These days we hear and see a lot about the infamous Amy Winehouse, her fantastic voice, her drug and now alcohol addictions and how these are ruining her talents.
Let’s not forget how exactly 50 years ago Eleanora Fagan, also known as Billie Holiday, died in a New York City hospital after a far more tumultous life and destroying her voice; a far better one than Amy’s in my opinion.
Holiday was a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo.
According to her own account, she worked as a prostitute in the early 1930s and shortly after she started singing for tips in various night clubs of Harlem.
By the 1950s, Holiday had recorded a string of successful records including “Strange Fruit”, “God Bless the Child” and “My man”, but her drug abuse, drinking, and relations with abusive men led to a deteriorating health. As evidenced by her later recordings, Holiday's voice coarsened and did not project the power it once had.
On May 31, 1959, she was taken to the Metropolitan Hospital in New York suffering from liver and heart disease. Police officers were stationed at the door to her room. She was arrested for drug possession as she lay dying and her hospital room was raided by authorities. Holiday remained under police guard at the hospital until she died on July 17, 1959.
If you, like me, think she had an extraordinary life and gave future musical generations a lesson that only a few have followed I recommend you tune into BBC Radio 2 on Tuesday 7th and 14th July with two documentaries on her life and music.
In the first one, All of Me – The Betrayal Of Billie Holiday, singer Neneh Cherry takes a look back at a single amazing year in Holiday’s life when she went from being a prisoner to centre stage at the Carnegie Hall in just 11 days
She reveals how the singer was betrayed by her own manager and sentenced to a year and a day in a federal prison on a drugs conviction which eventually destroyed her career.
The following week Billy Crystal takes a personal look at the life and music of this legendary jazz singer who he knew personally in Billy On Billie on Tuesday 14th July.
Crystal's family owned and operated the legendary Commodore Records label, home of many of Billie's greatest songs and he celebrates her enduring influence and explains why she was a true icon and exemplary performer.
I hope you enjoy it!
