Depending on whose account you believe, Bessie Smith, the Empress of the blues, was born today, April 15 (1894). A top recording artist of the 1920s, she influenced Billie Holiday. Young Eleanora, as Billie was known then, heard Bessie’s blues on the victrola while working as a towel girl at a Baltimore brothel. In rare footage, Bessie sings W. C. Handy’s “St. Louis Blues.”
Of course, Billie also covered that song. Props to Bessie, but you know I’m partial.
Today is the 97th anniversary of Billie’s birth.
Who’d have thought we’d be comparing Whitney to Billie? At its peak, Whitney’s range was as wide as Lady’s was small. But Whitney’s demons ran just as deep. How providential that her last public performance was the hymn, “Yes, Jesus Loves Me.”
I painted this in Spring 2011. It was my fourth painting.
Billie lends her voice to a commercial launching JC Penney’s new Fair and Square image. Fairness seems to be issue #1 this political season. I couldn’t find the video, but the song is “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm.”
And to think that Billie left Artie Shaw’s band because a cigarette maker threatened to stop sponsoring the band’s radio show’s if its black vocalist continued. The band was prepared to walk, but Billie walked instead. The gig paid well, and she knew the guys needed the money.
I’ll skip the perfume. Just give me Paris.
