For the Official Encyclopedia Description of Ms. Day"

see The World Book, where she is listed as "Jazz Vocalist":


Billie Holiday (1915-1959) won recognition as the most moving jazz singer of her day. She was admired for the uniquely bittersweet quality of her voice, and for phrasing that had much in common with the solos of the great improvising jazz musicians. Although Holiday was often described as a blues singer, she was principally an interpreter of popular songs.

Billie Holiday was born in Baltimore and raised by her mother in a black ghetto. She described the hardships of her childhood in Lady Sings the Blues (1956), an inaccurate but interesting autobiography. She made her first recordings with Benny Goodman in 1933. Her most distinctive work was recorded between 1936 and 1944. In these recordings, she was often accompanied by such great jazz musicians as Count Basie, Roy Eldridge, Teddy Wilson, and Lester Young. After 1950, drug addiction increasingly affected her health and her career.

*NOTE: The Bookmark Links on the right side of the page, where they classify the "Jazz" categories, along with "Spirituals", "Blues", "Rock and roll", "Classical music", and "Related Web sites under the rather endearing umbrella title:

"Heart and Soul"

~ the link to the page, "World Book -African American Music" ~