Billy Holiday, Lady Sings the Blues

Billy Holiday,
Lady Sings the Blues
Billie Holiday used drugs all her life. I do not believe she would be the same musician without it, just the same as if she were born a rich white kid! Her music comes from her experiences and her state of mind, which in most cases (as she seems to show in "Lady Sings the Blues") to be filled with pain and experience...she seems road weary if you will. Being a professional musician back then was a rough, poor, drugged experience. The music of the era seems to reflect this.
As far as her musical technical ability, so what! She's great! She has more style in her fingernail than many other musicians that have the ability.
I love her music...she's going to last forever :)

[@hilmarwensorra1215]

In VERY loving memory of Mrs. Billie Holiday (1915 - 1959 R.I.P. Gone but NOT forgotten).

[@nathanhorst8886]

Vocal upon lyrics, no one could touch her inspiration. Pure diamond in the rough.

[@johna4176]

A legend. You can hear the pain and hurt in her voice. Ony Billie can render such a song in this manner. Distinctive. God Bless Billie.

[@ireneolsen9037]

This is so beautiful, Holiday surrounded with equally talented musicians just jamming....

[@BernadetteElizabeth]

Sometimes people's pasts are too much to live with and stay sane. Her willingness to let all of that painful vulnerability out through her voice is a sign of great character. It seems her drug use was there to fill the void when her voice could not. At times, it sounds like I'm listening to the pain of that child in the brothel coming out in her woman's voice. One of my brave heroines. Thank you.

[@carolhoffman8915]

+Bernadette Walraven I agree totally

[@delphinekirkland1757]

+Bernadette Elizabeth , Billie's drug use began and persisted long, long before her voice declined so she did not use drugs to fill the void because the void didn't exist. This recording is from December 1957!! In 1947 her voice was at it's peak, one of the top vocalist in the world, right before her first drug arrest.Fresh out of jail she performed at Carnegie Hall; fabulous! Songs for Distingue Lovers was 1957, spot on. Lady Love, live recordings from the 1954 European tour was great. She'd been an addict for years by then. I think hearing "the child in the brothel" in her voice is a projection of pity based on how people think they would react having had that experience. Holiday had no trouble speaking candidly about her past and she spoke openly about things that troubled her. That wasn't one of them. According to people who were closest to Billie she despised being thought of as a vulnerable victim. She hated being pitied and psychoanalyzed, hence, "Ain't Nobody's Business if I do". Like thousands of woman forever, she was in relationships with abusive men and she was beaten and mistreated.It was what she sang about, wrote songs about; things that were a part of her life. She loved them and stayed even though it was bad. That was Billie's blues, the self-stated cause of her sadness. The other conclusions are just a part of the oft repeated victim-hood tale. According to Billie Holiday herself the greatest regret and deepest sorrow was from something seldom mentioned: she never had a home and children. She stated this in an interview. By the time she was 20, she had a career . In fact, the most tragic thing that came out of her arrest for prostitution was the bath of mustard the nuns forced her into to abort her pregnancy. She was deeply distressed by the odor of mustard. On the issue of drugs, bottom line, she was a rich woman that loved to party!! Pot, cocaine, heroin and alcohol were the party drugs of the day. Because of the drugs and hard living her voice finally declined. By then her life was in shambles and she could barely remember the lyrics to songs she had played forever.Listen the starts and stops of the takes that were not put on the album from her last recordings. So sad. That was tragedy unfolding, when she could no longer do what she loved most. A few months later she died.

[@BernadetteElizabeth]

I have been a singer for decades. I sing from the places inside of me that hold the emotions of the song's storyline. Drawing on personal experience is a gift. Billie Holiday began using heroin well before her teens. Heroin was a part of the culture in both the sex for sale scene and the music scene. That's an easy lateral move. Lady day began her use as an accepted part of everyday life in the filth that surrounded her. Much like heavy drinking, heroin's pleasure plateau is inversely proportional to the aging process. One begins to use it as a substitute for death when a grave seems comforting to them. I learned a lot from your comment, and am encouraged to read more. Thanks!

[@delphinekirkland1757]

It's wonderful that years after Billie Holiday is physically gone we continue to learn by listening and thinking about what she did. I've been a singer for decades also and most of the songs we do are in the style of Billie Holiday. I love that our audience and following includes young people. Our band's guitar player just turned thirty, in fact. It's 2016 and it's the music for the present moment when we're doing it! And, although my life has been, in almost every way, the opposite of Billie's, I relate to her musical expression more than any other vocalist. I was born the same day in 1960, in the south and I'm black. I've never been poor, mistreated or directly discriminated against. Yet, the victim, pity thing hits a nerve so deeply...I don't know why. Or, more honestly, I do know why it bothers me seeing her reduced to a vulnerable person but, it would take paragraphs to explain because it's a dichotomy derived from her life and mine. I And I know this isn't exclusive to me. Everyone that listens to her and loves her gets mixed up in the story that may never end. It will never end. Even if her name is not uttered and her voice is not heard the influence will be there. This is my "desert island" video. Look at her face, look at her smile, look at how happy she is when the boys are swinging out during the music break. Her beloved Lester Young with close to his last breath, playing the sweetest he's ever played for Lady Day. And Mulligan, the sax as big as him, a mere kid, on the stage with these giants, so ready to come in. Having stood on the stage with far less, in all respects, and felt the same joy, I can't see her as diminished. That anguish of eventually not being able to do it because the drugs, alcohol, stress from drug agents and kicks to the ribs had finally brought her down is painful to think about and listen to. When she couldn't do what she loved most she died.

[@southsydesasha7268]

+Delphine Kirkland thank you for all that you shared& so many ppl got her story so wrong, the fact you shared with us will keep the truth alive . She wasnt a victim she was and is a legend!

[@sonopaolotorre]

Il titolo è FINE AND MELLOW. Billie Holiday è accompagnata da Ben Webster, Lester Young, Vic Dickenson, Gerry Mulligan, Coleman Hawkins, Roy Eldridge, Doc Cheatham, Danny Barker, Milt Hinton, Mal Waldron, Osie Johnson. Registrato negli studi CBS l'8 dicembre 1956.

[@KRxN11]

One of The Greatest performances of all time by Lady Day!!! In The Company of Geniuses. Timeless/Priceless.

[@doloresmytube]

Bellissima la musica Brava la cantante Grazie, Judie

[@darchylde612]

this is to me one of lady's more outstanding performances. the absolute JOY on her face as she sings and is surrounded by literally an all-star line up of the creme de la creme of the jazz world including her beloved "prez", lester young. the freedom on her face when she sings, this was one of the rare occasions that lady was truly above her problems and doing what she loved to do, which was SING! this video brings tears of both joy and sorrow to my eyes. i get chills every time i see this.

[@bernardlegall5872]

Billy Holiday, une très très grande dame du blues entourée ici de Ben Webster, Lester Young, Vic Dickenson ,Gerry Mulligan, Coleman Hawkins et Roy Eldridge les plus grand noms du jazz.

[@moozmarc]

la voix du jazz et du blues..... la grande DAME...

[@DasSlenderMan]

Okay, this is *not* 'Lady Sings the Blues.' This is 'Fine and Mellow' by Billie* Holiday. Thank you very much!

[@donaldartzer2501]

SlenderMan

[@DasSlenderMan]

Donald Artzer What's up?

[@gregparrott]

Thanks for identifying the correct title

[@lajeunebrown644]

SlenderMan billie holiday interviews

[@ziera8382]

Thank you for the clarification

[@carolyndye2615]

beautiful song. loved Lady day since my grandfather first played her for me.

[@mitchgrube2480]

Man-this is the top of the top---Billie was so great there is no scale to measure her by------------

[@JoseAugusto-wb1yy]

Just.... Beautiful

[@pidgy5108]

pidgy3022-after 70 years she still gives me goosebumps and makes the hair on my body crinkle and stand up.

[@philthetremoloking]

Without drugs she would have lived longer, been happier and healthier, and given us more wonderful music. She'd still have been the amazing artist she was. It's a terrible misconception that abusing and destroying your body with drugs somehow makes your music better or more intense.

[@southsydesasha7268]

Hindsight is 20 20 shes a legend her personal life shouldnt be an issue like she says" dont talk about me when im gone" she gave us music. I love her in spite of her challenges

[@thymele2]

+philthetremoloking I don' think we should be judging her or engaging in armchair psychologising. For her own reasons, she lived the life she decided to live, or which she HAD to live, which contained a huge amount of pain, despair, and, I suspect, anger. Imagine the courage, strength it took to sing "Strange Fruit"--the look on her face is deeply, deeply sorrowful, just as the horror the song describes is incalculably tragic. To do a riff on a Beatles' song, "Let [Her] Be."

[@philthetremoloking]

+thymele2 I'm not judging her at all, I know she did drugs for a reason and had a very difficult life. I just don't want to glorify self-destruction as something romantic. She was a woman in pain who used drugs to self-medicate which caused her even more pain and in the end killed her. She was a victim of racism and of the general contempt that our society has for creative people. She deserved better.

[@jonldn]

philthetremoloking she did comment in lstb that drugs never made anyone sing better,.

[@jazzykv]

2,352,648 views and only 31 likes for this comment. Wow.

[@net60man]

Sådär i eftertanke får jag för mej att de gör ett gigg tillsammans för varann och Billy. Vilket som så är det härligt.

[@delphinekirkland1757]

Billie Holiday was not poor all of her musical career. The Great Lady Day did not always have it rough. She did not perform in smokey brothel with drunks. She was accompanied by orchestras and traveled with some of the best bands. Her audiences were the sophisticated. She played in the highest end venues all over the world. So many of the greats wanted to play with her. She had the best musicians available. And she called the shots, picked the tempos and the numbers. Just like Hendrix, The Stones and scores of other musicians, she did drugs and drank as a part of a party life style. If you watch documentaries featuring people that were closest to her you'll understand that she didn't feel sorry for herself. She took drugs and drank to have fun. It's a dead end, it doesn't work,it's addicting, the fun is not actually there. It will kill you fast. Her music was great in spite of the drugs, alcohol and wild times with men and women, not because of it. It's what held her back and eventually tore her down, not what made her. Most of the songs she performed were not written by her so did not reflect her life. Although she would only sing tunes she could relate to. The same standards were covered beautifully by rich, white women performers. Many were written men, white and black. Just don't paint the picture that she was so different from Janis Joplin or any of the others that found themselves in the middle of it all. Her success did not come after her death. She enjoyed wealth and fame during her life. Her death was very tragic, indeed, but she was exposed to a lifestyle that many can only dream of. Look at the lives of other musicians: Loise Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Sam Cooke, Otis Reading, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn...They were not poor. Many were, but it was a mixed bag. I'm glad you like her music. But I tire of the oft repeated, Wikipedia based picture of the Great Lady; it would have pissed her off. She was not some down-trodden woman. Listen to her interviews to gain better perspective. She was not a pathetic, tragic creature. She was a person that soared high, achieved the penultimate, but fell short and suffered some tragedies and loss along the way.

[@delphinekirkland1757]

Don't have to listen to Nina Simone.My family lived during those time. I was born in the rural south in 1960 and I remember segregation; the "colored" entrance to the doctor's office, and my fathers annoyance with dealing with people that had to be constantly reminded that he wasn't ignorant of the market prices for the farm goods he sold to the local mill. However, what I am referring to is the oft repeated attitude that Billie Holiday lived a disadvantaged life under the shroud of victim-hood which lead her to drug addiction. Yes, she was subject to Jim Crow laws, however, people that were close to her have expressed that she did not live the life of a victim. I'm stating deference to the attitude that she was weak and helpless and saying that she lived a defiant life, reacting to prejudice with anger, not sullen rejection. Yes, she was corralled and curtailed by the laws. That is the external reality. I'm referring to the reactions. Growing up black in the south I see that my entire family adopted the same attitude of dealing with inequality without relenting to the attitude of victim-hood. Were it not for people of African decent being able to adopt an attitude of being able to rise above this, none of us would have recovered from the years of it being illegal for blacks to learn to read and write or the separate, unequal educational facilities that we had to deal with until the mid-seventies. My school was not integrated and we were given the old, outdated tattered remnants of the white schools until I was in 5th grade. The school was Fairfax Training School and the students, referring to the unequal facilities, jokingly add, "for cats and dogs" to the end of the name. However, having been raised in a home and family with the attitude of not accepting the limitations imposed by others and finding ways to rise above them, by the time I was ready for college I was accepted into Princeton, Harvard, Yale and Duke and attended Duke because the scholarships were most generous. I agree. Yes, it was wicked. My father would just shake his head and say," Well that's alright cause God don't love ugly". His way of saying that he was going to keep moving forward with the attitude that there is always some fairness dealt out by the universe, eventually. It's just that some of it may take a long time to manifest and people around the world on a day to day basis will still suffer under inequality. We have to look at how some people still were able to experiance a high level of success in the face of it. I look up to Billie and one of those people.

[@delphinekirkland1757]

***** , You're welcome! This is my favorite performance of all time; this is my desert island pick. Billie was born 45 years before me (on close to the same day) and died nine months before I was born. We could not have been raised more differently. We all know that she was born to children in the city and had no family support. I was born on our farm that had been in the family since 1935 with a strong father surrounded within miles by more family than I can count. My dealings with men was the opposite: no abuse; always protected and cared for. Yet I have come to relate to her more than any other person involved with music. That's saying a lot because the scope of music I deal with is very broad, most of my friends are musicians, I am an active musician and I didn't grow with this kind of music. Strangely things have twisted and turned to bring me to being the vocalist in a Billie Holiday tribute band. My husband of 38 years and I played together for some years. We played rock, blues, country, originals...endeavored for an eclectic mix. My husband was tragically killed Christmas Eve night 2013. The band was immediately joined by a very talented young guitarist. His vision was that our best niche was to stick to the Jazz/blues genre and that half of what we do should be Billie Holiday. He has the jazz licks to support it. So now I get to present this music, filtered through the hearts of the members of a band that all love Billie Holiday. It warms the heart when people that have no background in it, including young people, enjoy it so much. It brings Billie Holiday into new hearts. Then they go and find her music and listen. So I get a little defensive when it starts out, "Billie Holiday used drugs all her life" because it's not a good way to introduce or define her and it's not quit true. She was so much more so better to start in a more representative place when presenting one of her best performances by one of the greatest performers.

[@delphinekirkland1757]

So happy to hear about your English class. What a great idea and a bold move. I home schooled five kids and we did a lot of interesting projects. It is hard for kids to relate to "old" music sometimes. That's why it really makes me happy seeing the 20 and 30 year old "kids" enjoying the music. Just had a 19 year old contact me for a list of Billie Holiday songs and she got a terrible case of Big Momma Thornton addiction this summer. Yes, the widowed thing is hard to deal with. Thirty eight years and in a second everything is so different and it can't be taken back. And Christmas Eve night will never be the same. We were so close and did everything together...business, music, one acre garden; always game for the same things. I have to say that my ordeal seems to have been tempered by a miraculous experience, all swirling around music and family. Against all odds I am happier than I ever imagined. Though I don't think there will ever be a day that goes by that I don't miss him or recoil at a memory of the terrible event. We get through it but not over it, even if we are fortunate enough to find love again.

[@delphinekirkland1757]

Well, Elizabeth, I grew up in a house with seven people and my brother and I are the only ones still alive and he's in Seattle and I'm here in PA. My house once was filled; seven people also, only eleven years ago. Today is my 55th birthday and I am here in this home for seven entirely alone. We survive. I have my five children but I only see the one that lives with me...after school, track and hanging with friends. And as for the diverse teachings in school, there are a few paragraphs here and there on select personalities o color for the sake of the appearance of diversity. The curriculums are just set in stone that way. Good luck though. I read on my own in school so we can always encourage that. The 7th of April was Billie's 100th birthday!!!!

[@delphinekirkland1757]

+Elizabeth Darovic , And an even more belated thank you!!

[@ixchy25]

I am from Mexico, and I think Ella was not sad or blue, she just interpretared the blues in her singing for us to understand so nice and fine that the melancholy of blues became a new note between la si and do. I think she enjoyed singing as much as we enjoy listening to her. If I havent cancelled my reservation to the resurresion like morrison did I would surely want to be her in a new life....

[@iamladeegee8032]

This is BILLIE HOLIDAY NOT ELLA FITZGERALD!!!

Viu quem está reencarnada; canta lindamente e tem todos as características dela? Angelina Jordam, a Princesa do jazz!

[@1happyaua]

she has a most lovely face

[@DelightfulTravellers]

Fantastic video. Well done! We truly loved it.

[@misslady441]

the lyrics...the emotion in her voice...such a beautiful combination

[@mihaelatudor2417]

Beautiful music.....

[@evitaduran9164]

To produce music like this amid so much heartache is admirable. These were times of distress and tragic events and many of them were not strong enough to overcome it but what a musical legacy she has left, it is a blessing indeed.

[@brucefournier3913]

The band and performances in support of Billie are absolute beautiful butter. "Prez", Lester Young, is stunning. Watch Billie's reaction to his solo...sublime...

[@PETERBEPP]

Fantastique.

[@ElizavetaSh]

She is unforgettable up to now. She is the best bluse singer for all times!

[@verasantarelli4088]

Ascolto spesso le splendide interpretazioni di Billie......l'adoro!

[@Martika264]

Lady Day you'll live forever in our hearts!

[@keithbutler4132]

my cousin singing this song word for word sound just like her I love to hear her sing the song

[@rolldito]

I'm a fan of Billie Holiday and I admit that this is the most significant recording of her life.

[@susopose]

ésta no es solo una actuación más, ésta es como música cantada por ángeles, fantástica.

[@TheMichellebella]

Oooo my Ooo my Ooo my.... Her classy, sultry voice n depth combined with the exquisite Sax!!~ Mmhmmm

[@sylvielegault9481]

c'est tjrs un immense plaisir que de savourer cette musique...cette voix...

[@DorotaMalickaxbxb4]

This video is perhaps best captures all the important features of *Billie Holiday*: its sensitivity to the sounds of music, the feminine fragility and total surrender to alcohol and drugs reflected in the eyes, reflexes face and waving his head. Sequences her face captured on video, and perfectly retained in the first frame for a few seconds to revive it for the moment, they are doing an amazing feeling ... and are probably a mirror image of her life, personality, character, abilities 0:08, 0:16 ... She was both a composer and songwriter at the same time And besides seeing on one stage this class musicians as *Ben Webster, Gerry Mulligan, Lester Young, Vic Dickenson, Coleman Hawkins, Roy Eldridge* seems almost unbelievable from today's perspective.

[@DorotaMalickaxbxb4]

To video chyba najlepiej oddaje wszystkie najważniejsze cechy *Billie Holiday*: jej wrażliwość na dźwięki muzyki, kobiecą kruchość oraz całkowite poddanie się alkoholowi i narkotykom odzwierciedlone w oczach, odruchach twarzy i falowaniu głowy. Sekwencje jej twarzy utrwalone na video, a perfekcyjnie zatrzymane w pierwszym kadrze na kilka sekund by za moment ją ożywić, robią niesamowite wrażenie 0:08, 0:16 ... i są chyba lustrzanym odbiciem jej życia, osobowości, charakteru, uzdolnień... Była zarówno kompozytorką jak i autorką tekstów jednocześnie. A poza tym zobaczenie na jednej scenie tej klasy muzyków co: *Ben Webster, Gerry Mulligan, Lester Young, Vic Dickenson, Coleman Hawkins, Roy Eldridge* wydaje się wręcz nieprawdopodobne z dzisiejszej perspektywy.

[@corettejones]

YES! There’s Billie in me. 🌹👍🏽💕

[@juliolazzagonzalez]

Eleanora Fagan Gough, conocida como Billie Holiday y apodada Lady Day (Filadelfia, 7 de abril de 1915 - Nueva York, 17 de julio de 1959) fue una cantante estadounidense de jazz. Junto con Sarah Vaughan y Ella Fitzgerald, está considerada entre las más importantes e influyentes voces femeninas del jazz.

[@mrstanbmw]

The Lady got Soul what a group of muscians.

[@сергейкутузов-д9ч]

до чего же хорошо!!---thank you very much.

[@maryaydos]

I like both Billie and Amy!!

[@MikhnevichNatalya]

❤️❤️❤️🦋

[@guillermogarcia3670]

THANK YOU "Window". I think what IS so touching about this woman is that her deepest feelings are skin deep. She sings from a very hurt but pure, good Heart (in spite of her early life). I know she died years ago, but what she left us is eternal, because her Soul radiated into our Feelings.

[@Panos125S]

Fantastic Music , Great Voice !!!

[@antiheroredemtion2523]

I love her voice & how her facial expression went with the song. Love you Billie Holiday!

[@silviachambarelli3672]

Fine and mellow é o nome dessa canção.

[@ecrsbelem]

Rainha e Reis do Jazz : Billie Holiday / Ben Webster / Coleman Hawkins Simplesmente Genial! Tudo perfeito

[@audiophileman7047]

We are seeing true greatness in this performance. The soloists such as Ben Webster and Lester Young deliver top notch instrumental performances. Combine this wonderful music with Billie's tortured vocals and you have something of historical importance and timeless beauty. This was truly the golden age of jazz and the creation of true American art form. Our lives are so enriched by it.

[@pauluk72]

All the pleasure and all the pain captured in one performance.

[@gabhelp8697]

This is really good.The Feel of all the musician and Billy Holliday's beauty and talent are fantastic

[@MrXwilll]

Musicians are splendid

[@cityloveeeee]

What a gem. Even her expressions during each of the solos are beautiful - particularly Lester's, I'd melt in the same way.

[@SirHappyThe1st]

This is such a lovely song sung to be perfection by a perfect singer.

[@marianvasile3046]

She was great and today after 70 years we still enjoy her singing style.

[@MaluMonte]

Não me canso de ouvi-la!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@nillamatthews1383]

How lucky we are to still be able to listen to Lady D!

[@jasonpatten4574]

This song is actually called "Fine&Mellow" but Bless you for posting it! I used to play this all the time... Now I have the pleasure of watching her interact with the her Jazz combo and truly rise to the occasion despite her congested and harsh voice&overall dissipation toward the end. Good to see her in her element. The last song on this was somewhere between heartbreaking and just well... Awful. Someone had said they preferred Nina Simone singing "I Love You Porgy" I HEARTILY agreed&even said during Billie's last years her voice was too far gone to sustain such a subtle&poignant song & that she croaks her way thru a pitiful "crack" at it with only a ghost of the exquisite phrasing that MADE her a legend. I love good music more than pathos&likely have made enemies who LOVE Billie Holiday the Martyr somuch the worse she was the more they rally around her. Such a treat to see her here in her element, Truly do her thing&doing it BEAUTIFULLY.

[@grahamwhipp6443]

Billie God bless you, singing from your heart, rest in peace 🇬🇧

[@TheAnuksunamun]

Un extasis total !

[@waltermontani1621]

unica!!!!

[@Josopar]

Lady Day uma das maiores de sempre. Genial!

[@drsburns1]

her voice...sheds all her feelings in her music

[@baeticus1]

Uma banda de luxo ! Uma maravilha !

[@jrodriguezmaturano]

Tienes razón jujubeer, en tu información. Si esta mujer no hubiera sufrido lo que sufrió, no hubiera cantado igual; me emociona hasta las lágrimas escucharla y ver como siente la música. Gracias por compartir.

[@ОрханМурад-к6щ]

Слов нет!

[@MikhnevichNatalya]

Люблю Билли!джаз в ее исполнении возвышенный!!!!!очень красиво!Билли очень красивая!❤️❤️❤️моё почтение этой великой женщине!жемчужина!🌹

[@webeurope35]

My God, let me go to heaven and hear this wonderful and unique voice ,then send me anywhere. I love her music...she's going to last forever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@jorgevisnovezky9670]

La niebla en sus ojos ,el dolor en su alma,y el brillo de amor cuando siente a los centauros que soplan maravillas inspirados por ella , quien podria juzgar a este angel que vuela tan por encima de la gente vacia y materialista.

[@mark747100]

Brilliant. This is bloody cracking marvelous.

[@claudioagosti8448]

Questo è il jazz che piace a me

[@MrThailik]

This woman has a special effect on you . So so special. ,.love her .

[@realfabo]

No creo que exista algo que supere esto, es literalmente increíble lo que todos logran aquí, eran de otro planeta.....

[@elencosta3155]

divaaaaaa..voz divinaaa..anjo de carne e almaaaaaaa

[@agmarrioscampos]

I can not hear her without crying. I miss her even without having met her. Thank you. I'm Braziliam and since I'm a child I used hear this wanderful voice.

[@48Moondancer]

Enjoy the music ! NO matter her sad life or drugs or whatever a very unique voice none better and because of vinyl we get to hear her over and over again !

[@castorbtlanger]

For good or bad, there will never be another Billie Holiday. She had hard times that most of us will never experience, except for the "heart" part. Loving is not easy.

[@waseijin-x5g]

The performers are amazing!!　Well, Press, Coleman, and Mulligan. Billie is so beautiful!!

[@abgp65]

sad lyrics, but beautiful music. love the sax solo 😍 made me chills 😘😗

[@monicat9085]

lester young on sax

[@stephanieskyes5777]

Seen her story just breaks my heart in how the world treated this beautiful talent soul. The world we live and it hasn't changed.

[@MrLankruza]

She s a world heritage icon. A voice for the ages. I hope it was on that pioneer space probe. Some good oughta outlast this go damn world. I love you BH.

[@calilla12]

Lady Sings the Blues It is always known singers and musicians today have been inspired by singers of earlier times, as ..... Amy Winehouse

[@hazelhoyle]

i love Billie Holiday

[@lonergan2468]

My fav session, wonderful, such integration and harmony between all the musicians. Billy really enjoyed this session...you can just see...

[@tayama3]

billy is so good.......

[@23cebe]

Ich wünschte, es gäbe wieder Frauen wie sie auf dieser Welt - I wished there would be women like her again in theese times

[@sofianoiti]

This is "Fine and Mellow"... wrong title.

[@kemsjems]

glad to see, in this clip, that, although, billy sounds in pain, she has smiley eyes, and is happily , mezmerized, with every note she is singing ,and is being played around her. she seems to be in heaven. bless her. xx. kem.

[@egozero9076]

meraviglia!

[@docnshe]

What line up of the finest Jazz men plus the greatest female singer ever.. its so good it gives me goose bumps every time...modern musicians look and take note ......DOC

[@southsydesasha7268]

Love this song LOVE Billie& i wish theyd do a movie about her Lady sings the blues? Was not factual in the least, RIP Lady Day thell never b another one like you💗💞❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️✌🏾️

[@bobbymobay]

Thank you for all you gave us, Lady Day!!!

[@Dalybruno]

Lady Day ..Lady Day!! Eternamente una diva, por excelencia. Gracias, por subir estas canciones, que sin duda forman parte de un hermoso legado cultural... qué época!

[@MusiqTruth]

I LOVE Billie Holiday. Period. #NuffSaid

[@Krupification]

Beautiful! So relaxing.

[@sissywinkle5055]

I've always loved you since I was a small girl growing up in Los Angeles and you are still WONDERFUL!! My only wish is I wish I could've seen you in your day 💘

[@Zappanofilo]

Fantástico documento

[@jannortheast87]

I have been watching her all night, (now 2:47am)! She is amazing. I like her sad/happy moments. I could only pray she had some happiness in this life. I love her voice, her look, just her.

[@udontnome1122]

Why the hell would you treat this lady badly!!! That's frigging crazy! She was so awesome!!!

[@lorraineedmay]

Im in paradise, when I hear this song. these musicians were so brilliant. I miss them.

[@bilyB1SuperScience]

Just lay back and enjoy....chill. Everyone has a closet to hang their problems....escape. Booze, drugs and the worst of all...pointing out other folks weakness to make themselves feel better about their own lost achievement instead of leaping forward with disregard and creating. No matter what...she sends me off, man. I mean off...love her and love her for that golden voice and the ability to help us forget for one moment.....about the daily grind...relax and enjoy. She's a beautiful soul.

[@zoomjps25]

Comme tu es belle dame aux gardénias! Ton regard est plein de douceur :)...

[@speakeasynyc]

The single greatest video in all of all music history. Perfect in every way. Just f.y.i., there is an alternate take available also awesome.

[@youssouphafall6966]

Extraordinaire Pure Merveille Cool Classe HD rythme extra

[@JRAYTA61]

This video is such a FIND. Everyone in it is a STAR before Stars lived off being just that and still really loved what they did. You can see and hear the love for the music. Billie and all the other fine musicians in this video will live forever in this music.