Am I Blue? - Billie Holiday

[appalachiablue]

- A PowerPoint version for the song "Am I blue?", based on Billie's photography taken by Frank Driggs, at Offbeat Club, Chicago, 1939.

- Billie Holiday, born April 7, 1915 in Philadelphia, PA, was a superstar of her day. She first rose to prominence in the 1930’s with a unique style that reinvented the conventions of modern singing & performance. More than 80 years after making her first recording Billie’s legacy continues to embody what is elegant & cool in contemporary music. Holiday’s complicated life & her genre-defining autobiography “Lady Sings the Blues” made her a cultural icon. The evocative, soulful voice which she boldly put forth as a force for good, turned any song she sang into her own.

Today, Billie Holiday is remembered for her musical masterpieces, her songwriting skills, creativity & courageous views on inequality and justice.

Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan Gough) grew up in jazz-soaked Baltimore of the 1920s. In her early teens, the beginning part of her “apprenticeship” was spent singing along with the records of iconoclasts Bessie Smith & Louis Armstrong. In 1929 Billie’s mother Sadie Fagan moved to NY in search of better jobs. Young Eleanora soon joined her there & began showing up at jazz clubs to audition & sing with resident pianists. She made debuts in obscure Harlem nightclubs, sharing tips with other dancers & comedians on the bill...

More, https://billieholiday.com/bio/

[blm]

1. ❤️

[brush]

2. Thanks for posting. IMO she's a charter member of the great triumvirate of jazz singers...

Billie, Ella and Sarah.

[appalachiablue]

4. They're all wonderful treasures and artists.

[ProfessorGAC]

3. Cool Tune!

Was on my set list the summer in college when I gigged a piano bar.
People liked it, as I probably got $2-3 bucks in tips in my snifter every time I played it. 4 & 1/2 minute time at least $2 in tips. If I got that for every song, I'd have been making $40 an hour. In 1975!
This was a real piano bar too, with people actually sitting along the long end with a little shelf on which to set her drinks.
I probably made $120 in tips off that tune that summer.
Thanks, Billie!