Billie Holiday (1915-1959) was one of the most iconic jazz singers in history. Though she had no formal musical training, she had a natural gift for jazz, musically and emotionally connecting with audiences.
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Before we start today’s episode, I want to let you know that it contains mentions of sexual assault.
Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan and this is Encyclopedia Womannica.
Today we’re talking about one of the most iconic jazz singers in history. She led a short and difficult life filled with trial and tragedy. Though she had no formal musical training, she had a natural gift for jazz, musically and emotionally connecting with audiences. Let’s talk about Billie Holiday.
Eleanora Fagan was born in 1915 in Philadelphia, to teenage parents Clarence Holiday and Sadie Fagan. Soon after Eleanora’s birth, Clarence left the family. He would go on to become a successful guitar and banjo player, but would be largely absent in Eleanora’s life.
Sadie and Eleanora moved to Baltimore, to live with Sadie’s older half-sister, Eva Miller, and Eva’s mother-in-law, Martha. Eleanora would often be left with Martha, as her mother and aunt worked jobs that took them out of the house for weeks at a time.
Eleanora, meanwhile, began skipping school.
At just 9 years old, Eleanora was brought to court on truancy charges, and sent to the House of the Good Shepherd, a reform school.
After 9 months, Eleanora was “paroled.” But her homecoming was far from idyllic. Shortly after returning home, she was sexually assaulted by a neighborhood man. Eleanora was taken back into state custody, this time for nearly two months. Upon her release, she dropped out of school, at barely 12 years old.
It was during this time that Eleanora, still a child, still recovering from trauma, but working as a house cleaner, first heard records by the likes of Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith.
In 1928, Sadie, Eleanora’s mother, moved from Baltimore to Harlem. The next year, Eleanora joined her.
Sadie began working as a prostitute for their landlady, out of a brothel on 140th street. By some accounts, Eleanora ran errands for the brothel. By others, Eleanora herself was a sex worker, at barely 14 years old.
Over the next three years, Eleanora began developing her singing act, eventually landing a performance slot at a Harlem nightclub. Though she had no formal music training, Eleanora had an innate sense of musical structure and theory. Jazz and blues, genres whose songs relied on a singer’s well of pain and sadness, were a natural fit for Eleanora. Though just 17, she had already lived -- and survived -- a difficult life. She adopted the stage name “Billie,” after Billie Dove, a favorite actress.
In 1933, Eleanora, now “Billie,” made her first recordings with Benny Goodman, a bandleader known as “The King of Swing.” Two years later, she recorded again, this time with members of Count Basie’s jazz orchestra.
These records launched Billie’s career. Nicknamed “Lady Day,” she quickly became one of the most recognizable jazz singers of the era. And it wasn’t just her voice, which floated and swooped and made every performance feel completely of that moment. It was Billie’s performance style, with her signature white gardenias framing her face, which rendered even the simplest lyrics profound.
In 1939, Billie began performing “Strange Fruit,” an anti-lynching ballad. It became an enduring protest song, despite her record label’s insistence that she not record it. But it also placed Billie on the radar of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, which was determined to find the link between the jazz scene and drug use.
In 1947, at the height of her career, Billie was arrested for drug possession.
“It was the United States of America versus Billie Holiday,” she later wrote. “And that’s just the way it felt.”
Billie pleaded guilty, and spent nearly a year at Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia.
Though she was released early for good behavior, Billie’s conviction had cost her her New York City Cabaret Card. But it didn’t deter her fan base. Just 10 days after her release, Billie stepped onstage to a sold-out Carnegie Music Hall performance.
For the rest of her career, Billie was unable to perform at venues that sold alcohol. She performed instead at concert venues, on Broadway, on television, and toured across Europe. She kept recording, too. But her drug and alcohol abuse continued. She was arrested again for drug possession in 1949. By the early 1950s, her voice had started to fray.
In 1956, Billie released an autobiography and an accompanying record, both titled “Lady Sings the Blues.” Soon after, she performed two sold out concerts at Carnegie Hall, one of which was recorded and released as an album in 1961. Gilbert Milstein, a New York Times writer, wrote the liner notes. He later said of the concert, “I was very much moved. In the darkness, my face burned and my eyes. I recall only one thing: I smiled.”
In the summer of 1959, Billie was admitted to Metropolitan Hospital in New York, where she was diagnosed with both liver and heart disease.
Billie Holiday died in 1959 from cirrhosis, at just 44 years old. Days before, her room had been raided and she’d been arrested again for heroin possession. Police handcuffed her to her bed.
Despite her brief career, Billie remains one of the most iconic jazz singers in history. In singing the truth to power, in being unabashed and open with every single emotion she felt onstage, Billie brought an honesty to jazz that still resonates today. Lady still sings blues.
All month, we’re talking about musicians. For more on why we’re doing what we’re doing, check out our newsletter Womannica Weekly. You can also follow us on facebook and instagram @encyclopedia womannica and you can follow me directly @jennymkaplan.
Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator.
Talk to you tomorrow.