How Did Billie Holiday Influence The Harlem Renaissance

There were many influential musicians of the Harlem Renaissance, yet Billie Holiday stands out as a sincere artist with a style all her own. While many artists used the characteristic scat singing, Holiday rarely sang the gibberish words and focused on the meaning of the song through her intense yet quiet voice. Despite the common Tin Pan Alley technique of plugging out songs simply to promote the sheet music, Holiday explored improvisation and made each song her own. Through her jazz improvisation, sincerity, and manipulation of phrasing, Billie Holiday created a revolutionary style of singing that many musicians copied in years to come.

Holiday’s childhood was riddled with abuse and poverty, yet it largely shaped her musical career. When

“When You’re Smiling”, popularized by Louis Armstrong, exemplifies Lady Day’s (a nickname given to her by Lester Young), effortless musicianship (Baird 2). Holiday had a very small vocal range, in fact, only an octave (Morgenstern 153). You can tell in this song that she sticks to the notes “in the pocket”, where she’s most comfortable, and increasing the power of her voice. Lady Day easily takes on the jaunty and fun style of this piece, yet still sings with a dreamlike quality. Although it would be easy to get carried away with improvisation and scat singing in this piece, Holiday stuck to a minimalist approach and conveyed the joyful message of the song without overselling it. In this way, Lady Day’s approach to this song was revolutionary because instead of dressing up the verses, she stripped them down to their core. Holiday’s stage presence was also a large part of her impact as a singer. She would often tilt her head back, conveying complete immersion in her art (Holiday and Dufty 135). Her subconscious movements moved her audiences due to their sincerity and unstudied air. The stage presence of Lady Day was palpable and passionate, yet melancholy. She enjoyed her performance, yet surrendered herself to the

She sang as if withholding a secret, drawing in each and every listener to catch a glimpse of her tragic life with her quiet and intense tone. However, she didn’t reveal too much and kept her audience wanting more. This invoked complex emotions in the audience, for they admired her natural talent as well as pitied the toll of drug use on her vocal chords. Her minimalist style of conveying the message of a piece without emphasizing her individual talent inspired future musicians. The influence of Holiday’s music was far reaching, including Diana Ross, who played Billie Holiday in the film “Lady Sings the Blues” (Morgenstern 258). Her talent even helped to establish the origins of rock and roll in jazz. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Holiday as an "Early Influence" in 2000 (Morgenstern 259). It’s no surprise that Lady Day became a world-renowned jazz singer, for she said herself, “If I'm going to sing like someone else, then I don't need to sing at all” (Holiday and Dufty