Billie Holiday

Vamos a dejar de hablar de los Borbones, no vaya a ser que nos acaben cerrando el chiringito... Se cumplen estos días 48 años de la muerte de la gran Billie Holiday. Para no enrrollarme mucho con algo en lo que no soy un experto, pongo algunos enlaces con su biografía y pasamos a lo que realmente importa, que es verla y escucharla.

Mi canto se basa exclusivamente en los sentimientos. No puedo cantar nada que no sienta.

En este vídeo la vemos interpretando la canción 'Strange fruit', alegato antiracista compuesta en 1939 y que está considerada como una de las primeras canciones protesta.

Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.

Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter cry.

En este otro vídeo, emitido en 1957 en el programa 'The sound of jazz' de la CBS, aparece junto a algunos de los grandes del jazz: Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Gerry Mulligan,...

Billie Holiday - Fine and Melow

My man don't love me
Treats me oh so mean
My man he don't love me
Treats me awfully
He's the lowest man
That I've ever seen

He wears high trimmed pants
Stripes are really yellow
He wears high trimmed pants
Stripes are really yellow

But when he starts in to love me
He's so fine and mellow

Love will make you drink and gamble
Make you stay out all night long repeat
Love will make you drink and gamble
Make you stay out all night long repeat

Love will make you do things
That you know is wrong

But if you treat me right baby
I'll stay home everyday
But if you treat me right baby
I'll stay home everyday

But you're so mean to me baby
I know you're gonna drive me away

Love is just like the faucet
It turns off and on
Love is just like the faucet
It turns off and on

Sometimes when you think it's on baby
It has turned off and gone