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| billie holiday impact on society: Religion Around Billie Holiday Tracy Fessenden, 2019-10-16 Soulful jazz singer Billie Holiday is remembered today for her unique sound, troubled personal history, and a catalogue that includes such resonant songs as “Strange Fruit” and “God Bless the Child.” Holiday and her music were also strongly shaped by religion, often in surprising ways. Religion Around Billie Holiday examines the spiritual and religious forces that left their mark on the performer during her short but influential life. Mixing elements of biography with the history of race and American music, Tracy Fessenden explores the multiple religious influences on Holiday’s life and sound, including her time spent as a child in a Baltimore convent, the echoes of black Southern churches in the blues she encountered in brothels, the secular riffs on ancestral faith in the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance, and the Jewish songwriting culture of Tin Pan Alley. Fessenden looks at the vernacular devotions scholars call lived religion—the Catholicism of the streets, the Jewishness of the stage, the Pentecostalism of the roadhouse or the concert arena—alongside more formal religious articulations in institutions, doctrine, and ritual performance. Insightful and compelling, Fessenden’s study brings unexpected materials and archival voices to bear on the shaping of Billie Holiday’s exquisite craft and indelible persona. Religion Around Billie Holiday illuminates the power and durability of religion in the making of an American musical icon. |
| billie holiday impact on society: If You Can't be Free, be a Mystery Farah Jasmine Griffin, 2001 The threads of Billie Holiday's mystique are unraveled in this study of a woman who needed to create art at any cost. Griffin liberates Holiday from stereotypes of black women and pries her away from the male tradition of jazz criticism while presenting Holiday's independent spirit. of photos. |
| billie holiday impact on society: Billie Holiday John Szwed, 2015-03-31 • Kirkus Best Books of 2015 selection for Biography • Published in celebration of Holiday’s centenary, the first biography to focus on the singer’s extraordinary musical talent When Billie Holiday stepped into Columbia’s studios in November 1933, it marked the beginning of what is arguably the most remarkable and influential career in twentieth-century popular music. Her voice weathered countless shifts in public taste, and new reincarnations of her continue to arrive, most recently in the form of singers like Amy Winehouse and Adele. Most of the writing on Holiday has focused on the tragic details of her life—her prostitution at the age of fourteen, her heroin addiction and alcoholism, her series of abusive relationships—or tried to correct the many fabrications of her autobiography. But now, Billie Holiday stays close to the music, to her performance style, and to the self she created and put into print, on record and on stage. Drawing on a vast amount of new material that has surfaced in the last decade, critically acclaimed jazz writer John Szwed considers how her life inflected her art, her influences, her uncanny voice and rhythmic genius, a number of her signature songs, and her legacy. |
| billie holiday impact on society: Becoming Billie Holiday Carole Boston Weatherford, 2022-01-11 Coretta Scott King Author Honor Award The stunning voice and hard life of legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday is revealed through evocative, accessible poetry. In 1915, Sadie Fagan gave birth to a daughter she named Eleanora. The world, however, would know her as Billie Holiday, possibly the greatest jazz singer of all time. Eleanora's journey to become a legend took her through pain, poverty, and run-ins with the law. By the time she was fifteen, she knew she possessed something that could possibly change her life--a voice. Eleanora could sing. Her remarkable voice led her to a place in the spotlight with some of the era's hottest big bands. Through a sequence of raw and poignant poems, New York Times best-selling and award-winning poet Carole Boston Weatherford chronicles the singer's young life, her fight for survival, and the dream she pursued with passion. |
| billie holiday impact on society: Lady Sings the Blues Billie Holiday, William Dufty, 2006-07-25 Perfect for fans of The United States vs. Billie Holiday, this is the fiercely honest, no-holds-barred memoir of the legendary jazz, swing, and standards singing sensation—a fiftieth-anniversary edition updated with stunning new photos, a revised discography, and an insightful foreword by music writer David Ritz Taking the reader on a fast-moving journey from Billie Holiday’s rough-and-tumble Baltimore childhood (where she ran errands at a whorehouse in exchange for the chance to listen to Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith albums), to her emergence on Harlem’s club scene, to sold-out performances with the Count Basie Orchestra and with Artie Shaw and his band, this revelatory memoir is notable for its trenchant observations on the racism that darkened Billie’s life and the heroin addiction that ended it too soon. We are with her during the mesmerizing debut of “Strange Fruit”; with her as she rubs shoulders with the biggest movie stars and musicians of the day (Bob Hope, Lana Turner, Clark Gable, Benny Goodman, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, and more); and with her through the scrapes with Jim Crow, spats with Sarah Vaughan, ignominious jailings, and tragic decline. All of this is told in Holiday’s tart, streetwise style and hip patois that makes it read as if it were written yesterday. |
| billie holiday impact on society: Strange Fruit David Margolick, 2002 The story of the song that foretold a movement and the Lady who dared sing it.Billie Holiday's signature tune, 'Strange Fruit', with its graphic and heart-wrenching portrayal of a lynching in the South, brought home the evils of racism as well as being an inspiring mark of resistance.The song's powerful, evocative lyrics - written by a Jewish communist schoolteacher - portray the lynching of a black man in the South. In 1939, its performance sparked controversy (and sometimes violence) wherever Billie Holiday went. Not until sixteen years later did Rosa Parks refuse to yield her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus. Yet 'Strange Fruit' lived on, and Margolick chronicles its effect on those who experienced it first-hand: musicians, artists, journalists, intellectuals, students, budding activists, even the waitresses and bartenders who worked the clubs. |
| billie holiday impact on society: Strange Fruit David Margolick, 2001-01-23 Recorded by jazz legend Billie Holiday in 1939, Strange Fruit is considered to be the first significant song of the civil rights movement and the first direct musical assault upon racial lynchings in the South. Originally sung in New York's Cafe Society, these revolutionary lyrics take on a life of their own in this revealing account of the song and the struggle it personified. Strange Fruit not only chronicles the civil rights movement from the '30s on, it examines the lives of the beleaguered Billie Holiday and Abel Meeropol, the white Jewish schoolteacher and communist sympathizer who wrote the song that would have an impact on generations of fans, black and white, unknown and famous, including performers Lena Horne, Eartha Kitt, and Sting. |
| billie holiday impact on society: Strange Fruit Gary Golio, 2017 Tells the story of how Billie Holiday and songwriter Abel Meeropol combined their talents to create Strange Fruit, the iconic protest song that brought attention to lynching and racism in America. |
| billie holiday impact on society: Blues Legacies and Black Feminism Angela Y. Davis, 2011-10-05 From one of this country's most important intellectuals comes a brilliant analysis of the blues tradition that examines the careers of three crucial black women blues singers through a feminist lens. Angela Davis provides the historical, social, and political contexts with which to reinterpret the performances and lyrics of Gertrude Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday as powerful articulations of an alternative consciousness profoundly at odds with mainstream American culture. The works of Rainey, Smith, and Holiday have been largely misunderstood by critics. Overlooked, Davis shows, has been the way their candor and bravado laid the groundwork for an aesthetic that allowed for the celebration of social, moral, and sexual values outside the constraints imposed by middle-class respectability. Through meticulous transcriptions of all the extant lyrics of Rainey and Smith−published here in their entirety for the first time−Davis demonstrates how the roots of the blues extend beyond a musical tradition to serve as a conciousness-raising vehicle for American social memory. A stunning, indispensable contribution to American history, as boldly insightful as the women Davis praises, Blues Legacies and Black Feminism is a triumph. |
| billie holiday impact on society: Cafe Society Barney Josephson, Terry Trilling-Josephson, 2009-03-12 The story of the night club impresario whose wildly successful interracial club, Cafe Society, changed the American artistic landscape forever |
| billie holiday impact on society: Billie Holiday: The Last Interview Billie Holiday, 2019-07-30 The first-ever collection of interviews with the tortured but groundbreaking singer Billie Holiday, part of Melville House’s beloved Last Interview series Legendary singer Billie Holiday comes alive in this first-ever collection of interviews from throughout her career. Included is her last interview, given from her deathbed in a New York City hospital, where police were standing by ready to arrest her for a parole violation should she recover. Also included: The transcript of an interrogation by a US Customs official questioning about whether she'd violated her parole by using drugs on a foreign tour. But the book is more than a look at just the famously tragic side of her life. In other conversations, drawn from music magazines, late-night radio programs, and newspapers across the US and Canada, she discusses her childhood, musicians who influenced her, her friendship -- and falling out -- with the influential sax player Lester Young, why she chose the gardenia as her symbol, why she quit Count Basie's band, her substance abuse problems, writing songs and whether she wrote her own memoir, and more. In frank and open conversations, Billie Holiday proves herself far more articulate, aware, intelligent, and even heroic than the way she's often portrayed. This collection is an essential volume for all who have been moved by her music. |
| billie holiday impact on society: The Easy Fake Book (Songbook) Hal Leonard Corp., 2000-01-01 (Fake Book). This follow-up to the popular Your First Fake Book includes over 100 more great songs that even beginning-level musicians can enjoy playing! It features the same larger notation with simplified harmonies and melodies, all songs in the key of C, and introductions for each song, to add a more finished sound to the arrangements. The songs are in many musical styles and include: Alfie * All I Ask of You * All My Loving * Always on My Mind * Autumn in New York * Blue Skies * Cabaret * Crazy * Fields of Gold * Go the Distance * God Bless' the Child * Great Balls of Fire * Hey, Good Lookin' * How Deep Is Your Love * I'll Be There * If * Imagine * Jailhouse Rock * Kansas City * Memory * Michelle * Misty * My Girl * My Heart Will Go On * People * Stand by Me * Star Dust * Tangerine * Tears in Heaven * Tennessee Waltz * Unchained Melody * What a Wonderful World * What'll I Do? * You've Got a Friend * and more. |
| billie holiday impact on society: 33 Revolutions Per Minute Dorian Lynskey, 2012 33 Revolutions Per Minute tracks the turbulent relationship between popular music and politics, through 33 pivotal songs that span seven decades and four continents, from Billie Holiday singing 'Strange Fruit' to Green Day raging against the Iraq war. Dorian Lynskey explores the individuals, ideas and events behind each song, showing how protest music has soundtracked and informed social change since the 1930s. Through the work of such artists as Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Fela Kuti, The Clash, Public Enemy and Gil Scott Heron, Lynskey examines how music has engaged with racial unrest, nuclear paranoia, apartheid, war, poverty and oppression, offering hope, stirring anger, inciting action and producing songs which continue to resonate years down the line. |
| billie holiday impact on society: Jazz and Justice Gerald Horne, 2019-06-18 A galvanizing history of how jazz and jazz musicians flourished despite rampant cultural exploitation The music we call “jazz” arose in late nineteenth century North America—most likely in New Orleans—based on the musical traditions of Africans, newly freed from slavery. Grounded in the music known as the “blues,” which expressed the pain, sufferings, and hopes of Black folk then pulverized by Jim Crow, this new music entered the world via the instruments that had been abandoned by departing military bands after the Civil War. Jazz and Justice examines the economic, social, and political forces that shaped this music into a phenomenal US—and Black American—contribution to global arts and culture. Horne assembles a galvanic story depicting what may have been the era’s most virulent economic—and racist—exploitation, as jazz musicians battled organized crime, the Ku Klux Klan, and other variously malignant forces dominating the nightclub scene where jazz became known. Horne pays particular attention to women artists, such as pianist Mary Lou Williams and trombonist Melba Liston, and limns the contributions of musicians with Native American roots. This is the story of a beautiful lotus, growing from the filth of the crassest form of human immiseration. |
| billie holiday impact on society: Queen of Bebop Elaine M. Hayes, 2017-07-04 Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2017 Washington Post Best Book of 2017 Amazon Editors' Top 100 Pick of the Year Amazon Best Humor and Entertainment Pick of the Year Booklist Top Ten Arts Book Queen of Bebop brilliantly chronicles the life of jazz singer Sarah Vaughan, one of the most influential and innovative musicians of the twentieth century and a pioneer of women’s and civil rights Sarah Vaughan, a pivotal figure in the formation of bebop, influenced a broad array of singers who followed in her wake, yet the breadth and depth of her impact—not just as an artist, but also as an African-American woman—remain overlooked. Drawing from a wealth of sources as well as on exclusive interviews with Vaughan’s friends and former colleagues, Queen of Bebop unravels the many myths and misunderstandings that have surrounded Vaughan while offering insights into this notoriously private woman, her creative process, and, ultimately, her genius. Hayes deftly traces the influence that Vaughan’s singing had on the perception and appreciation of vocalists—not to mention women—in jazz. She reveals how, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Vaughan helped desegregate American airwaves, opening doors for future African-American artists seeking mainstream success, while also setting the stage for the civil rights activism of the 1960s and 1970s. She follows Vaughan from her hometown of Newark, New Jersey, and her first performances at the Apollo, to the Waldorf Astoria and on to the world stage, breathing life into a thrilling time in American music nearly lost to us today. Equal parts biography, criticism, and good old-fashioned American success story, Queen of Bebop is the definitive biography of a hugely influential artist. This absorbing and sensitive treatment of a singular personality updates and corrects the historical record on Vaughan and elevates her status as a jazz great. |
| billie holiday impact on society: Play the Way You Feel Kevin Whitehead, 2020-04-01 Jazz stories have been entwined with cinema since the inception of jazz film genre in the 1920s, giving us origin tales and biopics, spectacles and low-budget quickies, comedies, musicals, and dramas, and stories of improvisers and composers at work. And the jazz film has seen a resurgence in recent years--from biopics like Miles Ahead and HBO's Bessie, to dramas Whiplash and La La Land. In Play the Way You Feel, author and jazz critic Kevin Whitehead offers a comprehensive guide to these films and other media from the perspective of the music itself. Spanning 93 years of film history, the book looks closely at movies, cartoons, and a few TV shows that tell jazz stories, from early talkies to modern times, with an eye to narrative conventions and common story points. Examining the ways historical films have painted a clear picture of the past or overtly distorted history, Play the Way You Feel serves up capsule discussions of sundry topics including Duke Ellington's social life at the Cotton Club, avant-garde musical practices in 1930s vaudeville, and Martin Scorsese's improvisatory method on the set of New York, New York. Throughout the book, Whitehead brings the same analytical bent and concise, witty language listeners know from his jazz segments on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. He investigates well-known songs, traces the development of the stock jazz film ending, and offers fresh, often revisionist takes on works by such directors as Howard Hawks, John Cassavetes, Shirley Clarke, Francis Ford Coppola, Clint Eastwood, Spike Lee, Robert Altman, Woody Allen and Damien Chazelle. In all, Play the Way You Feel is a feast for film-genre fanatics and movie-watching jazz enthusiasts. |
| billie holiday impact on society: Chasing the Scream Johann Hari, 2015-01-20 The New York Times Bestseller What if everything you think you know about addiction is wrong? Johann Hari's journey into the heart of the war on drugs led him to ask this question--and to write the book that gave rise to his viral TED talk, viewed more than 62 million times, and inspired the feature film The United States vs. Billie Holiday and the documentary series The Fix. One of Johann Hari's earliest memories is of trying to wake up one of his relatives and not being able to. As he grew older, he realized he had addiction in his family. Confused, not knowing what to do, he set out and traveled over 30,000 miles over three years to discover what really causes addiction--and what really solves it. He uncovered a range of remarkable human stories--of how the war on drugs began with Billie Holiday, the great jazz singer, being stalked and killed by a racist policeman; of the scientist who discovered the surprising key to addiction; and of the countries that ended their own war on drugs--with extraordinary results. Chasing the Scream is the story of a life-changing journey that transformed the addiction debate internationally--and showed the world that the opposite of addiction is connection. |
| billie holiday impact on society: A Bad Woman Feeling Good: Blues and the Women Who Sing Them Buzzy Jackson, 2005-02-17 Traces the artistic heritage of numerous women blues singers, from Ma Rainey and Billie Holiday to Aretha Franklin and Tina Turner, exploring the messages within their songs and images while discussing their contributions to music and American history. 15,000 first printing. |
| billie holiday impact on society: Performing Rites Simon Frith, 1998-02-06 Who's better? Billie Holiday or P. J. Harvey? Blur or Oasis? Dylan or Keats? And how many friendships have ridden on the answer? Such questions aren't merely the stuff of fanzines and idle talk; they inform our most passionate arguments, distill our most deeply held values, make meaning of our ever-changing culture. In Performing Rites, one of the most influential writers on popular music asks what we talk about when we talk about music. What's good, what's bad? What's high, what's low? Why do such distinctions matter? Instead of dismissing emotional response and personal taste as inaccessible to the academic critic, Simon Frith takes these forms of engagement as his subject--and discloses their place at the very center of the aesthetics that structure our culture and color our lives. Taking up hundreds of songs and writers, Frith insists on acts of evaluation of popular music as music. Ranging through and beyond the twentieth century, Performing Rites puts the Pet Shop Boys and Puccini, rhythm and lyric, voice and technology, into a dialogue about the undeniable impact of popular aesthetics on our lives. How we nod our heads or tap our feet, grin or grimace or flip the dial; how we determine what's sublime and what's for real--these are part of the way we construct our social identities, and an essential response to the performance of all music. Frith argues that listening itself is a performance, both social gesture and bodily response. From how they are made to how they are received, popular songs appear here as not only meriting aesthetic judgments but also demanding them, and shaping our understanding of what all music means. |
| billie holiday impact on society: Fashion and Jazz Alphonso McClendon, 2015-01-29 Born in the late 19th century, jazz gained mainstream popularity during a volatile period of racial segregation and gender inequality. It was in these adverse conditions that jazz performers discovered the power of dress as a visual tool used to defy mainstream societal constructs, shaping a new fashion and style aesthetic. Fashion and Jazz is the first study to identify the behaviours, signs and meanings that defined this newly evolving subculture. Drawing on fashion studies and cultural theory, the book provides an in-depth analysis of the social and political entanglements of jazz and dress, with individual chapters exploring key themes such as race, class and gender. Including a wide variety of case studies, ranging from Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald to Louis Armstrong and Chet Baker, it presents a critical and cultural analysis of jazz performers as modern icons of fashion and popular style. Addressing a number of previously underexplored areas of jazz culture, such as modern dandyism and the link between drug use and glamorous dress, Fashion and Jazz provides a fascinating history of fashion's dialogue with African-American art and style. It is essential reading for students of fashion, cultural studies, African-American studies and history. |
| billie holiday impact on society: Billie Holiday Donald Clarke, 2009-04-24 Certainly no singer has been more mythologized and more misunderstood than Billie Holiday, who helped to create much of the mystique herself with her autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues. Now, finally, we have a definitive biography, said Booklist of Donald Clarke's Billie Holiday, by a deeply compassionate, respectful, and open-minded biographer [whose] portrait embraces every facet of Holiday's paradoxical nature, from her fierceness to her vulnerability, her childlikeness to her innate elegance and amazing strength. Clarke was given unrivaled access to a treasure trove of interviews from the 1970s—interviews with those who knew Lady Day from her childhood in the streets and good-time houses of Baltimore through the early days of success in New York and into the years of fame, right up to her tragic decline and death at the age of forty-four. Clarke uses these interviews to separate fact from fiction and, in the words of the Seattle Times, finally sets us straight. . .evoking her world in all its anguish, triumph, force and irony. Newsday called this a thoroughly riveting account of Holiday and her milieu. The New York Times raved that it may be the most thoroughly valuable of the many books on Holiday, and Helen Oakley Dance in JazzTimes said, We should probably have to wait a long time for another life of Billie Holiday to supersede Donald Clarke's achievement. |
| billie holiday impact on society: Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill Lanie Robertson, 1989 Deals with one of the last appearances of Billie Holiday. -- p.7 | May include musicians. |
| billie holiday impact on society: Billie Holiday: The Graphic Novel Ebony Gilbert, David Calcano, 2021-03-09 Dive into the celebrated life of “Lady Day” with this fully-illustrated graphic novel that tells the story of Billie Holiday’s rapid—and, at times, grueling—rise to become one of the best musicians who ever lived. From her days as a young entertainer performing for small jazz clubs in Harlem, to headlining sold-out shows at Carnegie Hall, every trouble and triumph of Billie Holiday's bold, influential career is featured in this graphic novel from Fantoons. Throughout the book’s 144 pages of dazzling color illustrations, readers will revisit Billie’s peak years as she helped lead the transition from the Harlem Renaissance to the iconic Swing Era alongside some of the top names in jazz—including Artie Shaw, Lester Young, and Count Basie. Meanwhile, readers will learn the true history behind the making and recording of some of Billie’s most-classic hits, like “God Bless the Child,” and “Strange Fruit,” the latter of which is considered to be the first protest song of the civil rights era. Widely recognized as one of the greatest jazz singers of all time, Billie’s emotive voice, distinct phrasing, and flawless technique cemented her place as an American icon. Now, new and longtime fans alike have the opportunity to learn more about Lady Day’s short but spectacular life. At a time when the country is struggling with issues involving identity and race, this graphic novel provides a timely look into the fascinating life of a fighter, survivor, and world-renowned artist. |
| billie holiday impact on society: Unpacking My Library Marcel Proust, 2017-01-01 A captivating tour of the bookshelves of ten leading artists, exploring the intricate connections between reading, artistic practice, and identity Taking its inspiration from Walter Benjamin's seminal 1931 essay, the Unpacking My Library series charts a spirited exploration of the reading and book collecting practices of today's leading thinkers. Artists and Their Books showcases the personal libraries of ten important contemporary artists based in the United States (Mark Dion, Theaster Gates, Wangechi Mutu, Ed Ruscha, and Carrie Mae Weems), Canada (Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller), and the United Kingdom (Billy Childish, Tracey Emin, and Martin Parr). Through engaging interviews, the artists discuss the necessity of reading and the meaning of books in their lives and careers. This is a book about books, but it even more importantly highlights the role of literature in shaping an artist's self-presentation and persona. Photographs of each artist's bookshelves present an evocative glimpse of personal taste, of well-loved and rare volumes, and of the individual touches that make a bookshelf one's own. The interviews are accompanied by top ten reading lists assembled by each artist, an introduction by Jo Steffens, and Marcel Proust's seminal essay On Reading. |
| billie holiday impact on society: Emotional and Psychological Abuse of Children Kieran O'Hagan, 1993 This text aims to enable practitioners to articulate precisely what is meant by the terms emotional and psychological abuse; to be able to identify it, and to formulate effective strategies for dealing with it. Case histories are explored within the context of new child-care legislation. |
| billie holiday impact on society: The Blues: A Very Short Introduction Elijah Wald, 2010-08-03 Praised as suave, soulful, ebullient (Tom Waits) and a meticulous researcher, a graceful writer, and a committed contrarian (New York Times Book Review), Elijah Wald is one of the leading popular music critics of his generation. In The Blues, Wald surveys a genre at the heart of American culture. It is not an easy thing to pin down. As Howlin' Wolf once described it, When you ain't got no money and can't pay your house rent and can't buy you no food, you've damn sure got the blues. It has been defined by lyrical structure, or as a progression of chords, or as a set of practices reflecting West African tonal and rhythmic approaches, using a five-note blues scale. Wald sees blues less as a style than as a broad musical tradition within a constantly evolving pop culture. He traces its roots in work and praise songs, and shows how it was transformed by such professional performers as W. C. Handy, who first popularized the blues a century ago. He follows its evolution from Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith through Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix; identifies the impact of rural field recordings of Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charley Patton and others; explores the role of blues in the development of both country music and jazz; and looks at the popular rhythm and blues trends of the 1940s and 1950s, from the uptown West Coast style of T-Bone Walker to the down home Chicago sound of Muddy Waters. Wald brings the story up to the present, touching on the effects of blues on American poetry, and its connection to modern styles such as rap. As with all of Oxford's Very Short Introductions, The Blues tells you--with insight, clarity, and wit--everything you need to know to understand this quintessentially American musical genre. |
| billie holiday impact on society: Lady Day Robert O'Meally, 2000-09-07 Billie Holiday deserves a biography in which her musicianship isn't overshadowed by the tragic events of her life. O'Meally has written that book, says Entertainment Weekly about this absorbing and authoritative account of the greatest jazz singer in history. O'Meally emphasizes Holiday's artistry and training rather than her personal miseries, and he uses voluminous archival material to correct common myths about Holiday. Chronicling her rigorous musical apprenticeship in Baltimore, her reception in New York by Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington, and her work with various musicians, particularly Lester Young, Lady Day is an impassioned testament to Holiday's genius that confirms her place in American jazz. |
| billie holiday impact on society: The Beyonce Effect Adrienne Trier-Bieniek, 2016-07-19 Since her late-1990s debut as a member of the R&B trio Destiny's Child, Beyonce Knowles has garnered both praise and criticism. While some consider her an icon of female empowerment, others see her as detrimental to feminism and representing a negative image of women of color. Her music has a decidedly pop aesthetic, yet her power-house vocals and lyrics focused on issues like feminine independence, healthy sexuality and post-partum depression give her songs dimension and substance beyond typical pop fare. This collection of new essays presents a detailed study of the music and persona of Beyonce--arguably the world's biggest pop star. Topics include the body politics of respectability; feminism, empowerment and gender in Beyonce's lyrics; black female pleasure; and the changing face of celebrity motherhood. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here. |
| billie holiday impact on society: Wishing on the Moon Donald Clarke, 1995-10-01 No singer has been more mythologized and more misunderstood than jazz legend Billie Holiday. This biography separates fact from fiction to reveal Lady Day in all stages of her short, tragic life. |
| billie holiday impact on society: Hazel Scott Karen Chilton, 2016-10-18 Hazel Scott was an important figure in the later part of the Black renaissance onward. Even in an era where there was limited mainstream recognition of Black Stars, Hazel Scott's talent stood out and she is still fondly remembered by a large segment of the community. I am pleased to see her legend honored. ---Melvin Van Peebles, filmmaker and director This book is really, really important. It comprises a lot of history---of culture, race, gender, and America. In many ways, Hazel's story is the story of the twentieth century. ---Murray Horwitz, NPR commentator and coauthor of Ain't Misbehavin' Karen Chilton has deftly woven three narrative threads---Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Harlem, and Hazel Scott---into a marvelous tapestry of black life, particularly from the Depression to the Civil Rights era. Of course, Hazel Scott's magnificent career is the brightest thread, and Chilton handles it with the same finesse and brilliance as her subject brought to the piano. ---Herb Boyd, author of Baldwin's Harlem: A Biography of James Baldwin A wonderful book about an extraordinary woman: Hazel Scott was a glamorous, gifted musician and fierce freedom fighter. Thank you Karen Chilton for reintroducing her. May she never be forgotten. ---Farah Griffin, Institute for Research in African-American Studies, Columbia University In this fascinating biography, Karen Chilton traces the brilliant arc of the gifted and audacious pianist Hazel Scott, from international stardom to ultimate obscurity. A child prodigy, born in Trinidad and raised in Harlem in the 1920s, Scott's musical talent was cultivated by her musician mother, Alma Long Scott as well as several great jazz luminaries of the period, namely, Art Tatum, Fats Waller, Billie Holiday and Lester Young. Career success was swift for the young pianist---she auditioned at the prestigious Juilliard School when she was only eight years old, hosted her own radio show, and shared the bill at Roseland Ballroom with the Count Basie Orchestra at fifteen. After several stand-out performances on Broadway, it was the opening of New York's first integrated nightclub, Café Society, that made Hazel Scott a star. Still a teenager, the Darling of Café Society wowed audiences with her swing renditions of classical masterpieces by Chopin, Bach, and Rachmaninoff. By the time Hollywood came calling, Scott had achieved such stature that she could successfully challenge the studios' deplorable treatment of black actors. She would later become one of the first black women to host her own television show. During the 1940s and 50s, her sexy and vivacious presence captivated fans worldwide, while her marriage to the controversial black Congressman from Harlem, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., kept her constantly in the headlines. In a career spanning over four decades, Hazel Scott became known not only for her accomplishments on stage and screen, but for her outspoken advocacy of civil rights and her refusal to play before segregated audiences. Her relentless crusade on behalf of African Americans, women, and artists made her the target of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) during the McCarthy Era, eventually forcing her to join the black expatriate community in Paris. By age twenty-five, Hazel Scott was an international star. Before reaching thirty-five, however, she considered herself a failure. Plagued by insecurity and depression, she twice tried to take her own life. Though she was once one of the most sought-after talents in show business, Scott would return to America, after years of living abroad, to a music world that no longer valued what she had to offer. In this first biography of an important but overlooked African American pianist, singer, actor and activist, Hazel Scott's contributions are finally recognized. Karen Chilton is a New York-based writer and actor, and the coauthor of I Wish You Love, the memoir of legendary jazz vocalist Gloria Lynne. |
| billie holiday impact on society: With Billie Julia Blackburn, 2012-10-10 From Julia Blackburn, an author whose ability to conjure lives from other times and places is so vivid that one suspects she sees ghosts, here is a portrait of a woman whose voice continues to haunt anyone who hears it. Billie Holiday’s life is inseparable from an account of her troubles, her addictions, her arrests, and the scandals that would repeatedly put her name in the tabloid headlines of the 1940s and 1950s. Those who knew her learned never to be surprised by what she might do. Her moods and faces were so various that she could seem to be a different woman from one moment to the next. Volatile, unpredictable, Billie Holiday remained, even to her friends, an elusive and perplexing figure. In With Billie, we hear the voices of those people–piano players and dancers, pimps and junkies, lovers and narcs, producers and critics, each recalling intimate stories of the Billie they knew. What emerges is a portrait of a complex, contradictory, enthralling woman, a woman who knew what really mattered to her. Reading With Billie, one is convinced that she has only just left the room but will return shortly. |
| billie holiday impact on society: Billie Holiday: The Voice of Jazz ChatStick Team, 2024-08-05 🎵 Billie Holiday: The Voice of Jazz 🎵 Step into the soulful world of Billie Holiday with this compelling volume from the Voices of Legends series, thoughtfully created by the ChatStick Team. Billie Holiday's deeply emotive voice and timeless jazz classics have left an enduring mark on music history. 🎤✨ In Billie Holiday: The Voice of Jazz, you'll uncover: 📖 An intimate portrait of Holiday's journey, from her early days in Harlem to her rise as an international music icon. 🎶 Detailed stories behind her most celebrated songs and performances. 💫 Vivid imagery and personal anecdotes that bring her legacy to life. 🎷 Insightful reflections on her impact on the world of jazz and swing. This book provides a fresh perspective on Billie Holiday's monumental contributions to music, making it an essential read for collectors, enthusiasts, and anyone moved by the power of song. Rediscover the magic of Billie Holiday's voice and the profound influence of jazz through this richly detailed narrative. 📚❤️ |
| billie holiday impact on society: At the Jazz Band Ball Nat Hentoff, 2010-06-01 Nat Hentoff, renowned jazz critic, civil liberties activist, and fearless contrarian—I’m a Jewish atheist civil-libertarian pro-lifer—has lived through much of jazz’s history and has known many of jazz’s most important figures, often as friend and confidant. Hentoff has been a tireless advocate for the neglected parts of jazz history, including forgotten sidemen and -women. This volume includes his best recent work—short essays, long interviews, and personal recollections. From Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong to Ornette Coleman and Quincy Jones, Hentoff brings the jazz greats to life and traces their art to gospel, blues, and many other forms of American music. At the Jazz Band Ball also includes Hentoff’s keen, cosmopolitan observations on a wide range of issues. The book shows how jazz and education are a vital partnership, how free expression is the essence of liberty, and how social justice issues like health care and strong civil rights and liberties keep all the arts—and all members of society—strong. |
| billie holiday impact on society: A History of the Harlem Renaissance Rachel Farebrother, Miriam Thaggert, 2021-02-04 The Harlem Renaissance was the most influential single movement in African American literary history. The movement laid the groundwork for subsequent African American literature, and had an enormous impact on later black literature world-wide. In its attention to a wide range of genres and forms – from the roman à clef and the bildungsroman, to dance and book illustrations – this book seeks to encapsulate and analyze the eclecticism of Harlem Renaissance cultural expression. It aims to re-frame conventional ideas of the New Negro movement by presenting new readings of well-studied authors, such as Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes, alongside analysis of topics, authors, and artists that deserve fuller treatment. An authoritative collection on the major writers and issues of the period, A History of the Harlem Renaissance takes stock of nearly a hundred years of scholarship and considers what the future augurs for the study of 'the New Negro'. |
| billie holiday impact on society: The Bowery Boys Greg Young, Tom Meyers, 2016-06-21 Uncover fascinating, little-known histories of the five boroughs in The Bowery Boys’ official companion to their popular, award-winning podcast. It was 2007. Sitting at a kitchen table and speaking into an old karaoke microphone, Greg Young and Tom Meyers recorded their first podcast. They weren’t history professors or voice actors. They were just two guys living in the Bowery and possessing an unquenchable thirst for the fascinating stories from New York City’s past. Nearly 200 episodes later, The Bowery Boys podcast is a phenomenon, thrilling audiences each month with one amazing story after the next. Now, in their first-ever book, the duo gives you an exclusive personal tour through New York’s old cobblestone streets and gas-lit back alleyways. In their uniquely approachable style, the authors bring to life everything from makeshift forts of the early Dutch years to the opulent mansions of The Gilded Age. They weave tales that will reshape your view of famous sites like Times Square, Grand Central Terminal, and the High Line. Then they go even further to reveal notorious dens of vice, scandalous Jazz Age crime scenes, and park statues with strange pasts. Praise for The Bowery Boys “Among the best city-centric series.” —New York Times “Meyers and Young have become unofficial ambassadors of New York history.” —NPR “Breezy and informative, crowded with the finest grifters, knickerbockers, spiritualists, and city builders to stalk these streets since back when New Amsterdam was just some farms.” —Village Voice “Young and Meyers have an all-consuming curiosity to work out what happened in their city in years past, including the Newsboys Strike of 1899, the history of the Staten Island Ferry, and the real-life sites on which Martin Scorsese’s Vinyl is based.” —The Guardian |
| billie holiday impact on society: Jerry Dantzic: Billie Holiday at Sugar Hill Jerry Dantzic, 2017-04-18 A vivid, intimate, and largely unseen photographic chronicle of one week in the life of jazz icon Billie Holiday In 1957, New York photojournalist Jerry Dantzic spent time with the iconic singer Billie Holiday during a week-long run of performances at the Newark, New Jersey, nightclub Sugar Hill. The resulting images offer a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse of Billie with her family, friends, and her pet chihuahua, Pepi; playing with her godchild (son of her autobiography’s coauthor, William Dufty); washing dishes at the Duftys’ home; walking the streets of Newark; in her hotel room; waiting backstage or having a drink in front of the stage; and performing. The years and the struggles seem to vanish when she sings; her face lights up. Later that same year, Dantzic photographed her in color at the second New York Jazz Festival at Randall’s Island. Only a handful of the photographs in the book have ever been published. In her text, Zadie Smith evokes Lady Day herself and shows us what she sees as she inhabits these images and reveals what she is thinking. |
| billie holiday impact on society: Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy Leonard Maltin, 2008 Portions of this book originally appeared in issues of Leonard Maltin's movie crazy--T.p. verso. |
| billie holiday impact on society: Buck Clayton's Jazz World Buck Clayton, Nancy M. Elliott, 1995-11-27 Intro -- Contents -- Foreword -- Introduction -- 1. One morning in Parsons, Kansas -- 2. Los Angeles and the West Coast -- 3. Shanghai -- 4. I never heard such swinging music -- 5. Basie -- 6. In Uncle Sam's army -- 7. JATP and a trip to Europe -- 8. A new phase in my career -- 9. From New York to Australia -- 10. Humphrey Lyttelton and my English tours -- 11. Health problems -- 12. Still swinging -- Chronological discography by Bob Weir -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z |
| billie holiday impact on society: Satchmo Louis Armstrong, 1986 In all my whole career the Brick House was one of the toughest joints I ever played in. It was the honky-tonk where levee workers would congregate every Saturday night and trade with the gals who'd stroll up and down the floor and the bar. Those guys would drink and fight one another like circle saws. Bottles would come flying over the bandstand like crazy, and there was lots of just plain common shooting and cutting. But somehow all that jive didn't faze me at all, I was so happy to have some place to blow my horn. So says Louis Armstrong, a tough kid who just happened to be a musical genius, about one of the places where he performed and grew up. This raucous, rich tale of his early days in New Orleans concludes with his departure to Chicago at twenty-one to play with his boyhood idol King Oliver, and tells the story of a life that began, mythically, on July 4, 1900, in the city that sowed the seeds of jazz. |
| billie holiday impact on society: Progressive Racism David Horowitz, 2016-04-26 Progressive Racism is about the transformation of the civil rights movement from a cause opposing racism—the denigration of individuals on the basis of their skin color - into a movement endorsing race preferences and privileges for select groups based on their skin color. It describes the tragic changes of this cause under the leadership of racial extortionists like Al Sharpton, who took a movement in support of American pluralism and turned it into a movement governed by a lynch mob mentality in which white Americans are regarded as guilty before the fact and African Americans are regarded as innocent even when the facts prove them guilty, even when their crimes are committed against other African Americans. The author of Progressive Racism, David Horowitz, is a witness to these events and betrayals. Horowitz was a participant in the civil rights movement of the 1960s, and in 2001 led a national campaign against a proposal for “slavery reparations” that would have required Hispanic, Asian and other Americans who had no role in slavery to pay reparations to African Americans who were never slaves. Progressive Racism examines how the term “racism” has been drained of its original meaning and is now used as a weapon to bludgeon opponents into silence. It describes how the so-called civil rights movement has become an oppressor of African Americans by supporting a failed school system that blights the lives of millions of African American children and a welfare system that has destroyed the black family and created a “underclass” dependent on government charity. It is an indictment of the hypocrisy that today governs discourse on race issues, so that a lynch mob in Ferguson, Missouri seeking to hang a police officer because he was white can be described as a civil rights protest and be supported by the first African American president of the United States. |
Music as a Bridge and Platform for Personal, Cultural, and …
Billie Holiday came into this life faced with many hardships and struggles. She was raised with harsh realities and hard choices inherent in an inequitable culture that allowed discrimination, segregation, disenfranchisement, and continued acts of oppression and brutality. Her life story, her musicality, her … See more
Performance as a Force for Change: The Case of Billie Holiday …
To Bobby Short, the song was "very, very pivotal," helping to move the tragedy of lynching from the black newspapers into the white consciousness. "When you think of the South and Jim …
“Strange Fruit”—Billie Holiday (1939) - Library of Congress
Though the newly-christened Billie Holiday continued to perform at Pod’s and Jerry’s, she also began to branch out to other clubs. By the 1930s, jazz, with its mix of blues and ragtime, was …
International Journal of Education & the Arts
While many scholars have analyzed the lyrics of “Strange Fruit”, research that focuses on young people’s reaction to the song is scarce. This study explores the impact of Holiday’s …
How American Protest Music Has Changed: A Study on the …
Based on all the violence in Holiday’s life, as well as the violence in her singing and the peace of mind it gives white people for being supportive enough of the black struggles to listen to the …
BILLIE HOLIDAY PLACE - harlemhistory.org
Holiday performed the song in 1939, a move that by her own admission left her fearful of retaliation. She later said that the imagery in "Strange Fruit" reminded her of her father's …
Billie Holiday Impact On Society (PDF) - goramblers.org
Billie Holiday Impact On Society thoughtfully created by the ChatStick Team Billie Holiday s deeply emotive voice and timeless jazz classics have left an enduring mark on music history In …
Billie Holiday Impact On Society - netstumbler.com
Billie Holiday’s enduring legacy transcends the realm of music. Her artistry, vulnerability, and unwavering spirit continue to inspire and challenge us to confront social injustices and …
Swing It Sister: The Influence of Female Jazz Musicians on …
musical concepts, added new vocal styles, worked to change the society they lived in, and worked hard to find their place in music no matter what got in their way, making them inspirations for …
Protest Music as a Communication Method; Research on …
Billie Holiday's song interpretation allows her to get ahead of other performers. "Strange Fruit" is a work of art, not a hymn and folk song melody, far from the style of propaganda and early …
Billie Holiday Impact On Society (PDF) - signal.vuilen.net
Billie Holiday Impact On Society: Religion Around Billie Holiday Tracy Fessenden,2019-10-16 Soulful jazz singer Billie Holiday is remembered today for her unique sound troubled personal …
Strange fruit: How Billie Holiday's performance of the anti …
Billie Holiday's recording of the anti-lynching song "Strange Fruit" has stirred and haunted generations of listeners.
Billie Holiday Contributions To Society Full PDF
Billie Holiday, a name synonymous with jazz and heartbreak, left an indelible mark on society far exceeding her musical genius. This article delves deep into her multifaceted contributions, …
Everybody’s Protest Song: Music as Social Protest in the
Irony also played a part in Holiday’s musical performances. As Angela Y. Davis writes of Holiday’s “ironic edge,” whether she was performing sentimental love songs or political protest, “In the …
The Politics of Sexuality in Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit”
By the time of Holiday’s debut of the song in 1939, the image of the Black rapist had been well entrenched in American society, thanks to den- igrating popular depictions in the media.
The Quintessential Billie Holiday, Volume 1: 1933-1935
Billie found that $20 a trick supplemented the family income far better than 15c a stoop. Yet again she bucked the heard."system by refusing the advances of a man who had influence with the …
'Strange Fruit,' Ekphrasis, and the Lynching Scene - JSTOR
Holiday's performance of the song as she engages in the process of representing a lynching scene by taking key visual elements of the scene and leveraging them in ways that appeal to …
Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday Caf Society and an Early Cry for …
Holiday first sang the graphic anti-lynching song in 1939 at Café Society, the legendary Greenwich Village nightclub with a clientele consisting largely of people to the far left of the …
“Strange Fruit”—Billie Holiday (1939) - Library of Congress
Billie Holiday was introduced to the song that would become such a crucial part of her life in April 1939. She was working at a New York nightclub called Café Society where black and white …
Billie Holiday Impact On Society - new.viralstyle.com
Billie Holiday Impact On Society : Colleen Hoovers "It Ends with Us" This poignant tale of love, loss, and resilience has gripped readers with its raw and emotional exploration of domestic …
Music as a Bridge and Platform for Personal, Cultural, and …
An inquiry into the life of Billie Holiday and the impact of her artistry proves that life experience, passion, and emotion channeled through music can be a conduit to initiate personal, cultural, …
Performance as a Force for Change: The Case of Billie …
To Bobby Short, the song was "very, very pivotal," helping to move the tragedy of lynching from the black newspapers into the white consciousness. "When you think of the South and Jim …
“Strange Fruit”—Billie Holiday (1939) - Library of Congress
Though the newly-christened Billie Holiday continued to perform at Pod’s and Jerry’s, she also began to branch out to other clubs. By the 1930s, jazz, with its mix of blues and ragtime, was …
International Journal of Education & the Arts
While many scholars have analyzed the lyrics of “Strange Fruit”, research that focuses on young people’s reaction to the song is scarce. This study explores the impact of Holiday’s …
How American Protest Music Has Changed: A Study on the …
Based on all the violence in Holiday’s life, as well as the violence in her singing and the peace of mind it gives white people for being supportive enough of the black struggles to listen to the …
BILLIE HOLIDAY PLACE - harlemhistory.org
Holiday performed the song in 1939, a move that by her own admission left her fearful of retaliation. She later said that the imagery in "Strange Fruit" reminded her of her father's …
Billie Holiday Impact On Society (PDF) - goramblers.org
Billie Holiday Impact On Society thoughtfully created by the ChatStick Team Billie Holiday s deeply emotive voice and timeless jazz classics have left an enduring mark on music history In …
Billie Holiday Impact On Society - netstumbler.com
Billie Holiday’s enduring legacy transcends the realm of music. Her artistry, vulnerability, and unwavering spirit continue to inspire and challenge us to confront social injustices and …
Swing It Sister: The Influence of Female Jazz Musicians on …
musical concepts, added new vocal styles, worked to change the society they lived in, and worked hard to find their place in music no matter what got in their way, making them inspirations for …
Protest Music as a Communication Method; Research on …
Billie Holiday's song interpretation allows her to get ahead of other performers. "Strange Fruit" is a work of art, not a hymn and folk song melody, far from the style of propaganda and early …
Billie Holiday Impact On Society (PDF) - signal.vuilen.net
Billie Holiday Impact On Society: Religion Around Billie Holiday Tracy Fessenden,2019-10-16 Soulful jazz singer Billie Holiday is remembered today for her unique sound troubled personal …
Strange fruit: How Billie Holiday's performance of the anti …
Billie Holiday's recording of the anti-lynching song "Strange Fruit" has stirred and haunted generations of listeners.
Billie Holiday Contributions To Society Full PDF
Billie Holiday, a name synonymous with jazz and heartbreak, left an indelible mark on society far exceeding her musical genius. This article delves deep into her multifaceted contributions, …
Everybody’s Protest Song: Music as Social Protest in the
Irony also played a part in Holiday’s musical performances. As Angela Y. Davis writes of Holiday’s “ironic edge,” whether she was performing sentimental love songs or political protest, “In the …
The Politics of Sexuality in Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit”
By the time of Holiday’s debut of the song in 1939, the image of the Black rapist had been well entrenched in American society, thanks to den- igrating popular depictions in the media.
The Quintessential Billie Holiday, Volume 1: 1933-1935
Billie found that $20 a trick supplemented the family income far better than 15c a stoop. Yet again she bucked the heard."system by refusing the advances of a man who had influence with the …
'Strange Fruit,' Ekphrasis, and the Lynching Scene - JSTOR
Holiday's performance of the song as she engages in the process of representing a lynching scene by taking key visual elements of the scene and leveraging them in ways that appeal to …
Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday Caf Society and an Early Cry for …
Holiday first sang the graphic anti-lynching song in 1939 at Café Society, the legendary Greenwich Village nightclub with a clientele consisting largely of people to the far left of the …
“Strange Fruit”—Billie Holiday (1939) - Library of Congress
Billie Holiday was introduced to the song that would become such a crucial part of her life in April 1939. She was working at a New York nightclub called Café Society where black and white …
Billie Holiday Impact On Society - new.viralstyle.com
Billie Holiday Impact On Society : Colleen Hoovers "It Ends with Us" This poignant tale of love, loss, and resilience has gripped readers with its raw and emotional exploration of domestic …
