"You can't copy anybody and end with anything. If you copy, it means you're working without any real feeling."
—Billie Holiday
Born Eleanora Fagan, Billie Holiday was one of the most influential jazz singers of all time. Known as “Lady Day,” she had a distinctive light timbre and graceful phrasing, even when singing popular jazz tunes dealing with heartbreak, despair, and loneliness. But whether the song was heavy and sorrowful or light and lively, Holiday’s presentation always seemed to carry a somber, wounded sadness and powerful emotional intensity.
