I was a pretty big #BillieHoliday fan too but it was different than my lifelong love for Nina Simone.
I related to Billie Holliday's depression a lot, as a young adult. I almost relished in my depression for awhile. Nina Simone helped me feel much more empowered. Nina helped me to gain strength to fight against patriarchy. While Billie made me feel like I should just resign myself to endless patriarchy. Nina revived & enlivened my hope in humanity & my fellow women.
#art#history: in 1939, billie holiday - born eleanora fagan on this day in 1915 - threw a punch with the release of her recording of 'strange fruit' - &, if she'd not persisted, it may not have been released until much later. columbia refused, at first (‘they won’t buy it in the south’), to let billie include it even though it had been a central & permanent pillar of her repertoire during her tenure at cafe society. #billieHoliday#music#illustration#philadelphia#antiRacism#strangeFruit
#OnThisDay, March 27, 1948, singer Billie Holiday performed to a sold-out audience at Carnegie Hall in New York just days after being released from prison (depicted in Lady Sings the Blues, 1972)
An exhausted, quiet Friday night.
I’m absolutely spent, and have nothing left to give today.
I needed something for my soul before crashing out for some well deserved rest, and this was just lying on top of a pile of records in the corner that I’ve bought over the past few weeks.
Oh yes.
That’ll do just fine and then some.
Soothe my soul, Lady Day. #vinyl#vinylrecords#jazz#vocalists#billieholiday#jazzvocal#vocaljazz
#GreatAlbums1950s - #BillieHoliday - Lady Sings the Blues (1956). Despite the ravages affecting her health, Holiday tapped a late-career wellspring on sets like Velvet Mood and this LP -- both from '56. Holiday revisits hits like "Strange Fruit" and "God Bless the Child" along with newer material such as the title track. A sextet or septet provides restrained musical settings for Holiday's matter-of-fact delivery -- an artist who knows the end is nigh but chooses to forge on.
1937 one of Billie Holiday's sadder songs.
2013 handbraketurned in a tingly electro house direction with a blistering stereo mix. Headphones or plant yourself between your speakers recommended.
Very much it's own thing.
so nice, i drew her thrice! (a thread) #art#history: being the grande dame of glib (the flapper of flippancy?) may be her enduring legacy, but dorothy parker had a heart as generous as her wit was sharp. despite an unhappy upbringing, dorothy developed an acute self-awareness that found an outlet in poetry. by 20, she’d sold her first poem to ‘vanity fair’ - which was to be the domino that activated an illustrious career. #literature#dorothyParker#portrait#illustration
politically left, she helped to organise rescue missions for loyalist veterans & spanish children’s relief.
to her last, she let her conscience guide her. the NAACP & MLK jr were benefactors of the bon mot babe’s will when she died of a heart attack at the age of 73. her suggested epitaphs? ‘excuse my dust’ & ‘it’s on me’.
bonus factoid: she wrote the song, ‘i wished on the moon’, which was first recorded by billie holiday. #dorothyParker#portrait#spanishCivilWar#billieHoliday#literature