Eleanora Fagan's Story Of An American Jazz Musici Billie Holiday

If you didn’t know the book I was reading was Being Jazz. Jazz is a transgender, but her book is telling us the audience her difficulties of becoming a transgender. When she was born Jazz had two brothers and one sister. Although, before she was born, her mother and her friends did this traditional thing to tell if the mother was going have a boy or girl. So how this works is well you have a necklace and you move it around the tummy of the baby. If it’s going back and forth then it’s going be a boy, but if it goes around circles it's gonna be girl. However, when the last baby shower happened the necklace was going in circles which met the baby was going be a girl. When the mother gave birth the baby was a……. BOY! Even though the necklace went

Life is easy for few and difficult for many, especially when born to a teenage mother and father. Billy Holiday, formally known as Eleanora Fagan, was born on April 7, 1915, to thirteen-year-old Sadie Fagan and Clarence Holiday, who was fifteen at the time. Life began dismally for Holiday since her father picked his own career in music over his family. He was a jazz musician who played the banjo and guitar (Bush). School was not a priority for Holiday since she had limited schooling and her mother would often leave her with relatives to care for her (Bush). Billie’s family was poor, and she had a life of pain, struggling, and disturbance ahead of her. As a child Holiday would help out at a brothel by running errands for prostitutes, because in the sitting room of the brothel she could listen to Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong music (“Billie Holiday”). She later described her style of music as a cross between Armstrong and Smith, even though she couldn’t get her voice to be as “big” as

For her time, Billy Holiday was one of the highest paid performers. This is a gigantic achievement for not only African Americans but also women. She also was the first female African American vocalist to work with a white orchestra. She later quit her job with the orchestra due to racism and mistreatment that was inevitable. Holiday’s superior vocals skyrocketed her through the music industry scooping up four Grammies along the way.

The era of the Roaring Twenties, was a time of great societal change. Many of these changes were greatly influenced by jazz music. During this time, the country was coming out of World War I and the attitude of most people was dark and dismal. Dance and music clubs became tremendously popular in an effort to improve the quality of life for many people.

Lil Hardin Armstrong, who was also known as “Hot Miss Lil” was a pianist, composer, arranger and a bandleader in the 1920’s, before she married Louis Armstrong. Lil and Louis were bands mates in Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band. Early on, she performed in Sugar Johnny’s Creole Orchestra, Freddie Keppard’s band and her own band at the Dreamland

Gertrude “Ma” Rainey is a pivotal figure in the history of American music. She was the first person to ever perform blues and the first internationally known African American female blues singer. Her music acted as inspiration for many distinguished figures during the Harlem Renaissance, and continues to influence contemporary music and art.

Nathaniel Adams Cole was a man of divine skill born in Montgomery, Alabama home of many famous jazz musicians. Growing up in a religious household buried music and soul deep within Coles heart. His mother Perlina Cole was a choir director at the church of Chicago where her husband was the minister. By twelve Nathaniel Cole was in playing piano and playing the organ at his church. Over the years and through high school Cole became infatuated with jazz music. In this time, he incorporated himself in a 14-piece jazz band named the Rogues of Rhythm. Developing his talents on the piano led to his induction into the Solid Swingers. His brother Eddy Cole was an inspiration and constant reminder that a career in the music industry is possible.

     Billie Holiday spent 1934 moving up the rungs of the competitive New York bar scene. By early 1935, she made her debut at the Apollo Theater and appeared in a one-reeler film with Duke Ellington She made her first record with Benny Goodman. In 1935, she got her big breakthrough when she recorded four sides, which featured What a Little Moonlight Can Do, and Miss Brown to You. She made the songs classics because of her singing ability. Her voice-quality wasn't outstanding and her vocal range was limited, but she had an uncanny ability to breathe life into a song, using things like pauses and slurs -- which made the song become a story or an experience, rather than just a group of notes sang with a voice.

I’d done my solo and would now move on to pursue other equally unsuccessful ways of getting attention.” Singing in the voice of Billie Holiday seemed to be one of the few ways Sedaris thought he could express his feminine side comfortably. Unfortunately for him, being shot down by Mancini caused him to dispose of such a dream.

Jazz Jennings is transgender. She found out when she was about 3 or 4. Jazz was born on October 6th, 2000 so she is 17 right now. She was born in Florida, her parent's names are Greg Jennings (father), and the mother is Jeanette Jennings.

The Jazz Age was more than merely a musical revolution—“The Jazz Age denotes not only a period of early big band, but also the events and fashions of an era”. During this decade a number of modern developments were invented, which included an expanded telephone service, network radio, electric inventions, and records set in aviation. These modern developments had a profound effect on American culture, creating a rise in leisure, specifically mass leisure. Automobiles, movies, and the radio overtook the lives of Americans, becoming necessities and part of everyday routines. This period also marks the beginning of films with soundtracks, an audio component, marking the rise of the musical and giving the American people

It is said that Bessie Smith is the “Empress of the Blues.” She was a superior entertainer, with talent in singing and dancing. Bessie had such a beautiful, soulful voice and she collaborated with many great jazz performers. Bessie didn’t just stand for music, she stood for women. By the end of the 1920’s, she was the highest paid black woman of her day, earning the title “Empress of the Blues.”

Throughout the Jazz Age a significant number of eminent figures emerged, including the American aviation pioneer and women’s rights advocate, Amelia Mary Earhart. Born on July 24, 1897 in Atchison, Kansas, Amelia Earhart from an early age began to show leadership skills as well as a tendency to cause mischief. Nicknamed "Meeley" by her parents, she would often misbehave with her sister, Grace Muriel, who acted as her "dutiful follower". Their upbringing was rather unconventional because Amy Earhart, Amelia’s mother, did not believe in molding her children into "nice little girls". This disregard for the traditionalist gender roles that society had assigned to females throughout this era had a subconscious effect on Earhart. Evidence of

She received this name because she was different. She didn't want to create music that everyone was singing. She used a method called scat. One of the first songs that she used this new method was called “Flying home”. When singers are trying to use the method scat, the singer makes their voices sound like different instruments in bands and orchestra. Many people have said that “scat” is the most influential jazz record of all time. By creating these new ways sounds to us in her music is made people more interested in her music making her become more and more

American singer; after working in traveling shows she went to New York City, where she made (1923-28) recordings, accompanied by such outstanding artists as Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, and James P. Johnson. She quickly became the favorite singer of the jazz public. The power and somber beauty of her voice, coupled with songs representing every variety of the blues, earned her the title "Empress of the