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Essays on how influential billie holiday was
Essays on how influential billie holiday was
19th century black american life
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Billie was born to the name, Eleanora Fagan on April 7, 1915. She was born in Philadelphia but grew up in the Fell's Point section of Baltimore. Her mother, was just 13 at the time of her birth; her father, was 15. Holidays' teenage parents, Sadie Harris (aka Fagan) and probable father, Clarence Holiday, never married, and they did not live together for a long time. Clarence, a banjo and guitar player worked with Fletcher Henderson's band in the early 30s. He remains a shady figure who left his family. Clarence would often be away from home, and during the stay with Henderson, which lasted until 1932, the guitarist severed connections with the Fagans. Billie was an angry chile who lived a hard life. She was raped at the age of 10 soon she dropped out of school at an early age and began working as a prostitute with her mother. She was sent to a home for wayward girls, and soon was arrested and served four months in prison for prostitution. “Somebody once said we never know what is enough until we know what’s than enough”(billie holiday)
Holiday's deprived history proves she had learned how to survive extreme poverty, race prejudice and the injustice of black ghetto life by the time she was a young teen. swing: Since Holiday had very little schooling and no formal musical training, her extraordinary creative gifts were intuitive in the first place. She developed her singing in New York speakeasies and Harlem nightclubs such as Pods' and Jerry's Log Cabin, the Yeah ...
Josephine Baker Josephine Baker was an African American woman who had to overcome discrimination and abuse in achieving her dream of becoming a singer and dancer. She did this during the 1920s, when African Americans faced great discrimination. She had a hard childhood. Her personal life was not easy to handle. Furthermore, she overcame poverty and racism to achieve her career dream.
Billie Holiday was born in Baltimore in 1915 on the 7th of April. Her real name is Eleanora Fagan Gough. Her mother was named Sadie Julia Fagan and had Eleanor as a teenager. Her dad name is Clarence Holiday who became a successful jazz musician as well. When Eleanor was a child she often skipped school, leading her mother to court because of truancy. When holiday was younger she said, "I never had a chance to play with dolls like other kids. I started working when I was 6 years old." She was sent to a school for troubled girls when she was 9 years old. Before her teen years, Billy and her mother moved to Harlem, N.Y. because her mother was searching for a job. Her mother was arrested after that. Billie married and remarried a couple
Singer/actress Lena Horne's primary occupation was nightclub entertaining, a profession she pursued successfully around the world for more than 60 years, from the 1930s to the 1990s. In conjunction with her club work, she also maintained a recording career that stretched from 1936 to 2000 and brought her three Grammys, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1989; she appeared in 16 feature films and several shorts between 1938 and 1978; she performed occasionally on Broadway, including in her own Tony-winning one-woman show, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music in 1981-1982; and she sang and acted on radio and television. Adding to the challenge of maintaining such a career was her position as an African-American facing discrimination personally and in her profession during a period of enormous social change in the U.S. Her first job in the 1930s was at the Cotton Club, where blacks could perform, but not be admitted as customers; by 1969, when she acted in the film Death of a Gunfighter, her character's marriage to a white man went unremarked in the script. Horne herself was a pivotal figure in the changing attitudes about race in the 20th century; her middle-class upbringing and musical training predisposed her to the popular music of her day, rather than the blues and jazz genres more commonly associated with African-Americans, and her photogenic looks were sufficiently close to Caucasian that frequently she was encouraged to try to "pass" for white, something she consistently refused to do. But her position in the middle of a social struggle enabled her to become a leader in that struggle, speaking out in favor of racial integration and raising money for civil rights causes. By the end of the century, she could look back at a life that was never short on conflict, but that could be seen ultimately as a triumph.
Many people in show business are viewed as role models in our society. Many of these people are just regular men and women that are placed high on a pedestal simply because they can sing or act, hence, becoming all the more famous. Although he was famous and popular in the entertainment world for almost four decades, Frank Sinatra was a singer and actor that had a side to him that not everyone knew. He hid behind the facade of an entirely happy, successful performer, when, in reality, he had many problems that the public was not even aware of. Some of these problems are the same that the average person faces day to day, but many went far deeper than trivial troubles. Some of these specific quandaries had to do with hidden aspects of his personal relationships, hidden connections with criminal elements, and other unknown aspects of his life.
Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday were both prominent jazz singer-songwriters during the same time and masters in their own right, but their worlds could not have been further apart. In 1939, while they were both in the midst of experiencing mainstream success, Ella was touring with Ella and her Famous Orchestra and showcasing her perfect pitch and tone to the world while singing songs that would soon become standards to fellow singers and musicians. Billie was singing solo, comfortable with her limited range, and gaining the adoration of audiences nationwide who loved her soulful voice. Both of these historic singers made contributions to the art of jazz, with vocalists and instrumentalists still using elements of their style today. Ella
Diana Ross was born in 1944. Emerging from the housing projects in Detroit to become an international superstar, she gained prominence first as a member of the supremes, then as a solo artist. The mention of her name evokes the indelible image of the broadly smiling diva, the long hair, sequined gowns, etc.
After her divorce she began singing with Noble Sissie’s Society Orchestra. Through out their tour she had to endure harsh racism having to sleep in tenement boarding houses, the bus and even once in circus grounds. Soon after that, she toured with Charlie Barnet’s Outfit and became the first African American to tour with an all white band. She was their feature singer and considers this to be the beginning of her success.
Born February 9, 1942 in Brooklyn, New York as Carole Klein, she was playing the piano by the age of four. While still in high school she was in her first band, the Co-Sines. Carole was a huge fan of Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller (the duo who penned hits for Elvis Presley, the Coasters and Ben E. King), she became a regular at DJ Alan Freed's local Rock 'N' Roll shows. She met songwriters Paul Simon and Neil Sedaka as well as Gerry Goffin, whom she later forged a writing partnership with, while attending Queens College.
The early 1930’s a time where segregation was still an issue in the United States it was especially hard for a young African American girl who is trying to grow and become an independent woman. At this time, many young girls like Maya Angelou grew up wishing they were a white woman with blond hair and blue eyes. That was just the start of Angelou's problems though. In the autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou goes into great depth about her tragic childhood, from moving around to different houses, and running away and having a child at the age of 16. This shows how Maya overcame many struggles as a young girl.
Marilyn Monroe, Norma Jeane Mortenson. A devious soul but a pure heart, a black past, but a bright future; she became one of the most idolized figures in society. Norma was definitely not born with a silver spoon in her mouth, and she never sugar coated her life to the media. She was straight forward which made her heavily known for her quotes such as “I learned to walk as a baby and I haven’t had a lesson since.” (Marilyn Monroe). This was the beginning to her life story as a hero. This may not seem inspiring or heroic to many by the lack of knowledge a person may have on Norma. In the depths of her quotes lay a deep, heartfelt life though. For this quote may seem sensational and comical to the ear, but Marilyn was transferred to many foster homes not really having a parent that would show her the way. What a good role model would do though, and what Norma courageously has shown society, is that when life knocks you down, get up and hit life back twice as hard. Norma Jeane Mortenson, married Jim Dougherty, and started working. Soon she created the character Marilyn Monroe, she dyed her hair blonde, wore short dresses, and she became the momentous and inspirational character that everyone saw through television, newspapers, and photos. She was one of the greatest actors, singers, and models of the nineteen forties and fifties. But like every hero they suffer and create their own demise. Jeane, Marilyn Monroe, is a shakespearean tragic hero, because like every hero she must fall.
Orleans. At the age of 12 his life changed. When he was parting for New
Norma Jean Baker was born on June 1st 1926. She said that she came from an unhappy and deprived childhood. Galdys was Norma's mother. She had two children with Jack Baker (Norma's father) while still very young. Her father died in a car accident soon after she was born and at the age of 26 Galdys remarried to Edward Mortenson. Edward didn't want children but Galdys did so she divorced him. Soon after that Galdys couldn't take care of Norma anymore so she gave her up for adoption. In an interview Norma said that her grandmother tried to "mother" her with a pillow and how she was forced to do the dishes (at age 5) in an orphanage and that she was abused in one of the families that she was adopted by, and the fact that she was raped by a policeman.
As a child Dylan was comfortable being the center of attention, often writing creative poetry for his mother and on occasion singing. Dylan had no formal music lessons, but none the less he began to compose. Later at age 14, he took up the guitar and shortly after formed a band, one of many he played the guitar in. Always plunging ahead, performing to his up most potentional, Dylan absorbed his surroundings as a source of inspiration. Even during his early efforts Dylan responded very positivly to mainstream musicians, such as country star Hank Williams. Yet, he responded especially well to early rock stars such as Little Richard, Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis. In the summer of 1959, after graduation Dylan began to work at a cafe, where he began to pay increasing attention to folksingers such as Judy Collins and Jesse Fuller. Finding an instant connection with their songs, songs relevant to social issues. Dylan was drawn into both the musical style and the social message of these indivisuals.
Aretha Louise Franklin also known as the Queen of Soul was born on March 25, 1942 in Memphis Tennessee. She is known for being a solo singer, and also a very talented pianist. Soul, R&B, Jazz, and Gospel are genres that she sings. Throughout her career she signed with Colombia Records, along with some others, and has released many popular singles that would now be considered classical. Aretha was the first female artist to be introduced into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame. She also had to grow up sooner than many other girls because she had her first child at a very young age. Up until this day Aretha is still alive living at age seventy-two and has won many Grammy awards and is considered one of the most honored artist.
Born on the Fourth of July in 1900, Armstrong was delivered in a cabin in a ddilapidated black slum in the Back o' Town section of New Orleans. Armstrong's father was a laborer named Willie Armstrong, and his mother a domestic and most likely a part-time prostitute named Mayann. Just after his birth, his father abandoned his family, and his mother decided to move into an area of town that was reserved for black prostitutes. Armstrong had no choice but to live with his grandma, Josephine, until he moved back with his mom, after she had moved to Storyville a few years later. At the time, Storyville was a tawdry, rundown, neighborhood or "brothels, cribs, seedy dance halls, and honky-tonks frequented by black laborers and some whites" (Kernfield 27). At such an early age, Armstrong was poorly cared for by his mother and spent much of his early years deprived physically, mentally, and emotionally to an extensive degree. Although his early life may have seemed rough and difficult, he grew up listening in the dance halls and clubs to what was then the blues and the new hot music emerging from the musical period of ragtime (Kernfi...