Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday is interred in Saint Raymond's Cemetery, Bronx, New York. The word tympany is an old-fashioned one meaning, "swollen, inflated, puffed-up", etymologically related to timpani, or "kettle drum", but historically separate. She was arrested on her deathbed; in 1959, narcotic addiction was a crime, not an illness. The Broadway show, Five Guys Named Moe was devoted to Jordan's music. She was swindled out of her earnings and died with only $0.70 in the bank and $750 dollars on her person. Jordan died in Los Angeles, California. She had no cabaret card; this kept her from working in New York City clubs for the last 12 years of her life. After this, however, Jordan's popularity waned and he recorded only for a small following of enthusiasts.

Her final years were a tragedy. At Mercury Records, Jordan managed to update his sound and released more hits, including "Let the Good Times Roll" and "Salt Pork, West Virginia". Her performance of Abel Meeropol's anti-lynching song on Commodore, "Strange Fruit", with the lyric "Southern trees bear strange fruit" gave her a place, not just in musical history, but in American history [1] (http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/strangefruit/). By the mid 1950s, Jordan's records were not selling as well as they used to and he began switching labels. Her performance of "Fine and Mellow" on CBS's The Sound of Jazz program is memorable for her interplay with dear friend Lester Young - both were less than two years from death. One of Jordan's biggest fans was Chuck Berry, who modelled his musical approach on Jordan's, changing the text from black life to teenage life. Several of her songs, including her signature song "God Bless the Child", George Gershwin's "I Love You Porgy" (covered exactly by Simone), and the rueful blues "Fine and Mellow" are jazz classics. Jordan's recordings celebrated African American urban life and were infused with good humor and energy that had a great influence on the development of rock and roll; his music was popular with both blacks and whites.

Her late recordings on Verve are as well remembered as her Commodore and Decca recordings of 20 years before. His biggest hit was "Caldonia", with its energetic punchline, banged out by the whole band, "Caldonia! Caldonia! What makes your big head so hard?" After Jordan's success with it, the song was also recorded by Woody Herman in a famous modern arrangement, including a unison chorus by five trumpets. They were separated at the time of her death. In the 1940s, Jordan released dozens of hit songs including "Saturday Night Fish Fry" (one of many contenders for the title of "First rock and roll record"), "Blue Light Boogie", "Ain't Nobody Here but Us Chickens", "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby?", "Ain't That Just Like a Woman", and the multi-million seller "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie". That March 28, Billie married Louis McKay, a mafia "enforcer." McKay, like most of the men in her life, was abusive, but did try to get her off drugs. The band's sound was similar to that of Fats Waller and his rhythm, but louder, with more pronounced rhythm, and that touch of the Caribbean sound commonly called "the Spanish tinge". She finally divorced Monroe in 1957 as she split with Guy. Jordan played alto sax and sang.

While still married to Monroe, she took up with trumpeter Joe Guy as his common law wife. Though this was recorded with The Elks Rendezvous Band, Jordan would go on to play with His Tympany Five, which eventually included Bill Jennings and Carl Hogan on guitar, Wild Bill Davis and Bill Doggett on piano, Chris Columbus on drums and Dallas Bartley on bass. She married trombonist Jimmy Monroe on August 25, 1941. In 1932, Jordan began performing with Chick Webb and Clarence Williams, recording "Honey in the Bee Ball" for Decca Records in 1938. Her personal life was as turbulent as the songs she sang. Alto saxophone became his main instrument-- although Jordan became even better known as a vocalist with his ebullient personality. In 1987 U2 released "Angel of Harlem", a tribute to her. Jordan started out on clarinet, and also played piano professionally early in his career.

Diana Ross played her in a movie version of her autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues. Louis Jordan was born in Brinkley, Arkansas; his father was a local music teacher and bandleader. Even after her death she influenced such singers as Janis Joplin and Nina Simone. Louis Jordan (July 8, 1908 - February 4, 1975) was an African-American jazz and rhythm & blues musician, and one of the few such to sell well to mainstream audiences in the post swing music era. This affected her voice as well, and in her later recordings youthful spirit is replaced by overtones of regret, but her impact on other artists was undeniable. Download sample of "Caldonia". Holiday's success was marred by this growing dependence on drugs, alcohol, and abusive relationships.

It is unclear who first introduced Holiday to the drug, but there is consensus from historians and contemporaneous sources that she began intravenous use sometime around 1940. However, it was heroin that would be her undoing. Holiday was a dabbler in recreational drug use for most of her life, smoking marijuana, in some accounts, as early as twelve or thirteen years of age. Even when she was young and singing trivial pop songs, her unique tone and emotional commitment made her performances special.

She explained the sense of overpowering drama that featured in her songs, saying, "I've lived songs like that". Once before an audience, she was transformed into Lady Day with the white gardenia in her hair. She later worked with such legends as Lester Young, Count Basie, and Artie Shaw, breaking the color barrier along the way by becoming one of the black jazz singers of that era to perform with white musicians. Nevertheless, she was still forced to use the back entrance and forced to wait in a dark room away from the audience before appearing on stage. Shortly thereafter, Holiday began performing regularly at numerous clubs on 52nd Street in Manhattan.

The performance, with pianist (and then-lover) Bobby Henderson, did much to solidify her standing as a jazz and blues singer. On November 23, 1934, she performed at the Apollo Theater to glowing reviews. It was around this time that Holiday had her first successes as a live performer. Hammond arranged several sessions for her with Benny Goodman; her first-ever recording was "Your Mother's Son-In-Law" (1933).

Around 1932 she was "discovered" by record producer John Hammond at a club called Monette's (there is still some dispute among historians about who was the first to hear and publicise her, although it is generally agreed that Hammond was the first). Settling in Harlem, Holiday began singing informally in numerous clubs. In the rare times Billie did see him, she would shake him down for money by threatening to tell his girlfriend of the moment that she was his daughter. Clarence Holiday accepted paternity, but was hardly a responsible father.

This stems from a copy of her birth certificate in Baltimore archives that lists the father as a "Frank DeViese." Some historians consider this an anomaly, probably inserted by a hospital or government worker (See Donald Clarke, Billie Holiday: Wishing on the Moon, ISBN 0306811367). There is controversy regarding her paternity. This preceded her move to New York with her mother sometime in the early 1930s. A hardened and angry child, she dropped out of school at an early age and, allegedly, began working as a prostitute with her mother.

Billie was largely raised by her mother and other relatives. Billie Holiday's parents married when she was three, but they soon divorced. Her mother, Sadie Fagan, was just 13 at the time of her birth; her father Clarence Holiday, a jazz guitarist who would play for Fletcher Henderson, was 15. According to her autobiography, her house was the first on their street to have electricity.

She was born in Philadelphia but grew up in the Fells Point section of Baltimore. Much of Billie Holiday's childhood is clouded by conjecture and legend, some of it propagated by herself in her autobiography published in 1950. Born Eleanora Fagan, she had a difficult childhood which affected her life and career. Billie Holiday (April 7, 1915 - July 17, 1959), also called Lady Day is generally considered one of the greatest jazz singers of all time.

Donald Clarke, Billie Holiday: Wishing on the Moon. Download sample of "That Ol' Devil Called Love".