Billie Holiday
USA, 1933–1959
American jazz singer (1915-1959), known as Lady Day. She sang markedly behind the beat with small pitch inflections, an approach that treated song lyrics as personal statement.
MusicRoots documents 2 artists who influenced Billie Holiday and 11 artists Billie Holiday influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.
Who influenced Billie Holiday?
- Louis Armstrong — Holiday named her two sources herself: 'I always wanted Bessie's big sound and Pop's feeling' — Armstrong's horn phrasing became her vocal time.
- Bessie Smith — Bessie Smith was the other half of Holiday's self-declared formula — the 'big sound' she chased from childhood listening.
Which artists did Billie Holiday influence?
- Aretha Franklin — Billie Holiday was Aretha's model for phrasing and emotional depth beyond genre.
- Etta James — Etta found her inspiration in Billie Holiday from childhood — she loved the way Holiday expressed pain, and chose to emulate it.
- Dinah Washington — At fifteen, enamoured of Billie Holiday, Washington began singing blues in Chicago clubs — Holiday's phrasing an early model.
- Diana Ross — Ross immersed herself in Billie Holiday to play her in Lady Sings the Blues (1972) — Holiday's phrasing and vulnerability a direct model.
- Frank Sinatra — Sinatra named Billie Holiday the greatest single musical influence on him — her behind-the-beat phrasing and emotional candour shaped his own interpretation.
- Ruth Brown — Holiday's jazz phrasing and emotional depth were an early stylistic model for Brown, heard in her jazz-inflected ballads.
- Smokey Robinson — Billie Holiday was Smokey's model for poetic depth — what he wanted to bring to the soul ballad.
- Sade — Billie Holiday is first among the singers Sade Adu names; the withheld, behind-the-beat delivery is hers.
- Erykah Badu — Badu's phrasing - the way she sits late on a line and bends it - is Billie Holiday's, moved onto hip-hop drums.
- Cyndi Lauper — Billie Holiday's emotive, behind-the-beat jazz singing was a key model for Lauper's expressive, blues-tinged phrasing.
- Gil Scott-Heron — Named among his influences — phrasing that puts the words ahead of the note.