Billie Holiday

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Many jazz artists as we know it are quite talented. Their talents are unique in that they can translate human emotion through singing or playing their instruments. Many have the ability to reach and touch people’s souls through their amazing gifts. Although this art of turning notes and lyrics into emotional imagery may somewhat come natural, the audience must wonder where their influence comes from. For Billie Holiday, her career was highly influenced by personal experience, the effects of the Great Depression, and the racial challenges of African Americans during her time.

The Great Depression was a major historical event that affected thousands of Americans during the 1930s. It was a time in which economic decline left people without jobs while struggling to keep a family and home together. It certainly was a devastating time for everyone. For African Americans, it was even more of a struggle as segregation and the oppression of blacks were just as strong as when the Jim Crow laws were initially established. “African Americans were only 64 years beyond enslavement, with de jure segregation relegating them to second-class citizenship and generally only the meanest, dirtiest employment.” (Bilal) During the Great Depression, music and jobs were taken by whites and African Americans struggled greatly. Holiday faced racial challenges in which her social status, as a young black woman, left her with only a few options for work. Occupations such as a washwoman or a prostitute were such jobs expected out of a young woman of her time.

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The song “When It’s Sleepy Time Down South”, may possibly portray Holiday’s sadness and experience during the Great Depression. The line “Homesick, tired, all alone in a big city” can be ...

... middle of paper ...

...D. "To Ask for an Equal Chance: African Americans in the Great Depression." Choice 47.10 (2010): 1995-.ProQuest Central. Web. 15 Nov. 2011.

Hamlin, Jesse. "Billie Holiday's Bio, 'Lady Sings the Blues,' may be Full of Lies, but it Gets at Jazz Great's Core." San Francisco Chronicle Sep 18 2006: G.1. ProQuest Central. 16 Nov. 2011

Jackson, Buzzy. A Bad Woman Feeling Good Blues and The Women Who Sing Them. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2005. N. pag. Print.

Schoettler, Carl. "Tinged with Sorrow but Sung with Love; Blues: `Strange Fruit,' the Mournful Dirge about Lynching, is Forever Linked with Billie Holiday. A New Book about the Singer from Baltimore Recalls the Moment She Introduced it." The Baltimore Sun Jun 13 2000: 1.F. ProQuest Central. 16 Nov. 2011

Teachout, Terry. "John Hammond's jazz." Commentary 122.3 (2006): 55+. Academic OneFile. Web. 16 Nov. 2011.

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