous songs. Although the recording is not great it is obvious that
Billie Holiday’s voice was great during this recording.
The next track starts off with an fairly long piano solo. It was actually quit nice to hear
the piano play for a while before having Billie’s voice come in sometime during the middle of
the song. It was as if the song belonged to the piano and Billie Holiday was a guest artist. The
piano definitely sets the mood. In I’ll Never Be The Same Billie Holiday plays with her orchestra
once again on June 1, 1937. She was definitely singing the blues, but if you were not listening to
the words you would never be able to tell. Lady Day’s band accompanies her voice so well that it
sets an atmosphere where one can easily get lost in the sound of Billie’s song.
Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off is opened by the sound of Eddie Tompkins on the sweet
trumpet, Buster Bailey on clarinet, Joe Thomas on alt. sax, Teddy Wilson on piano, Carmen
Mastren on guitar, John Kirby on bass and Alphonse Steel on drums. During the middle of the
song though the trumpet has a great solo. The song definitely has a great rhythm to it. As I was
listening to it I was tapping my foot on the floor. What I liked best about this song, other than
the tune itself were the words. Billie Holiday is singing about differences that she and her loved
one have in the pronunciation of a word. Suggesting that they should call off their relationship
over such a simple discussion adds hummer to this blues song.
The seventh song off of the recording was Summertime. To be completely honest when
the song started and the trumpet, the clarinet and the piano were playing I felt as if I were at one
of the brothels were Billie Holiday used to work. Bunny Berigan was on trumpet, Artie Shaw
was on clarinet, Joe Bushkin was on piano, Dick McDonough on guitar, Pete Peterson on bass,
and Cozy Cozy Cole on drums. This song recorded on July 10, 1936 definitely had a great beat
and even the rhythm that she carried throughout the entire song just made me bob my head. It’s
also an inspiring song. She is singing about rising above, “then you spread your wings and take
the skys.” This was probably the most swinging song that I have heard on the entire recording.
Am I Blue is slower than the last couple f tracks that I have heard off of the recording;
however, the sound of her voice is still not as mellow as the first two songs. Recorded on May 9,
1941 with Roy Eldridge on trumpet, Jimmy Powell and Lester Boone on alt. sax, Ernie Powell
on tenor sax, Eddie Heywood on piano, Paul Chapman on guitar, Grachan Moncur on bass and
Herbert Cowans on drums. The piano is playing softly in the background with the trumpet and
the drums, perfectly blending with the sound of her voice. With a title like Am I Blue it is
surprisingly not a mournful song. Considering that she is still singing the blues, Billie Holiday is
not carrying that deep tone in her voice. The band is given time to play between Lady Day’s
singing but there were no individual solo’s performed on this track. This probably goes back o
the time where the vocalists were already starting to set names for themselves and became larger
than some of the bands they played with.
In I Cover The Waterfront Billie’s voice is once again a bit more mellow as heard in the
first two tracks. This tune is a slow city blues and it flows very well with the sound of piano,
played by Carl Drinkard, leading the song in the background. Unlike the previous song this one
has a short piano solo but nothing like the piano solo heard in I’ll Never Be The Same. This was
not one of my favorite songs off of this recording. It drags and that is obvious even in the
Holiday’s voice. Other artists featured on this tune were Red Mitchell on bass, and Elaine
Leighton on drums.
Finally the last track off of this album was called Billie’s Blues and this was a great song.
Recorded on January 5, 1954 with Buddy DeFranco, Red Norvo, Jimmy Kiney, Sonny Clark
with the first piano solo, Beryl Booker with the second piano solo, Red Mitchell on bass, and
Elaine Leighton on drums. It started off with an incredible beat, the guitar, piano and the
trumpets were just painting a great piece. When Billie started singing you could tell that she was
feeling every word that came out of her mouth. The song spoke of the rotten men that she has
know and what really makes a good man, which was something she knew a lot about. One of my
favorite parts of the entire song was the trumpet solo, the trumpet in this song really made you
feel what Lady Day was singing about. The song was already swinging but with a solo like that it
just made you tilt back your head and want to snap your fingers to the beat.


Bibliography

Gourse, Leslie. Billie Holiday: The Tragedy and Triumph of A Lady. Donbury, Connecticut:
Franklin Watts. 1995.

Groothius, Neal. The Unofficial Billie Holiday Website. Bellsouth.net search engine.
http://users.bart.nl/~ecduzit/billie.htm

Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 1999. Holiday, Billie Article. Version 8.29.00.0912. Microsoft
Corporation 1993-1998

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