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Billie Holiday
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Billie Holiday grew up in Baltimore and came to Harlem as a teenager, where she sang in clubs. She named Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong as her great examples: from Smith she took the power of the blues, from Armstrong the free handling of the beat. The producer John Hammond heard her in 1933. From 1935 she made a series of records with the pianist Teddy Wilson and the saxophonist Lester Young. She sang behind the beat, bent melodies towards her own speaking tone and turned ordinary songs into personal stories. In 1939 she recorded Strange Fruit for the label Commodore, an indictment of the lynching of Black Americans. Her life was marked by addiction and persecution by the police; she died in 1959.
Listening
Strange Fruit · Billie Holiday, 1939
God Bless the Child · Billie Holiday, 1941- Fine and Mellow · Billie Holiday, 1939
What a Little Moonlight Can Do · Billie Holiday, 1935
Discography
Studio albums
- 1947Billie Holiday
- 1951Lover Man
- 1952Billie Holiday
- 1952Solitude
- 1953Billie Holiday
- 1954Billie and Stan
- 1954Billie Holiday
- 1955Music for Torching
- 1956Jazz Recital
- 1956Lady Sings the Blues
- 1956Velvet Mood
- 1957Body and Soul
- 1958Lady in Satin
- 1958Songs for Distingué Lovers
- 1958Stay With Me
- 1958The Blues Are Brewin’
- 1959All or Nothing at All
- 1959Last Recording
- 1973Songs & Conversations
- 1976Billie Holiday
- 1992The voice
- 1995Love Me or Leave Me
- 1995On The Sentimental Side
- 1998Billie Holiday
- 2001Billie Holiday
- 2003Body & Soul
- 2003Les Plus Beaux Moments Jazz
- 2003You Go to My Head / Blue Moon / Tenderly
- 2004The Love Songs
- 2005Romance in the Dark, Vol. 1
- 2007Lady Day
- 2007The Man I Love
- 2023Misty & Blue
- ?Billie Holiday
Other work
- 1935What a Little Moonlight Can Do · with Teddy Wilson
- 1939Strange Fruit
- 1941God Bless the Child
In School of Rock
The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.
- Jazz MapNL Map
- After Hours: Session 1NL Reader
- After Hours: Session 2NL Reader
- Magazine: Strange FruitNL Magazine
Mentioned in other articles
- Vocal jazz Genre
Billie Holiday sang just behind the beat and altered melodies towards her own speech.
See also
- Music for Torching
- Lady Sings the Blues
- Body and Soul
- Lady in Satin
- Vocal jazz
- Swing and big band
- Abbey Lincoln
- Ann Burton