Billie Holiday

In trying to gain ideas for my tins for the jazz festival I ran across this about Billie Holiday.

She is one of my all time favorite singers. A voice like butter, I just adore this lady.

Billie Holiday became a pioneer of race relations when she toured with Artie Shaw and his orchestra, becoming one of the first African-Americans to sing with a white band. During this time, she would often perform "Strange Fruit", a song about the lynchings of African
Americans, which became one of her signature songs.

For all of Billie's musical accomplishments, she was plagued with troubles as her romantic relationships with unscrupulous and abusive men dragged her career down and she sunk into drug addiction. Numerous arrests on drug charges and jail time served in 1947 caused her to lose her cabaret license, barring her from singing in venues serving alcohol for the rest of her career. Despite all of these difficulties, she always presented herself on stage with the eloquence and grace well deserving of her moniker "Lady".

Billie Holiday died at the age of 44 in 1959 and is remembered as a legendary singer of jazz and swing music.

There will be a couple of tins and an 8 x 10 black and white framed collage that I made two years ago dedicated to this "Lady"