Billie Holiday: Most Influential Women In Jazz

Eleanora Fagan, better known by her stage name Billie Holiday, was born on April 7, 1915 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was a famous Jazz performer, recognized for fragile, raspy voice that was etched with emotion as she sang and her geniuse imporvisation skills. Billie became one of the first African American vocalists to work with a white orchestra (Artie Shaw and his band) and tour the Southern U.S, which at the time was segregated. Several of her songs including “What a Little Moonlight Can Do”, “Embracable You” and “Easy Living¨ became jazz standards after several artist imitations and her rendition of “Strange Fruit” became one of her best selling records. Her performance popularized and brought attention to the contoversal song. Aroud the same time she released the song,

Holiday became the 1st African American vocalist to work with a white orchestra, she appeared in a 1947 film ‘New Orleans’ with Louis Armstrong. Her autobiography was written with William Bufty in 1956. She performed for the last time in New York City on May

The greatest white female rock singer of the 1960s, Janis Joplin was also a great blues singer, making her material her own with her wailing, raspy, supercharged emotional delivery. First rising to stardom as the frontwoman for San Francisco psychedelic band Big Brother & the Holding Company, she left the group in the late '60s for a brief and uneven (though commercially successful) career as a solo artist. Although she wasn't always supplied with the best material or most sympathetic musicians, her best recordings, with both Big Brother and on her own, are some of the most exciting performances of her era. She also did much to redefine the role of women in rock with her assertive, sexually forthright persona and raunchy, electrifying on-stage

She began to sing the gospel at a very young age and enticed her to become a singer. She sang many spirituals in light of the great oppression African Americans were facing at the time. This singing greatly tested her vocal range and prepared her for the high notes she would have to sing as a contralto in Europe. This is where she would become extremely popular and open the door for more African americans to pursue

During that time she met a man working as security whom she later married before her first album was released. Bessie’s first recording the ‘Down hearted blues’ sold over 750,000 copies (University, 2002). This made her the highest paid black entertainer at that time, leading her own shows. However, in the background she struggled with alcoholism and also was going through an abusive relationship with her husband. Even that did not tear her apart, she was still on the Columbia’s A-series for most of that year.

This main claim of this article is that the sexual legislative issues of women’s blues singers of the 1920s and relates it to African American women’s ' fiction around that same time frame. Carby also claims that great soul vocalists such as Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Ethel Waters had more insight to contest society led by men and uncover the disagreements of African American women’s ' experience than African American essayists. As Hazel V. Carby has illustrated, women blues artists were for the most part disregarded by the black middle classes, particularly women who saw blues as a declaration of the most corrupted or regressive parts of African-American life. With the National Association of Colored Women and the Black Women movement,

Louis Armstrong was a singer, soloist, comedian, trumpeter and a film star. He was and still is considered one of the most influential artists in jazz history, he is known best for songs like “What a Wonderful World,” “ Stardust,” and "La Vie En Rose." In Armstrong’s early career he received a call from King Oliver to come to Chicago and join his Creole Jazz Band on second cornet and he accepted. He made his first record with Oliver on April 5, 1923, thus the start of Armstrong’s career with his first recorded solo being “Blues Chimes.”

The news of Tempie’s death shook Ella greatly. Shortly following her mother’s death, Ella was taken in by Tempie’s sister Virginia. After moving, Ella had a hard time adjusting to her new surroundings and became unhappy eventually starting to skip school frequently thus causing her grades to drop. It was at this time that she got into trouble with the police and was sent to a reform school. However, things got even worse for Ella while she was in the reform school as she often suffered beatings from those in charge.

Duke Ellington was a jazz author, conductor, and entertainer amid the Harlem Renaissance. During the developmental Cotton Club years, he explored different avenues regarding and built up the style that would rapidly bring him overall achievement. Ellington would be among the first to concentrate on melodic shape and sythesis in jazz. Ellington composed more than 2000 pieces in his lifetime. The Duke Ellington Orchestra was the "house" symphony for various years at the Cotton Club.

In 1938 she shaped a prolonged engagement at Cafe Society; the following year she joined Benny Goodman on a radio broadcast; she was regularly operating the massive New York theaters and the famous 52nd Street clubs, including Kelly's Stables and the Onyx Club all in addition to her recording successes. Two songs of the period are noteworthy: the first, "Strange Fruit," with a haunting lyric by Lewis Allan to which Billie contributed the music, is a graphic depiction of a lynching; her record company,

Amelia Earhart is one of the most influential and driven women to ever take to the skies. She grew up doing what she wanted to do in life and she lived her adulthood the same way. Despite the fact that the flying business was dominated by men, she was not discouraged. Not only did Amelia Earhart go against the social norm of being a female professional, she took on a career that only 16 other women had entered before.

This seemingly small exchange in identity led her to incite major social change and influence many young artists to come. During the Harlem renaissance in which Billie Holiday thrived, culture was changing and eyes were being opened not only to black talent and potential but the injustice done to blacks and their effects on the black community. “Strange Fruit”, one of Billie’s most successful songs, is timeless. It's the song that forced open the ears of white america. Through that song and Billie holiday’s powerful performance, A story crying out to be told was finally spoken and for one of the first times, people were listening.

I read the book Jazz Legend: Ella Fitzgerald by Tanya Lee Stone. I have always shared a love for music, but especially jazz. Jazz’s rhythmic and upbeat tone really fueled my passion for its music. Although I don’t play a particularly jazz like instrument, jazz is and always will be my favorite type of music. That is the reason why I chose this book Jazz Legend: Ella Fitzgerald she was one of the most humble, kind, caring and funniest artists of jazz.

The Jazz Age was a period of time from the 1920s-1930s. African Americans were often given most of the credit to the birth of Jazz music, but both black and white Americans were responsible for its huge rise in popularity. The rise in jazz music coincidentally came with the rise of radio broadcasting and recording technology. Female Musicians such as Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday started making music at this age, paving the way for future female musicians. Bessie Smith started her career in 1923.

As you can tell from the previous paragraphs, she was admired, respected and someone very important not only in the world of Music, but also in the heart of every person. She inspired Women and thought them how to stand up for themselves. However, we can also tell, that fame and money are not everything. As the saying goes, “Money cannot buy happiness.” – (Rousseau 1750).