Billie Holiday - "Strange Fruit"

It’s strange times we live in, where people are dying at the hands of police officers. Then again, this type of brutality isn’t new the black community. People of color have been historically enslaved, oppressed, and dismissed. People are rioting in the streets in Minneapolis and Dallas. We’re in the middle of a pandemic, and I pray that these strange days will lead us to better times. I cannot help but think of this iconic song and the dark story that it tells as it illuminates the racism that was born and bred in the country and continues to be brought to light. As Will Smith said “Racism isn’t getting worse, it’s just being filmed.”

Billie Holiday remains (four decades after her death) the most famous of all jazz singers. "Lady Day" (as she was named by Lester Young) had a small voice and did not scat but her innovative behind-the-beat phrasing made her quite influential. The emotional intensity that she put into the words she sang (particularly in later years) was very memorable and sometimes almost scary; she often really did live the words she sang.

While Armstrong changed jazz trumpet, Holiday changed jazz vocals.  Her delivery – the way she would play with the phrasing and tempo, singing behind the beat, sculpting the words – was so radically original that it spawned an entire generation of singers in her wake, including people like Frank Sinatra, who credited Holiday as a major influence.  But, Holiday’s importance cuts deeper than music.  First and foremost, she was a strong female presence in an era where black women were mostly forced to occupy the lowest rung of society.  Holiday, along with other legends like Ella Fitzgerald, was a different kind of black woman – one who could command a room and demand respect with the sheer power of her talent and personality.  But, unlike Fitzgerald, Holiday was also political, singing a song that foreshadowed the Civil Rights movement, “Strange Fruit.”

Today, in the wake of a tragedy and riots, I choose the Epic, Amazing, and Incomparable Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” as my be the change you want to see, let them follow the sound for your voice, and so your light shall lead them from the darkness, song for a, violence shouldn’t be the answer but you have to speak the language they understand, only Love can push out Hate, stand strong - stand together, Friday..