Comments for "Legendary Billie Holiday - "Fine and Mellow" .....sigh" Video at VideoSift.com

By swampgirl

swampgirl (http://swampgirl.videosift.com) — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 01:54:19 -0700

"Billie Holiday recorded "Fine and Mellow" during a TV session in New York on December 8, 1957, about a year and a half before she died at the age of 44. To me this is probably the most emotional and gripping recording ever made in jazz.
Billie sings Sweet and Mellow, which is just a 12 bar blues. There is some wonderful solo work by Ben Webster, Lester Young, Vic Dickenson, Gerry Mulligan, Coleman Hawkins and Roy Eldridge. This is music made for heaven!"

youtube-
"Description: Reunited after many years with tenor saxophonist Lester Young, Billie's visual reaction to his moving solo remains as eloquent as anything she ever sang; a touching finale to their historic musical partnership. Introduced by Robert Herridge"

By plastiquemonkey

plastiquemonkey (http://plastiquemonkey.videosift.com) — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 02:24:34 -0700

this is great. i think it's called "fine and mellow".

By Farhad2000

Farhad2000 (http://farhad.videosift.com) — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 03:01:22 -0700

I loved her most haunting song... strange fruit...

By pickleking

pickleking (http://www.videosift.com/member/pickleking) — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 11:29:11 -0700

DYNOMITE!

What an amazing ALL-STAR lineup of legendary jazz greats.

interesting side note: While many people assume that the song "Strange Fruit" was written by Holiday herself, it actually began as a poem by Abel Meeropol, a Jewish schoolteacher and union activist from the Bronx who later set it to music. Disturbed by a photograph of a lynching, the teacher wrote the stark verse and brooding melody under the pseudonym Lewis Allan in the late 1930s. Meeropol and his wife Anne are also notable because they adopted Robert and Michael Rosenberg, the orphaned children of the executed communists Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

Thanks swampgirl.

By daphne

daphne (http://www.videosift.com/member/daphne) — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 11:38:27 -0700

That's fantastic to know. I have always loved that song, but now I love it even more. It reaches even deeper.

Thank you for the info.

By swampgirl

swampgirl (http://swampgirl.videosift.com) — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 00:25:48 -0700

I just replaced the youtubes version with one I found at myspace. It is better quality. Thanks nashbar and dag

By swampgirl

swampgirl (http://swampgirl.videosift.com) — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 07:56:54 -0700

I didn't know she wrote Strange Fruit, thanks pickleking.