Jazz Singer Billie Holiday Career Path
I always thought when you brought the lovely present you bought why hadn't you brought me more. This is a verse of Billie Holiday’s song named you turned the tables on me which perfectly describes the feelings of the audience when they used to listen to Billie singing.
Eleanora Fagan professionally known as Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer with a career spanning nearly 30 years. Her career in music commenced when she was a young teenager after facing a lot of adversities all her life – having no father figure who was a musician and being left with a woman named Martha miller by her mother because of the transportation jobs, going to juvenile court for truancy at a young age of 9, leaving school at the age of 11, a neighbor attempting to rape her, working in a brothel doing errands around the age of 12, becoming a victim of human trafficking around the age of 14 and then getting arrested on May 2, 1929. During this period, holiday used to listen to music and developed interest after listening to Bessie smith and louis Armstrong.
She started singing in nightclubs in harlem and then partnered up with Kenneth hollan for the time period of 1929-1931 and spread her wings by performing in many clubs in mexico and alhambara bar and grill because of which she came in contact with her father who was playing in Fletcher Henderson’s band.
I personally believe that billie holiday has a magical power in her voice and her songs had a very deep meaning which were always connected to her life in some way and had both a fun and soothing quality going hand in hand . I really like the way she carried herself on stage and her attitude towards life. There is a very famous singer billie eilish who reminds me of billie holiday because of the age factor, the adversities faced by them in a very young age, and the voice both of them have potray the same power.
Her collaboration with teddy Wilson led to what a moonlight can do which became a jazz standard and her concerts sold out, she signed with many labels like Brunswick records; decca records; clef records and was an inspiration to millions of people. Near 1940’s her voice started altering due to excessive use of alcohol and drugs and her reputation deteriorated which could be seen when her last album was met with mixed reaction. I think that her suffering in the childhood was something that triggered her and she used drugs as an escape, making her a victim of her own choices. Even though she was in a good place during 1940’s and had the name and fame which people dream about, she ended up becoming a victim of drugs and alcohol which is a very contradictory factor. She used to sing like an improvising jazz genius and had an immense influence on jazz music and pop singing. Her vocal style was inspired by jazz instrumentalists due to which she got famous for manipulating phrasing and tempo. She was never professionally trained and gave jazz music a new outlook by singing from heart because of which she is very important in the continuum of jazz history.
