Book Description

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 34. Chapters: Billie Holiday, Ma Rainey, Ethel Waters, Lizzie Miles, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Alberta Hunter, Sippie Wallace, Victoria Spivey, Mamie Smith, Mildred Bailey, Maggie Jones, Classic female blues, Bessie Tucker, Ida Cox, Trixie Smith, Helen Humes, Virginia Liston, Eva Taylor, Laura Smith, Bertha "Chippie" Hill, Sara Martin, Ida Goodson, Lucille Hegamin, Martha Copeland, Lucille Bogan, List of classic female blues singers, Lil Green, Clara Smith, Viola McCoy, Daisy Martin, Rosa Henderson, Josie Miles, Maxine Sullivan, Blue Lu Barker, Lillian Goodner, Lil Johnson, Georgia White, Esther Bigeou, Mattie Hite, Katie Crippen, Bessie Brown, Rosetta Howard, Lena Wilson, Ella Johnson, Edna Hicks, Hannah Sylvester, Merline Johnson. Excerpt: Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan, April 7, 1915 - July 17, 1959) was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had 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. Critic John Bush wrote that Holiday "changed the art of American pop vocals forever." She co-wrote only a few songs, but several of them have become jazz standards, notably "God Bless the Child," "Don't Explain," "Fine and Mellow," and "Lady Sings the Blues." She also became famous for singing "Easy Living," "Good Morning Heartache," and "Strange Fruit," a protest song which became one of her standards and was made famous with her 1939 recording. Billie Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan on April 7, 1915, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Sarah Julia "Sadie" Fagan (nee Harris). Her father, Clarence Halliday (Holiday), a musician, did not marry or live with her mother. Her mother had moved to Philadelphia when thirteen, after being ejected from her...