Billie Holiday: An Everlasting Influence

Many serious listeners consider her the greatest jazz vocalist ever. She was born Eleanora Fagan on April 7, 1915, in Baltimore, Maryland. (The name "Billie" she later borrowed from one of her favorite movie actresses, Billie Dove.) At the time of Billie's birth, her mother, Sadie

She took advantage of every opportunity she was given to sing and performed in local amateur shows at movie houses as well as in a number of the storefront churches located throughout black neighborhoods (Greene, pg 9). In 1928, Billie’s mother took her to New York City. It was there where her renditions of famous songs like "Riffin' the Scotch" and "Your Mother's Son-in-Law" established her as a prodigious singer (Billie Holiday, par 2). The biography, “Billie Holiday,” gives accounts her different career accomplishments and collaborations: In 1933, she was spotted performing in Harlem by the critic and producer John Hammond, who brought her to Columbia Records, where she recorded classic sessions with such jazz greats as pianist Teddy Wilson and tenor saxophonist Lester Young, who gave Holiday her nickname, "Lady Day" (Kliment, par

There are famous jazz artists that came after the Harlem Renaissance such as Miles Davis, Nina Simone and Wynton Marsalis. Also, today, the most popular jazz artists are Michael Buble and Sam Smith for the younger generation. The women of the Harlem Renaissance were also influential many as singers, Jazz and Blues music). Others were dancers, poets, comediennes, and writers. Some of the most famous entertainers and/or singers were Ethel Waters, Ella Fitzgerald, Marian Anderson, Lena Horne, Josephine Baker, Bessie Smith, Billie Holliday, and groups like the Dandridge sisters.

Billie Holiday’s biggest influences in music were Bessie Smith and Louis “Pops” Armstrong; she admired the power that Smith had to interpret a song, and Armstrong’s music style. “Lady Day” became famous in 1939 when she recorded “Strange Fruit”, which is song that protests against the lynching of African Americans in the United States (The Biography.com website). A year later, in 1940 she recorded a new version of “All of Me”. This song which was written in 1931 by Seymour Simons and Gerald Marks, is one of the most popular songs from the 1930s. When we listen to Holiday’s version of the song, we are able to hear her ability to tell her own story through the lyrics of the song.

At, only twenty-three Selena overcame many barriers. Selena began singing at ten years old being the lead singer of her family band. In, the 1980s she began recording professionally and was often judged about the music genre she chooses to sing which was Tejano music. At, the time this genre was dominated by male artists, because of this she was refused

She was called La reina Tejana del bolero; which was the genre she mostly recorded. Rosita Fernández was also a successful artist, offering something new: Songs both in English and Spanish. Women were the strongest pillar of Tejano music and their impact has left a clear footprint in music in general. Notwithstanding, Tejano music has not been the only genre developed in the Texas area by the Mexican Americans. Jazz, a music considered truly ‘American’; a mix of African-American rhythms such as ragtime, blues and gospel, has also been interpreted by the community, ingrained with their own style, their own sabor.

On January 8th, 1935 one of the greatest influences to pop and country was born. Elvis Aaron Presley changed the way people heard and saw music through his songs and the way he performed them. Elvis’ music was stunning, he had eighteen American No. 1s and hundreds of gold records from around the world. He brought a way of performing that people had never experienced before, he was electrifying when he performed on stage.

("African American Music History Timeline," n.d.). Following the release of Crazy Blues, record companies sought female blues artist to match the sales of Mamie Smith’s Crazy Blues. Several black women that promoted the era of classical blues include Alb Hunter, Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters and Ma Rainey. ("History of African American Music," n.d.). Ultimately, the evolution of blues music and “race records” created opportunity for African Americans in the recording industry and was highly influential to development and promotion of many music

The two nightspots influenced and changed African American culture which impacted America greatly. The Harlem Renaissance is an important time in America’s history, it changed America in many ways. The Harlem Renaissance took place during the 1920s up until the mid 1930s. The renaissance was a literary, artistic, and creative movement that helped redefine African American culture. The Harlem Renaissance inspired new music, art, and literature that reinvented African American culture.

Some of the first allusions of this kind are of popular musicians at the time, Jimmy Ryan and Zutty Singleton, and their songs. Dillard mentions that jazz music was just becoming popular at the time, and that these names were common in her household, and with her family being a very average family, these names were most likely household throughout most of the heavily inhabited parts of the United states. Another musician, even more well-known that he others she mentioned, is Frank Sinatra. He is brought up by Dillard , most likely to achieve the same effect of creating a picture in her reader's mind of what society was like at the