d by many as, “The Genius of Jazz Singing”. Holiday’s eloquence was exemplified when she was portrayed as an extraordinary musician and actress who did not have to rehearse before her stage performances. Holiday acquired the familiar stage name “Lady”, from Lesture Young, who was a jazz musician. Holiday exploited the racial correlation between black jazz musicians and white Americans by intriguing white audiences around the world. How could a woman with so much fame and success let drugs and alcohol plague her life? Ironically explained, the same extrinsic and intrinsic factors that contributed to her success ended up causing her dismal death. Undoubtedly, her most memorable song, Strange Fruit, made you feel her pain. Her voice had an intimacy and charismatic illumination that made a cold-hearted devil feel special. Strange Fruit was so dramatic and atypical that Columbia Record Publishing Company would not even record the song. The intense harmonic tone described the harsh reality of lynching in America. Unlike any other song, Strange Fruit really invoked the spiritual nature of Lady’s powerful voice and projected a real life image of the how African American men were brutally hung. The actual lyrics of Strange Fruit were condemned by mainstream America; yet, Billie Holiday sung the song at, Catfish Society. Only accompanied by the beautiful sound of the piano, Holiday sung Strange Fruit solo. She started the song in a low deep pitch voice uttering the words, “Black body hanging from the tree”. Then, the tone got higher when she said, “bludgeoning eyes”. Throughout the entire piece, her voice got loud when she really wanted to emphasize a word or phrase, and lower when she wanted to make her audience feel the dismal pain of experiencing a hanging. Each line had beautiful images that were overshadowed by the horror of killing. For example, lets explore the ve...
