Essay Billie Holiday

The “Roaring 20’s” changed Ella Fitzgerald’s lifestyle and her music by providing outstanding musicians, financial struggles, and popular music leading her to become one of the most prominent singers of all time. Though life provided numerous struggles she still managed to push through and complete her childhood dreams of becoming an entertainer. Fitzgerald’s voice developed through the style of music in the 20’s, eminent artists vocal structure and the emotion she channeled into her music due to her family’s financial issues. Overall Fitzgerald’s life during the 1920’s allowed her to develop into becoming a memorable artist.

     In the 1930s many black musicians where coming out of the south. One especially who would soon top the charts and hit fame and fortune starting in his young years, Ray Charles. After conquering poverty, blindness and many other things, success was possible. In his young age he had a few losses in his family and near after came down with a disease which was causing him to go blind. He later came over the blindness and was able to learn and compose music with the help of his skills in mathematics. After enduring a harsh childhood and blindness, Ray Charles was able to over come his handicap and follow his dream in music.

The Great Depression was an economic downturn in America that lasted from 1929 until about 1939, making it the longest lasting depression ever experienced by the industrialized world. The stock market crash caused a chain reaction that involved problems such as unemployment, deflation, an increase in debt, and general poverty for lower class citizens. Attempts at escaping the depression weren’t altogether successful. In fact, most of the efforts resulted in high consumer debt as well as over optimistic loans given to the public by banks and business investors. The Depression caused severe political changes in the US as well as its obvious economic failures. After three years of the depression, Herbert Hoover lost the presidential election

It is uncommon for an American singer to decry Billie Holiday’s art of music considering that many cite the influence of her career not only on jazz but also on other American music. The distinctive phrasing,

The 1930’s was a decade of extremely hard times, following the stock market crash and an extreme depression. In spite of the tremendous hardships in America during this decade, it also became a time of great music that is still remembered today. Jazz music was highly popular in this time, and Billie Holiday was a famous jazz performer. She stood out from many other musicians because of her intense and passionate performances. Jazz arose from “unacceptable” segments of society, but quickly grew like wildfire. We often think of the 1930’s as the decade that jazz became civilized, and famous throughout popular culture through the work of pioneering artists like Billie Holiday. People did not own televisions or cable, so radio was their main source of entertainment, and music during this decade was both up beat and a source of relaxation. “Strange Fruit” defied musical category because it was considered too artsy to be folk, and too explicitly political to fit into jazz. This is why “Strange Fruit” became such a powerful phenomenon. Many other artists later took on this song, changing the genre but still portraying the same message. Nina Simone dramatized “Strange Fruit” in the context of the Civil Rights Movement. More important artists like Jeff Buckley, Rene Marie, Labor Camp Orchestra, and many others made their own rendition on the song, still leaving all of their audiences moved by the powerful imagery of the lyrics.

The Harlem Renaissance was an African American cultural movement specifically in creative arts such as music and literature. Jazz represented the flavor and zest of African American culture in the 1920s-1940s. Billie Holiday had a great impact on the Harlem Renaissance because she was one of the most influential jazz singers of all time. She performed with other great jazz musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Teddy Wilson, Jo Jones, and Henry Allen. Her career as a jazz singer was an incredible and thriving one, however, it was shortened because of her battle of substance abuse. Despite the drug use and the loss of her mother, the only thing she could turn to was her music. Billie Holiday's legacy will always live on when the discussion of the Harlem Renaissance is present.

The great depression was an event that impacted the U.S in a very drastic way. It caused many to lose their jobs, therefore losing wealth. It was a long lasting economic crisis during 1929. Lasting until 1940s. It started the beginning of involvement from the government to the country’s economy and also the society altogether. The government wanted to find ways to end this. After almost a decade of prosperity and high optimism , the U.S is now faced to a period of despair. Many had to recover from this downfall and it was hard for them. No one was ready for this event known as Black Tuesday. The Great Depression impacted the americans and cause 20 - 25 million of americans to become unemployed and banks came to fail. The great

The Great Depression started in 1929- 1939, it was the deepest and longest - lasting economic downturn when a stock market crashed. Many people have lost their jobs and they couldn’t afford bills. Birth rates dropped because people could not afford to care for children, and divorce rates dropped because people could not afford legal fees. The Great Depression caused many effects on the American people.

The Great Depression is one of the most misunderstood events in not only American history but also Great Britain, France, Germany, and many other industrialized nations. It also has had important consequences and was an extremely devastating event in America. It was the longest and most severe depression ever experienced by the industrialized Western world. When the New York Stock Exchange crashed in October 1929, the United States dropped sharply into a major depression. The world was in wide demand for agricultural goods during World War I, but they had rapidly decreased after the war and rural America experienced a severe depression throughout most of the 1920's and even on into the 1930's.

Billie was born to the name, Eleanora Fagan on April 7, 1915. She was born in Philadelphia but grew up in the Fell's Point section of Baltimore. Her mother, was just 13 at the time of her birth; her father, was 15. Holidays' teenage parents, Sadie Harris (aka Fagan) and probable father, Clarence Holiday, never married, and they did not live together for a long time. Clarence, a banjo and guitar player worked with Fletcher Henderson's band in the early 30s. He remains a shady figure who left his family. Clarence would often be away from home, and during the stay with Henderson, which lasted until 1932, the guitarist severed connections with the Fagans. Billie was an angry chile who lived a hard life. She was raped at the age of 10 soon

     The Great Depression was a huge economic downfall in North America and involved many other industrialized countries of the world. The Depression began in 1929 and lasted for about ten years. Millions of people lost their jobs along with many businesses going bankrupt. The common misconception of the Great Depression is people think that the stock market crash was the main cause for it. There were many causes for the Depression; unequal distribution of money during the 1920’s was the main cause of the Depression. This unequal distribution happened on many different classes of people. The imbalance of money is what created such an unstable economy. The stock market was doing much worse than people thought

At the end of her life Billie’s personal life and career suffered. She didn’t have a cabaret card which is what was needed to work in New York City clubs at the time. She had no many in her bank account because she was cheated out of it. While she was dying she was arrested due to her heroin addiction. (www.numberonestars.com, 2010)

The two most famous vocalists were Billie Holliday and Ella Fitzgerald. Holiday also called the “Queen of Phrasing” is the most influential singer in jazz history. She does not have some qualities that many jazz singers had, however, she had qualities of her own. For instance she was unique. Another thing was the emotion that a person could feel while listening to her. She had what is most important to jazz, that swing feeling that Louis Armstrong influenced on her and she sing it in her own way. She sang with top jazz musicians and had several songs on the

How does a fifteen year old girl go from being on the streets of New York to becoming a world renowned legend of jazz? Selling more than 40 million records and winning 13 Grammys, Ella Jane Fitzgerald is considered to be the “most outstanding, non-operatic singer of the twentieth century” (Gridley 85). She sung her way into America’s hearts with the rich, smooth, and versatile sound of her voice. She could sing anything from sultry ballads to imitating the best saxophonists and trumpeters with her effortless scat singing. Although Ella had a difficult upbringing, her music was tremendously uplifting and light.

Throughout this course we discussed the Jazz Age, cultural appropriation, racial and gender differences, and African Americans and Parisians during the interwar years. We looked at many African American performers and performances that had a huge impact on France’s cultural identity. After learning about all of this in class, I wanted to take my research further. I decided to research female foreign performers who have had a major influence on the Jazz Age in Paris. I decided to focus specifically on three foreign females, and they are: singer and dancer Josephine Baker, dancer Molly Spotted Elk, and dancer Ada “Bricktop” Smith. Each of these female performers had a large impact on taking the Jazz Age in Paris to another level.