"Strange Fruit" was my very first introduction to Billie Holiday at ten years old (15 years ago). The song came on a compilation CD that had other great jazz artists and it had Lady's face on the front cover. I had no clue what she was singing about when I first heard it (I was distracted doing homework while it was playing.) A couple of days later I was playing the same CD that had "Strange Fruit" on it and my mom happened to hear it. Shocked, she asked if I knew what Lady was singing about and I confessed that I didn't. "She's singing about the lynching of Black people in the South, you know." I restarted the song and listened to it all the way through. It haunted me so much that I refused to listen to it for over a year, maybe even more. Despite this, it piqued my interest on who this singer was and what other topics she sang about. Thus began my love for Billie Holiday and her work.
I have never really sought out to put videos of Billie Holiday singing "Strange Fruit" on this channel (there has only been one from her 1945 set at the JATP) because for me, as a Black man, it is a very heavy and emotional song. Rather than remind people of the traumatic, racial violence that Black people have endured since they have been brought to the United States, I wanted to focus on performances that highlighted the triumphs and achievements of Billie Holiday's career. Nevertheless, now at age 25, I have realized that "Strange Fruit" is a record that is indeed a triumphant achievement in Lady's life, for it brought the horrors of racial violence to the forefront of the world. 83 years later, it is still, sadly, relevant and people are still playing it, whether it be her's or Nina Simone's version.
This particular recording (presumably from Café Society where she first introduced it) was made in early-mid May of 1939, barely a month after she recorded the song for Commodore Records on April 20, 1939. It gave me the same feeling that I had when I first heard her sing it 15 years ago in my childhood home on that CD. She is solely accompanied by a pianist (most likely her fiancé at the time Sonny White, who also played on the record) and she takes her time singing it making sure the audience hears every single word that she is singing. It was recorded by Bill Savory, the audio engineer famous for capturing Benny Goodman's historic Carnegie Hall concert a year prior in January of 1938. It is said that there is a whole collection of recordings captured by him of jazz greats that are still waiting to be released in full and most likely more of Billie Holiday. One hopes that they will be released in the near future.
Despite the fatuous introduction by the MC, this is a fine and haunting recording of a song that would later be called "Best Song of the Century" by TIME Magazine in 1999. Speaking of, I have included clips from news publications at the time of the recording such as TIME Magazine (it is believed that Lady's picture is the first of a Black person published in the magazine's history), the San Francisco Chronicle as well as famous black newspapers the New York Amsterdam News and the Chicago Defender among others. Contrary to popular belief, Lady was quite frequently mentioned in Black newspapers during her career and her recording of "Strange Fruit" is no exception.
I hope you enjoy.
28 окт 2024
