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Aretha Franklin #1214

Aretha Louise Franklin (born March 25, 1942) is an American gospel, soul and R&B singer born in Memphis, Tennessee, but raised in Detroit, Michigan. She has been called for many years “The Queen Of Soul”, but many also call her “Lady Soul,” as well as the more affectionate “Sister Re”. She is renowned for her soul and R&B recordings but is also adept at jazz, rock, blues, pop, gospel, and even opera.

Bessie Smith #1023

Caption from poster:  ” There ain’t nothin’ I can do, or nothin’ I can say, that folks don’t criticize me. But I’m goin’ to do just as I want to anyway, And don’t care if they all despise me. “Tain’t Nobody’s Bizness If I Do.” Smith, Bessie, 1894–1937, American singer, b. Chattanooga, Tenn. About 1910 Smith became the protégée of Gertrude (Ma) Rainey, one of the earliest blues singers. "

Billie Holiday #0000

Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed Lady Day by her loyal friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday was a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. Above all, she was admired for her deeply personal and intimate approach to singing.

Billie Holiday #1091

Caption from poster: ” Most of the…white people who came to Harlem those nights were looking for atmosphere, Damn few of them brought any along.” Holiday had a difficult childhood which greatly affected her life and career. Much of her childhood is clouded by conjecture and legend, some of it propagated by her autobiography, published in 1956. This account is known to contain many inaccuracies.

Billie Holiday #1102

Holiday was recording for Columbia in the late 1930s when she was introduced to "Strange Fruit", a song based on a poem about lynching written by Abel Meeropol, a Jewish schoolteacher from the Bronx. Meeropol used the pseudonym "Lewis Allan" for the poem, which was set to music and performed at teachers' union meetings. hen Holiday's producers at Columbia found the subject matter too sensitive, Milt Gabler agreed to record it for his Commodore Records. That was done in April, 1939 and "Strange Fruit" remained in her repertoire for twenty years.

Billie Holiday #1119

Caption from poster:  ”Them thats got, shall get Them thats not, shall lose So the Bible says, And it still is news Mama  may have Papa may have But God bless the child thats got his own Thats got his own."

Billie Holiday #1239

" I would say that the most emotional moment was her listening to the playback of "I'm a Fool to Want You." There were tears in her eyes ... After we finished the album I went into the control room and listened to all the takes. I must admit I was unhappy with her performance, but I was just listening musically instead of emotionally. It wasn't until I heard the final mix a few weeks later that I realized how great her performance really was.",   Ray Ellis  Orchestra Conductor

Billie Holiday #1003

Billie was admired for her deeply personal and intimate approach to singing. Critic John Bush wrote that she "changed the art of American pop vocals forever." She co-wrote only a few songs, but several of them have become jazz standards, notably "God Bless the Child", "Don't Explain", and "Lady Sings the Blues". She also became famous for singing jazz standards written by others, including "Easy Living" and "Strange Fruit."

Billie Holiday #1083

In later years her voice became more fragile, but it never lost the edge that had always made it so distinctive. On November 10, 1956, she performed two concerts before packed audiences at Carnegie Hall, a major accomplishment for any artist, especially a black artist of the segregated period of American history.

Dina Washington #1310

Dinah Washington (August 29, 1924 – December 14, 1963) was a blues, and jazz singer. She is a 1986 inductee of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame Washington was well known for singing torch songs A 40-song box set titled "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" was released in 1999

Ella Fitzgerald #1172

Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996), also known as Lady Ella (the First Lady of Song), was considered  one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th Century. With a vocal range spanning three octaves, she was noted for her purity of tone, near faultless phrasing and intonation, and a “horn-like” improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing.

Ella Fitzgerald #PR3178

With the demise of the Swing era, and the decline of the great touring big bands, a major change in jazz music occurred. The advent of bebop caused a major change in Fitzgerald's vocal style, influenced by her work with Dizzy Gillespie's big band. It was in this period that Fitzgerald started including scat singing as a major part of her performance repertoire. While singing with Gillespie, Fitzgerald recalled, "I just tried to do [with my voice] what I heard the horns in the band doing.