Billie Holiday always makes me cry. She suffered so much heartache in life and she was a genius in regards in expressing that in music. She makes you feel and believe every single word
Listen to the early years - 1936, 37 Brunswick recordings. Vibrant energy before the heroin got into her veins. Really uplifting, and I recommend them.
Billie is an acquired taste, even more so than most jazz artists, I was once so young and stupid as to not have a clue what was 'great' about her. I no longer am. She truly haunts one's soul with her music. I can't think of anyone else who can. As for this analysis, superb.
Wow. I feel like I have been looking at a pencil sketch of Billie Holiday all these years and now it's a colorfully detailed painting. Thank you for filling in her tragic life and amazing impact. Still shaking my head.
Your my favorite analysts. I learn so much because your so knowledgeable. And I can tell you really enjoy music and musicians. I love the way you so often have a smile on your face as you listen.
The look on Fil's face is what she did to people. That enchantment of her sweet voice, drifting away in it's lovely sound. I do the same thing. Probably everyone has that look on their face watching her. She was unlike any other.
This song is from the "Lady in Satin" album and her voice is pretty shot at this point, both on record and live. But the passion and harrowing pain comes through and she overcomes her physical limitations to create haunting art. Her voice was incredible earlier in her career. She was banned from performing in NYC for awhile which really hurt her and led to a downward spiral. She may have been a heroin addict and had bad relationships with men, but she is a true legend. She modeled her phrasing and singing behind the beat from Frank Sinatra. Thanks for doing a video on Billie Holiday. I encourage music fans to go back and listen to one of her "best of" albums and be amazed at how different she sounds then. Songs like "Them There Eyes" and "Good Morning Heartache" will give you chills. Sorry for all this rambling, but I'm a absolute music junkie. If you do a video on Motorhead tomorrow, I'll be here.
I read her autobiography. She knew her husband was out cheating on her and he started to make up a story and she said to him. Take a bath man don't explain. Then the song came . It's about her first husband Jimmy Monroe
You have brought my mom back to me for a visit. She introduced Billie to me when I was a child. She made me understand Strange Fruit. It was an introduction to many subsequent conversations about racism and our not so shining history in America. I was young, but it made a huge impression on me.
Talking so humanly,careingly,with your professional take on a singer who is the soul of pain who lived it ,it was the air that she would breath for her short life that you and so many of us have felt her pain as she sang so so good I tip my hat to you fil.well done for the portrait of a fall in star.
Many years ago, in music school, I knew a fellow student, a flutist, who was obsessed with Billie Holiday. At the time I couldn't really understand why he felt that way, but your analysis here explained many of the reasons she is one of the greatest artists and singers. The imitators don't even come close.
The reason most didn't get Billie Holiday is because they were looking to be entertained and her priority was to tell them about life in the form of a song.
Thank You Fil for honoring one of the all time Greats. Is this Jazz? The Blues? It’s Lady Day. ‘Nuff said. It’s the Soul in her, so deep. She, who experienced every degradation and humiliation being Black in a Jim Crow world, and every abuse and exploitation as a Woman in a Mans world, she knew of pain and the low down blues. The song “Strange Fruit” was awarded the best American song of the century by Time magazine, and it was one of 50 recordings entered into the National Recording Registry in 2002. Like her recording here, one word describes them... haunting. The holographic theater that opened in Hollywood a couple of years ago featured Billie Holiday in concert as their 1st featured artist, before MJ and all the rest, and to have her holograph sing on stage from a live concert, loaded, leaning on the piano, with her band behind her was a stunning experience. Then I got it- what makes this singer, with not the prettiest voice, but a singular voice, the legend she is.
I LOVE music. I own thousands of Vinyl/cassettes/CDs. I have a few Holiday box sets. I watched Lady Sings The Blues with Diana Ross last night, and then watched a few live songs, and ended with this video. I'm 60+ years old. It wasn't until watching this video and hearing you say it, that it clicked that Billie's voice is leading the band, not the normal way rockers do it. I learned something new. THANK YOU!
What can one say. She just takes your breath away and there are no words to describe her; the talent she was. Gosh, you may hear her voice on a popular film and it just adds so much to the emotion of the scene-idk. Thanks for sharing this and about her hard but interesting life. Nat King Cole was also one of a kind. "Summer time" is a beautiful song
Aggghhhhh... missed yet another excellent analysis by you, Fil. Billie Holiday is one of my favourite jazz vocalists. She’s often mistakenly labelled a blues singer, but she was primarily jazz. I have a list of my favourite all-time albums; her LP “LADY IN SATIN” is in that list. Superb album. The emotion behind her singing is second to none. You can hear the heart wrenching torment of a hard life in each of her renditions.
Thanks, Fil! Right now I can picture my Dad sitting in his favorite armchair listening to Billie singing "What a Little Moonlight Can Do" abd I'll bet he saw the influence in Frank Sinatra. My Dad envied John Hammond's being able to see so many great artists and producing music!
Another master class, Fil! Music appreciation, performance and technique, history, civil rights. That’s why I come back to your channel night after night. 😊
Extraordinary vocalist who can tear your heart out. She's near the end of her life here and you can see it in her face. A lot of pain and anguish in those vocals.
Such a tragic story about her life. One can only wonder if she would still have the same problems in today's world or if she could find more help for addictions. Her voice was beautiful even in her later years and her music is timeless. Thanks for reviewing this performance!
If her childhood was the same, then yes she would have the same problems. Realistically though, her problems would be different, because her life as a child would have been substantially different. Even back then her life could have been drastically different with one simple decision: _if her grandparents had not kicked her mom out when she was pregnant_ (and needed them more than she had since she herself was a child). As far as substance abuse, no one could ever say since they would have to observe her in *both* circumstances and that is impossible. Yes it is easier to find help for addictions these days. But the problem is not finding a cure, it is finding a prevention, and all of the problems that led to addiction in the past are still with us today. We've made some baby steps in the right direction, but many out there are trying harder than ever to pull us back into the dark ages.
so good to hear an artist like Billie who creates her own musical space with clarinet like three dimensionality. One of her trademark methods was phrasing by trailing off the end of a long note with a couple of lower notes, thereby suggesting an arpeggio, which then forms a chord in the subconscious perceptions of the listener, giving a visceral physical authenticity to the musical experience. Most good singers do this unawares and Billy was like a walking textbook of many such advanced musical artistic methods.
Hallelujah! Thank you so much Fil. I've been waiting for Billie and you didn't disappoint. As an aside, the vocal fry she has in her later years is predominantly because of opiates. Find footage of dope users talking and it's the same thing. The opiates relax the breathing and it becomes shallow. She was on methadone at this point but the effects were the same. Hounded in her deathbed by the same racist narcotics agent who hated the impact her song Strange Fruit had on the populace, when she began to recover on methadone, he came to her room, had her cuffed to her bed, and taken off methadone. She died not long after. There's a special place in Hell for Harry Anslinger. So many great comments for this review. Perhaps the '57 live Fine and Mellow with the dream team could follow? Please? Pretty please?? 😆
"Her day was born in shades of blue, her song was sad the words were true, her morning came too fast too soon and died before the afternoon.....". You mention the enormous influence Billie (the greatest of jazz singers) had on Frank Sinatra (the greatest of pop singers) and in 1969 Sinatra affectedly recorded "Lady Day" as a tribute to her and from which come those lyrics I've quoted. They end: "And then the evening comes, and now she doesn't cry, and it's too late to say goodbye". Devastating.
This is marvelous: I've been waiting for you to look at Billie Holiday! Though I don't have a musical education, and don't speak the musical terminology, one of my favorite of several Billie bios deals with her as a musician first, tragic figure second. I remember reading that musicians respected her in a way they usually didn't respect singers, because of how she and her vocal talent and technique related to them. Also, her saxaphone friend, the great Lester Young and she were roommates with her mother at some point. Her mother said that, if she was in another room and heard them rehearsing, she couldn't tell the sax from Billie's voice, it was so like an instrument. The book said that she had a small vocal range, but was so flexible with it, the limited range didn't matter. Small correction: Teddy Wilson, not Terry. Thank you for this lovely and sympathetic look at a great artist.
Poor Girl, so much talent, so much suffering. RIP gorgeous, her fight is still front page news today, a voice one recognizes instantly, like Janis and Patsy she still lives through the music but what is it about tortured geniuses that are plucked away at the nadir of their career that adds so much to the adulation and becomes an unseparated part of the personna and mystique.
The immortal Billie Holiday....an amazing lady of song who lived such a tragic life! The influence that she had on other artist was outstanding! Another sensational songstress I grew up listening to! Thanks for this Fil! Cheers Mario! 😀🤘👌
I love your in-depth analysis of what stood Billie apart from other vocalists in terms of technique and how she used this is express the feeling of the song. It is also worth mentioning that she rarely sang songs straight, as written by the composer, again as a means of conveying the emotional expression she wanted to get across. At this point in her career, she was also compensating for the frailty of her voice with facial expression and gestures. Can you please do an analysis of one of her earlier songs and perhaps compare is to a version by another artist of the same era? I wishes on the Moon? It is interesting that people generally either love or hate Billie. Some people can't get past the eccentricity of her tone and the weird timbre. Those who do, fall in love with her style of singing and her innate musicality. I have been a life-long fan since my teenage years thanks to the movie Lady Sings the Blues. There is a wonder book about Billie (the best I've read , and I've read them all): Billie Holiday - the musician and the myth, Sadly, during her lifetime, she was mostly known to the general public for the scandals and tabloid headlines surrounding her private life. As a singer, she had only a cult following. This books addresses both aspects of her life and career and examines how the two aspects are separate and yet inextricably intertwined.
You amaze me with your knowledge.👏The time and energy you spend on these analysis is so impressive. I've heard of her but never really listened to her. She sang with her soul and makes you feel what she's singing kinda like Bob Dylan does. I learn so much from you Fil and I'm grateful. Btw you look well rested and you look really really good and so does your hair!❤I'm sad to say again it will be awhile before I can watch Fil so take care ❤love ya.❤
When Billy Holliday sang "Strange Fruit" no-one could ever deny the anguish in her voice, If you watch the video of her sing it you won't be able to deny the anguish in her facial expressions either, I can't help but cry so hard everytime I watch it.
Wow!!!!Wow!!!!...What a huge selection of interpreter and analysis ... Billie Holyday and Carmen Mercedes McRae are Huge Jazz singers with enormous influence as you refer in your analysis; She is one of my favorite singers and the song Stormy Weather is my favorite because of the deep feeling with which she interprets it again. I congratulate you on these selections for your analysis. There are no more words than...👌👌👌👏👏✔✔✔💯💯💯🔷🔶🔷🔶🙌🙌🙌🌷🌷🌹🌹⚘⚘🤘👊
Fil, Thank you for your analysis of one of the great singers of the 20th century, Billie Holiday! One slight correction, at 5:27 in your video you said “your ace game”, whereas Billie (0:27 in her video) was singing “you raise Cain” 🤓😍
Wings of Pegasus That’s the wonder and glory of jazz! She co-wrote the song years before, and as a great performer and improvisationalist felt free to change things as she saw the need.
Legendary PHENOMENAL talent. Some people got her and some didn't. If you really listened..She Was brilliant. Bare bones accompaniment made it even more effective. Enough said. 🎼🎶🎵🇨🇦
Strange Fruit was the first song I heard her sing, during my early childhood during the Civil Rights Movement. And yet, with all the battles they had, they are still fighting. She lived through hard times that probably would have killed most people, and from those depths she sang. Her voice moves people. She moved people enough to recognize her accomplishments and to preserve her song for eternity.
It's too bad most of the video of Billie are these late TV appearances in the late '50s. She still had all of the technique but her voice was quite diminished at this point. If you want to hear her at her best go back to her stuff from the 1930s and '40s with The Teddy Wilson Orchestra and Basie. Billie considered herself a musical instrument, not a singer per se and sang notes like a horn player plays. Thanks so much for exploring Billie, Fil. She had a very sad shortened life and deserves to be even better known than she is. A true pioneer as a woman, African American and musical genius.
EXCELLENT, Fil! I'm loving your analyses of these older musicians (loved your Bing analysis!) Thanks so much! Can you do one on Sarah Vaughan sometime? Take care and keep safe! xo
This lady is a hero of mine. An amazing expressive voice and a great singer, but she is so much more than that. A lady who had a tough life and fought so hard, but the establishment killed her in the end. An inspiration.
As You mention it great to look back at live footage and recording of artist like Billie Holiday and the time period in witch they grew up in. Janis Joplin had a trace of Billie's influence in her. (Rest in Peace ladies)
You should do a vid on me, returning to guitar, valiantly working on Folsom Prison and Stairway to Heaven . "What determination this guy has." Btw. I like Billie.
Phrasing great but the drugs like heroin addiction rasped the beautiful voice. She was a true original and broke color barrier with Artie Shaw in the '30s. My favorite is her Columbia sides in the '30s. What a Little Moonlight Can Do a good place to start.
Billie has always been my favorite. If you haven't heard young Angelina Jordan sing, then you need to do yourself the favor. She has been a student of Billie Holiday since she was very small. Listen for her rasp and vintage vibrato.
Billie Holiday always makes me cry. She suffered so much heartache in life and she was a genius in regards in expressing that in music. She makes you feel and believe every single word
Listen to the early years - 1936, 37 Brunswick recordings. Vibrant energy before the heroin got into her veins. Really uplifting, and I recommend them.
Billie is an acquired taste, even more so than most jazz artists, I was once so young and stupid as to not have a clue what was 'great' about her. I no longer am. She truly haunts one's soul with her music. I can't think of anyone else who can. As for this analysis, superb.
Billie was also so good with the words. She made many lyric writers sound like geniuses. I enjoyed your interesting account of her life.
You have given us another class in music appreciation. Her voice was so distinct.
There is not another singer that has brought me to tears near as many times as Billie.
Brilliant analysis
Wow. I feel like I have been looking at a pencil sketch of Billie Holiday all these years and now it's a colorfully detailed painting. Thank you for filling in her tragic life and amazing impact. Still shaking my head.
Your my favorite analysts. I learn so much because your so knowledgeable. And I can tell you really enjoy music and musicians. I love the way you so often have a smile on your face as you listen.
Lady Day had such a sad life, but she was an expressive singer--even close to the end.
I sometimes play my Billie Holiday playlist and let it loop for hours. Her voicecan give me goose bumps. Thank you for this
The look on Fil's face is what she did to people. That enchantment of her sweet voice, drifting away in it's lovely sound. I do the same thing. Probably everyone has that look on their face watching her. She was unlike any other.
This song is from the "Lady in Satin" album and her voice is pretty shot at this point, both on record and live. But the passion and harrowing pain comes through and she overcomes her physical limitations to create haunting art. Her voice was incredible earlier in her career. She was banned from performing in NYC for awhile which really hurt her and led to a downward spiral. She may have been a heroin addict and had bad relationships with men, but she is a true legend. She modeled her phrasing and singing behind the beat from Frank Sinatra. Thanks for doing a video on Billie Holiday. I encourage music fans to go back and listen to one of her "best of" albums and be amazed at how different she sounds then. Songs like "Them There Eyes" and "Good Morning Heartache" will give you chills. Sorry for all this rambling, but I'm a absolute music junkie. If you do a video on Motorhead tomorrow, I'll be here.
This song is not on that album!
@@karlsmith2052 She wrote don't explain
I read her autobiography. She knew her husband was out cheating on her and he started to make up a story and she said to him. Take a bath man don't explain. Then the song came . It's about her first husband Jimmy Monroe
Thank you, Sue Prost...no wonder it has such a sincere heart breaking feel.
You have brought my mom back to me for a visit. She introduced Billie to me when I was a child. She made me understand Strange Fruit. It was an introduction to many subsequent conversations about racism and our not so shining history in America. I was young, but it made a huge impression on me.
Talking so humanly,careingly,with your professional take on a singer who is the soul of pain who lived it ,it was the air that she would breath for her short life that you and so many of us have felt her pain as she sang so so good I tip my hat to you fil.well done for the portrait of a fall in star.
Thank you for your analysis ! I appreciate the time you have spent and the knowledge I have gained about Billie Holliday!
Many years ago, in music school, I knew a fellow student, a flutist, who was obsessed with Billie Holiday. At the time I couldn't really understand why he felt that way, but your analysis here explained many of the reasons she is one of the greatest artists and singers. The imitators don't even come close.
The reason most didn't get Billie Holiday is because they were looking to be entertained and her priority was to tell them about life in the form of a song.
I heard her sing Strange Fruit and was haunted by her since.
Thank You Fil for honoring one of the all time Greats. Is this Jazz? The Blues? It’s Lady Day. ‘Nuff said. It’s the Soul in her, so deep. She, who experienced every degradation and humiliation being Black in a Jim Crow world, and every abuse and exploitation as a Woman in a Mans world, she knew of pain and the low down blues. The song “Strange Fruit” was awarded the best American song of the century by Time magazine, and it was one of 50 recordings entered into the National Recording Registry in 2002. Like her recording here, one word describes them... haunting. The holographic theater that opened in Hollywood a couple of years ago featured Billie Holiday in concert as their 1st featured artist, before MJ and all the rest, and to have her holograph sing on stage from a live concert, loaded, leaning on the piano, with her band behind her was a stunning experience. Then I got it- what makes this singer, with not the prettiest voice, but a singular voice, the legend she is.
Truth
I LOVE music. I own thousands of Vinyl/cassettes/CDs. I have a few Holiday box sets. I watched Lady Sings The Blues with Diana Ross last night, and then watched a few live songs, and ended with this video.
I'm 60+ years old. It wasn't until watching this video and hearing you say it, that it clicked that Billie's voice is leading the band, not the normal way rockers do it. I learned something new. THANK YOU!
Billie... a simply sublime Diva.
Fil, even before I start to listen can I say you've chosen a brilliant track..
Great vid Fil. Such a tough life BIllie led, she sings the pain, and allows the listener to join in the story.
The list of musicians, singers and entertainers that died untimely/tragic deaths is unbelievably sad. Hurts to think about. Thank you for the video.
Thank you Fil for this iconic and unforgettable classic. It's so powerful and emotional...and of course your - as always - awesome analysis.
What can one say. She just takes your breath away and there are no words to describe her; the talent she was. Gosh, you may hear her voice on a popular film and it just adds so much to the emotion of the scene-idk. Thanks for sharing this and about her hard but interesting life. Nat King Cole was also one of a kind. "Summer time" is a beautiful song
I love Billie Holliday. Now I have to go back and listen to her recordings again, which is not the worst thing I could be doing right now.
Aggghhhhh... missed yet another excellent analysis by you, Fil.
Billie Holiday is one of my favourite jazz vocalists. She’s often mistakenly labelled a blues singer, but she was primarily jazz.
I have a list of my favourite all-time albums; her LP “LADY IN SATIN” is in that list. Superb album. The emotion behind her singing is second to none. You can hear the heart wrenching torment of a hard life in each of her renditions.
Thanks, Fil! Right now I can picture my Dad sitting in his favorite armchair listening to Billie singing "What a Little Moonlight Can Do" abd I'll bet he saw the influence in Frank Sinatra. My Dad envied John Hammond's being able to see so many great artists and producing music!
Wow Fil- I didn't realize how little I knew about Billie Holiday until I enjoyed your video. Thank you.
Billie Holiday is a great singer. Thanks for sharing this analysis video. Cheers, Fil! ✌️
Great insights on one of the best performers. Thanks Fil
❤❤forgot to tell ya even though I may not be able to always watch your live streams I will always spike the likes ahead of time.❤❤
She was an amazing artist.
Thanks, Fil 🖤🤘🏽
I have no words for this.
Another master class, Fil! Music appreciation, performance and technique, history, civil rights. That’s why I come back to your channel night after night. 😊
A beautiful rich voice. Its wonderful how artists inspire each other.
I think with her music, you can always hear HER. She brings you into her world.
Her music is a gift.
Extraordinary vocalist who can tear your heart out. She's near the end of her life here and you can see it in her face. A lot of pain and anguish in those vocals.
Introducing a performer that I only know as a name. Well done, Fil!
What an amazing life! So much sorrow and such great heights in musical success. Thanks, Fil, for your most informative analysis.
Again... really making me appreciate even more!!! I also Appreciate your guidance and unbelievable insight, You are truly talented my friend!!
Thanks!
She was a true Diva, but lived her own tragedy.
She left fabulous legacy.
Such a tragic story about her life. One can only wonder if she would still have the same problems in today's world or if she could find more help for addictions. Her voice was beautiful even in her later years and her music is timeless. Thanks for reviewing this performance!
If her childhood was the same, then yes she would have the same problems. Realistically though, her problems would be different, because her life as a child would have been substantially different. Even back then her life could have been drastically different with one simple decision: _if her grandparents had not kicked her mom out when she was pregnant_ (and needed them more than she had since she herself was a child).
As far as substance abuse, no one could ever say since they would have to observe her in *both* circumstances and that is impossible. Yes it is easier to find help for addictions these days. But the problem is not finding a cure, it is finding a prevention, and all of the problems that led to addiction in the past are still with us today. We've made some baby steps in the right direction, but many out there are trying harder than ever to pull us back into the dark ages.
Her upbringing was awful. Abused as a child, turned out at a young age - just horrible
MAN SHE WAS HIGH AS HELL IN THIS AND THATS OK. SHE NEVER TOOK HER EYE OFF THE BALL AND NEVER MADE A MISTAKE IN THIS PERFORMANCE. LOVE YOU LADY DAY
@atomic3939 YES, I KNOW MY BRO. BUT IT NEVER DESTROYED HER SOUL!!
@atomic3939 has anyone stated she was happy? She Lived, broken, hurting, but she lived...don't judge.
so good to hear an artist like Billie who creates her own musical space with clarinet like three dimensionality. One of her trademark methods was phrasing by trailing off the end of a long note with a couple of lower notes, thereby suggesting an arpeggio, which then forms a chord in the subconscious perceptions of the listener, giving a visceral physical authenticity to the musical experience. Most good singers do this unawares and Billy was like a walking textbook of many such advanced musical artistic methods.
Great work. Thank you.
Gracias
Hallelujah! Thank you so much Fil. I've been waiting for Billie and you didn't disappoint. As an aside, the vocal fry she has in her later years is predominantly because of opiates. Find footage of dope users talking and it's the same thing. The opiates relax the breathing and it becomes shallow. She was on methadone at this point but the effects were the same. Hounded in her deathbed by the same racist narcotics agent who hated the impact her song Strange Fruit had on the populace, when she began to recover on methadone, he came to her room, had her cuffed to her bed, and taken off methadone. She died not long after. There's a special place in Hell for Harry Anslinger. So many great comments for this review. Perhaps the '57 live Fine and Mellow with the dream team could follow? Please? Pretty please?? 😆
"Her day was born in shades of blue, her song was sad the words were true, her morning came too fast too soon and died before the afternoon.....". You mention the enormous influence Billie (the greatest of jazz singers) had on Frank Sinatra (the greatest of pop singers) and in 1969 Sinatra affectedly recorded "Lady Day" as a tribute to her and from which come those lyrics I've quoted. They end: "And then the evening comes, and now she doesn't cry, and it's too late to say goodbye". Devastating.
Such an iconic voice. She was an original. I've always thought that her tragic life is what made her performances perfect!
This is marvelous: I've been waiting for you to look at Billie Holiday! Though I don't have a musical education, and don't speak the musical terminology, one of my favorite of several Billie bios deals with her as a musician first, tragic figure second. I remember reading that musicians respected her in a way they usually didn't respect singers, because of how she and her vocal talent and technique related to them. Also, her saxaphone friend, the great Lester Young and she were roommates with her mother at some point. Her mother said that, if she was in another room and heard them rehearsing, she couldn't tell the sax from Billie's voice, it was so like an instrument. The book said that she had a small vocal range, but was so flexible with it, the limited range didn't matter.
Small correction: Teddy Wilson, not Terry.
Thank you for this lovely and sympathetic look at a great artist.
Thanks, I meant to say Teddy! That's annoying!
Poor Girl, so much talent, so much suffering. RIP gorgeous, her fight is still front page news today, a voice one recognizes instantly, like Janis and Patsy she still lives through the music but what is it about tortured geniuses that are plucked away at the nadir of their career that adds so much to the adulation and becomes an unseparated part of the personna and mystique.
Simply sublime 🎶💗
Jumping for joy over here!!!
THANK YOU.
Now I'm a new subscriber.
Greetings from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Thanks!
Thank you, Fil!
The immortal Billie Holiday....an amazing lady of song who lived such a tragic life! The influence that she had on other artist was outstanding! Another sensational songstress I grew up listening to! Thanks for this Fil! Cheers Mario! 😀🤘👌
Billy Holliday is one of thje great singer!
really good reaction, thanks
Yeeeessss Billie Holiday 💖💖💖💖
BTW: LOVE your T-shirt.😄
When i listen to Billie .. She's kinda reminds me of Amy Winehouse...
Icons... Billie is unbelievable...
There ya go Fil... music that truly was unbelievable and beyond words... nice analysis!!
AND YES FOLKS IT'S VERY SAD BUT SHE WAS AN ALCOHOLIC AND A HEROIN ADDICT. BUT THAT DOESN'T TAKE AWAY FROM HOW BRILLIANT SHE WAS.
I love your in-depth analysis of what stood Billie apart from other vocalists in terms of technique and how she used this is express the feeling of the song. It is also worth mentioning that she rarely sang songs straight, as written by the composer, again as a means of conveying the emotional expression she wanted to get across. At this point in her career, she was also compensating for the frailty of her voice with facial expression and gestures. Can you please do an analysis of one of her earlier songs and perhaps compare is to a version by another artist of the same era? I wishes on the Moon? It is interesting that people generally either love or hate Billie. Some people can't get past the eccentricity of her tone and the weird timbre. Those who do, fall in love with her style of singing and her innate musicality. I have been a life-long fan since my teenage years thanks to the movie Lady Sings the Blues. There is a wonder book about Billie (the best I've read , and I've read them all): Billie Holiday - the musician and the myth, Sadly, during her lifetime, she was mostly known to the general public for the scandals and tabloid headlines surrounding her private life. As a singer, she had only a cult following. This books addresses both aspects of her life and career and examines how the two aspects are separate and yet inextricably intertwined.
You amaze me with your knowledge.👏The time and energy you spend on these analysis is so impressive. I've heard of her but never really listened to her. She sang with her soul and makes you feel what she's singing kinda like Bob Dylan does. I learn so much from you Fil and I'm grateful. Btw you look well rested and you look really really good and so does your hair!❤I'm sad to say again it will be awhile before I can watch Fil so take care ❤love ya.❤
When Billy Holliday sang "Strange Fruit" no-one could ever deny the anguish in her voice, If you watch the video of her sing it you won't be able to deny the anguish in her facial expressions either, I can't help but cry so hard everytime I watch it.
Billie lived in my friends apartment in NYC in the final months of her life. Very talented and troubled artist.
I need a cocktail and cigareeeeete...thanks Fil
I know huh? Wait I don't smoke (lol).
Wow!!!!Wow!!!!...What a huge selection of interpreter and analysis ... Billie Holyday and Carmen Mercedes McRae are Huge Jazz singers with enormous influence as you refer in your analysis; She is one of my favorite singers and the song Stormy Weather is my favorite because of the deep feeling with which she interprets it again. I congratulate you on these selections for your analysis. There are no more words than...👌👌👌👏👏✔✔✔💯💯💯🔷🔶🔷🔶🙌🙌🙌🌷🌷🌹🌹⚘⚘🤘👊
God, she was beautiful...and that VOICE!!!
great video thank you
Fil,
Thank you for your analysis of one of the great singers of the 20th century, Billie Holiday!
One slight correction, at 5:27 in your video you said “your ace game”, whereas Billie (0:27 in her video) was singing “you raise Cain” 🤓😍
Thanks! Yes as she didn't sing the normal lyric I was taking a guess!
Wings of Pegasus
That’s the wonder and glory of jazz! She co-wrote the song years before, and as a great performer and improvisationalist felt free to change things as she saw the need.
In one word Glissando. As a former big band player, I used it a lot.
You have such a great channel!
Thanks!
Legendary PHENOMENAL talent. Some people got her and some didn't. If you really listened..She Was brilliant. Bare bones accompaniment made it even more effective. Enough said. 🎼🎶🎵🇨🇦
Well done.
Strange Fruit was the first song I heard her sing, during my early childhood during the Civil Rights Movement. And yet, with all the battles they had, they are still fighting. She lived through hard times that probably would have killed most people, and from those depths she sang. Her voice moves people. She moved people enough to recognize her accomplishments and to preserve her song for eternity.
So fantastic even drugged out of her gourd.! Like elvis towards the end. Thanks Fil
“see how she gets on...” - Billie Holiday, opportunity knocks on Wings of Pegasus!
Just as with Stevie Ray Vaughan and the Jimi Hendrix connection. Billie Holiday and Amy Winehouse. All peas in a pod. Thanks Fil. God bless you!!!
Billie Holliday. What words can you use that haven't already been said about her greatness?
What can I say, she is my profile pic lol. Thanks Fil.
It's too bad most of the video of Billie are these late TV appearances in the late '50s. She still had all of the technique but her voice was quite diminished at this point. If you want to hear her at her best go back to her stuff from the 1930s and '40s with The Teddy Wilson Orchestra and Basie. Billie considered herself a musical instrument, not a singer per se and sang notes like a horn player plays. Thanks so much for exploring Billie, Fil. She had a very sad shortened life and deserves to be even better known than she is. A true pioneer as a woman, African American and musical genius.
On the money!
Bang-up job.
Would love to see an analysis of an earlier Billie Holiday song
Love your Elmer Fudd sound as your vocal cords loosen.
That was great. I didn't know Billie inspired Sinatra. Thanks Fil.
EXCELLENT, Fil! I'm loving your analyses of these older musicians (loved your Bing analysis!) Thanks so much! Can you do one on Sarah Vaughan sometime? Take care and keep safe! xo
I was just thinking that.
This lady is a hero of mine. An amazing expressive voice and a great singer, but she is so much more than that. A lady who had a tough life and fought so hard, but the establishment killed her in the end. An inspiration.
As You mention it great to look back at live footage and recording of artist like Billie Holiday and the time period in witch they grew up in. Janis Joplin had a trace of Billie's influence in her. (Rest in Peace ladies)
So unique! 💕
She was 1 of a kind~ Lady Day~💔
Billie Holiday reminds me so much of Karen Dalton, an American folk-blues singer. Alas not many know of Karen Dalton.
A wonderful description of Billie's style! I'd love to see your analysis of Ella Fitzgerald singing "Angel Eyes". It's a perfect performance.
The line is: "I know your ace came"!
Brother Man I love that shirt. Is that available in 'merch'?
Great stuff...AND TEDDY Wilson.
You should do a vid on me, returning to guitar, valiantly working on Folsom Prison and Stairway to Heaven . "What determination this guy has." Btw. I like Billie.
Phrasing great but the drugs like heroin addiction rasped the beautiful voice. She was a true original and broke color barrier with Artie Shaw in the '30s. My favorite is her Columbia sides in the '30s. What a Little Moonlight Can Do a good place to start.
Billie has always been my favorite. If you haven't heard young Angelina Jordan sing, then you need to do yourself the favor. She has been a student of Billie Holiday since she was very small. Listen for her rasp and vintage vibrato.