She was one of the first black singers to perform with a white band
Billie cleaned floors and did other jobs for the prostitutes so she could listen to the records. It was there that young Billie first heard the records of famous black American blues artists of the nineteen twenties. She heard Bessie Smith sing the blues. And she heard Louis Armstrong play the horn. Both musicians had a great influence on her.
STEVE EMBER: Billie Holiday once said: "I do not think I'm singing. I feel like I am playing a horn. What comes out is what I feel. I hate straight singing. I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That is all I know."
Here is Billie Holiday singing a popular song of the nineteen thirties, "More Than You Know."
(MUSIC)
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Billie Holiday had a tragic childhood. When she was ten, a man sexually attacked her. She was accused of causing the man to attack her and sent to a prison for children.
In nineteen twenty-seven, Billie joined her mother in Harlem, the area of New York City where African-Americans lived. Billie's mother mistakenly sent her to live in a brothel. Billie became a prostitute at the age of thirteen. One day, she refused the sexual demands of a man. She was arrested and spent four months in prison.
STEVE EMBER: Two years later, Billie's mother became sick and could not work. Fifteen-year-old Billie tried to find a job. Finally, she was given a job singing at a place in Harlem where people went at night to drink alcohol and listen to music.
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2013-11-25
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