DOUBLE BLUES BIRTHDAYS: Today is Billie Holidays birthday — 1915 in Philly — and yesterdays was Big Walter Hortons - 1917 in Horn Lake, MS. Although very different performers, they have left tremendous thumbprints on history. Holiday has influenced an incalculable number of jazz and blues vocalists who came in her wake, and Horton is perhaps the harmonica player who has had the most influence on harmonica players, despite his lesser historic status than the Sonny Boys and Little Walter. Big Walters melodies and whole notes made him a staggeringly bold player. And Billies horn-like phrasing is absolutely foundational. Although both have catalogs that are compelling, Holidays recording of Strange Fruit is riveting for its mix of beautiful language and horrifying imagery, and it was a courageous song to record in 1939 during the long height of Jim Crow. It still carries the weight of the shame and indecency it chronicled, and is worth bearing in mind today as certain politicians and their followers work to bring racism and intolerance back into institutional policy. So Strange Fruit is todays share. This is a more stark performance than the original recording, but seeing Holiday perform this song live is a profound experience:
Posted on: Mon, 07 Apr 2014 15:34:24 +0000
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