Listening to Lady Day *** Reprise

Introduction: It has been 9 years since I wrote this for All About Jazz, but apart from the date, I could have written it yesterday. Granted, my entire life has changed since then, but Billie Holiday, and her music, remain timeless. After this initially appeared on AAJ, I received a flurry of email messages from (I suspect) mostly youngsters, looking for more info, or wanting me to answer their questions about Billie. So, I’ll just say upfront that what I offer here is, among other things, a list of resources that you can access easily. I’m sure that since 2000, even more resources have become available. Look on Google, or try out the new Relief Search ( http://www.ReliefSearch.com ) and do somebody some good. And let me know if you find something great and I’ll post your comments as additional resources.

But mostly, Happy Birthday Billie. Thinking of you.

*************************************************

 April 7, 2000 marked what would have been Billie Holiday’s 85th birthday. In view of her exceptional talent, she died pitiably young, at the age of 44. In view of her life long struggle for survival, along with a marked skill at self-destruction, as contradictory as that sounds, she managed to win in some way just by staying around as long as she did.

In “Wishing On the Moon,” Donald Clarke writes in the final chapter, “Simple truths about Lady have always been in short supply, let alone more complicated ones.”  The truths that are known are the ones that have been sifted out over the years from myth and late night memories, from those who knew her, and those who only thought they did.

The facts of her birth, her death, and the struggle in between to do her work while battling discrimination, drug addiction and the law, have been spoken about at length by such luminous writers and minds as Nat Hentoff, Dan Morgenstern and Leonard Feather. British author/musician/broadcaster Benny Green wrote about her art and how she differed from her musical contemporaries in “The Reluctant Art.” And in Elizabeth Hardwick’s novel, “Sleepless Nights,” she remembers the Lady in a surreal poetry of the senses, through the kalidescope of years. Journalist David Margolick has written a book on the history of a single song, “Strange Fruit.” A song about racism and lynching in the South, Billie first brought it to public awareness when she was asked to sing it for the club’s racially integrated audience, by the club’s owner. The year was 1939.

Leslie Gourse has collected a number of excellent writings in her book, “The Billie Holiday Companion: Seven Decades of Commentary.” Each of these pieces presents a different truth about Billie, each author offers up a different facet of the Lady. For the lifelong Holiday fan, or for jazz neophytes, this is a good volume to keep handy. I suspect that if you read enough, listen enough, you can discern your own truths.

Listening. I was a teenager when I first heard Billie Holiday sing. I hung out with a group of guys who were already jazz afficionados, and for the most part, budding musicians. I had liked what I’d heard, but I don’t think I really got the full impact of the music until they played one of Billie’s records. I had always sung, and had always listened to all kinds of music, but when I heard her sing, it opened the door to jazz for me in a way that nothing else had. I had to go in through the vocals before I learned to appreciate the rest of it. Taking just the standards into consideration, I have discovered that this is not all that rare. Many musicians seem to hear lyrics as they play, perhaps giving greater depth to their own improvisational interpretations, no matter what instrument is being played. Having first learned lyrics from as fine a musician as Lady Day could only improve the chances of increased musical understanding on anyone’s part.

Listening. Mary Lou Williams said, “Billie Holiday was a pioneer and a genius. What she started nobody has ever been able to imitate. She was great because the suffering in her life developed into a true love that all heard who listened to her sing. Her singing reached people’s hearts because it was a true thing.”

Carmen McRae: “Only way she was happy was through a song. I don’t think she expressed herself as she would want to when you met her in person. The only time she was at ease and at rest with herself was when she sang.”

Listening. To know the music is more important than knowing the musician. Isn’t it? From the time Billie Holiday became well known, her life too often overshadowed the music. There were conflicting stories about how her trademark gardenias came about, conflicting stories about her relationships with men, with women, with her parents. In a short life filled with excesses, she left behind a remarkable legacy of music. She quite literally transmuted the pain and losses of her life into that music. She was a jazz singer, though many considered her a blues singer. Joachim Berendt said it well. “Billie Holiday sang the blues only incidentally. But through her phrasing and conception, much that she sang seemed to become blues.”

Whether through her sense of time, her phrasing, her narrow range that demanded a greater creativity in moving about the structure of a song, or her astounding ability to open a window of meaning and emotion onto even the most banal lyric, Billie Holiday influenced, either directly or indirectly, nearly every jazz singer who came after her. She was a singing horn, who miraculously did not scat to prove her musicianship. She didn’t have to. Even more significantly, she sang with something so rare that it convinced people that what she did was simply intuitive. Natural. Easy. The truth is, she was brilliant, and the music that she left us, when she left us, will continue to shine through the years, no matter what is said. And we will listen.

Link to the original article: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/articles/eyee0400.htm

Invitation

 Years ago, I wrote a semi-regular column for the well known (now) site, All About Jazz, called Eye and Ear. I came up with the name because I was writing about jazz, reading and sometimes reviewing jazz books, listening to and reviewing CD’s, and I was a jazz photographer who sometimes interviewed well known and lesser known, jazz figures. Not just musicians, but people like Dan Morgenstern, who have spent their lives promoting jazz, educating people about jazz, loving jazz.

Doing the column was alot of fun, but could also be taxing, considering the fact that at different times while I was doing it, I was also working full-time as a photo editor/researcher/photographer. My life is less harried these days. Since I am no longer on a writing schedule for someone else, I thought I would return to my previous efforts to simply keep the music out there in front of people. Along the way, I will talk about the books I am reading, share some photography, talk to some friends about their music, and share what I am listening to. If you have something that you’d like to share, contact me, and I’ll try to include it in what I’m writing about.