Billie Holiday

This weekend I went to Philadelphia. On Saturday night I saw Lizz Wright and the Danilo Pérez Trio do a Billie Holiday Tribute concert. On Sunday I saw Billy Crystal perform his one man show "700 Sunday". Both performances were incredible. It just so happens that Billie Holiday was a friend of Billy Crystal's Family. Crystal's father and uncle were in the Jazz record business. Billie Holiday actually took Billy Crystal to see his first movie, "Shane". He was five years old at the time.

So here are a couple videos of Billie Holiday. Lizz Wright performed this first song, "I Love You Porgy", at the concert last night.



Here is a video of "Fine and Mellow". The video starts with part of an interview with Billie Holiday.



Finally, here is Billie doing the song for which she is probably most famous, "Strange Fruit". The record of this song was produced by Billy Crystal's Uncle, Milt Gabler. Because this song is about lynching in the South, Holiday's record company, Columbia, would not let here record it. There was fear of a backlash against the company if they released this song. Holiday convinced Gabler to record the song for her, and it was released on another record label. In 1978 the recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.