Old & New: Top 5 Billie Holiday Tributes

Billie Holiday & dog "Mister" (William Gottlieb Collection)

In honor of Billie Holiday's centennial year, and the tremendous influence the legendary singer has had on artists of every generation, we've pulled together five tributes (old and new) to Lady Day.

Although "Strange Fruit" isn't a Holiday original (penned by Abel Meeropol as a poem in 1937), Lady Day made it famous. (Legend tells that Holiday would close out sets with the song. Waiters would stop all service, the room would be in darkness except for a spotlight on Holiday, and there would be no encore.) Nina Simone, who acknowledges Holiday as one of her biggest inspirations, gives one of the most stirring renditions of "Strange Fruit" you'll hear.

In a recent interview with VH1, rising vocalist José James called Billie Holiday his "musical mother." James captures a beautiful mood on Yesterday I Had the Blues: The Music of Billie Holiday (2015), his third release on Blue Note Records. Even better, James brings this project to San Francisco on Saturday, September 20th.

Pianist Mal Waldron accompanied Billie Holiday regularly from April 1957 until her death in July, 1959. Although Waldron recorded Left Alone in 1959, he was reluctant to release it immediately, given a large outpouring of "bandwagon" tributes recorded and released immediately after Holiday's passing. In addition to a beautiful collaboration with Jackie McLean on "Left Alone," the album features an enlightening "Mal Waldron Interview: The Way He Remembers Billy Holiday."

Cassandra Wilson lends her rich, dusky sound and interpretive gift to a selection of Billie Holiday classics on Coming Forth By Day (2015) to celebrate the singer's centennial. Wilson's final song, "Last Song for Lester Young" is intended to fill a void left by the events surrounding the funeral of Holiday's long time companion, Lester Young. After hearing of Lester’s passing while touring in Europe, Billie immediately flew home to the States to attend his funeral. She wanted to sing a song for him as a final farewell. Unfortunately, Lester’s family, for whatever reason, denied Billie the opportunity to sing. Like José James, Wilson brings her centennial tribute to San Francisco in May, 2016.

Abbey Lincoln reflects on Lady Day in a rare interview conducted around the time she released Abbey Sings Billie, Vol. 1 & 2 (1987). An avid civil rights advocate throughout the 1960s, Lincoln cites Holiday as one of her biggest influencers. Referencing "Strange Fruit," Lincoln praises Holiday for having "the courage to defend herself. When they were lynching men and women in the south, she sang about it. None of the other women or men sang about it: that's why Billie is different from the rest of them."

SFJAZZ celebrates the centennial of Billie Holiday with José James and Cassandra Wilson in the 2015-16 Season.

5 Things In The Jazz World This Week

• Jazz legend Sonny Rollins blows out his birthday candles for the 85th time. In his own words: "85 is no jive."
• 28-year-old pianist Jon Batiste gave an epic, star-studded performance of Sly & The Family Stone's classic “Everyday People” for his debut as music director of The Late Show w/ Stephen Colbert.
• The New York Times jazz journalist Nate Chinen gave rave reviews for vocalist Lizz Wright's "new sensual register" on her new album Freedom & Surrender.
• Popular French radio station France Radio broadcasts SFJAZZ's 2015-16 Season Opening Week, featuring Jacky Terrasson, Randall Kline, SFJAZZ Collective & more!
• On her centennial year, Billie Holiday will be the first artist to perform (via hologram!) at the Apollo Theater.

Great Americas Songbook: Week 1

Summer Sessions 2015 begins tonight! The first four weeks are devoted to our ongoing summer series “Great Americas Songbook.” Devoted to the rich traditions of music spanning the entirety of the North and South American continents, Great Americas Songbook expands the concept of “The Great American Songbook” to include artists from all the Americas. Individual weeks highlight the American popular song, the music of Mexico, the American Big Band, and the equatorial area stretching from Central and South America to the Caribbean.

This first week focuses on the breadth of American popular song, from the New Orleans tradition of Louis Armstrong to the social consciousness of Bob Dylan. Kicking things off is Ann Hampton Callaway – a Tony Award winner and one of the truly great living interpreters of the trove of popular songs written between the 1920s and 1950s, commonly called the Great American Songbook. Tonight, Callaway presents her tribute to one of her primary influences and one of the truly iconic jazz singers, Sarah Vaughan. Buy Tickets

Called “one of the outstanding singers of our time” by The Wall Street Journal, vocalist Catherine Russell pays tribute to the legendary Louis Armstrong, for whom her father, Luis Russell, was a longtime collaborator and musical director. Russell won a GRAMMY for her contribution to the soundtrack for the smash HBO series Boardwalk Empire, and her newest session, Bring It Back, explores the rich trove of music developed through her father’s collaboration with Armstrong. She'll be performing Thursday through Sunday in the Joe Henderson Lab. Buy Tickets

Kim Nalley is a rare artist with the dramatic presence, stylistic breadth and technical skill to pay a fitting tribute to the legendary Billie Holiday, portraying Holiday in stage plays and in her own signature show, The Heart of Lady Day. Her sold out tribute to Holiday on Friday will reveal Nalley as blues-loving jazz singer with a luxuriously rich voice, performing the music of Lady Day in her own inimitable style.

“Paula West is, quite simply, the finest jazz-cabaret singer around. All of her albums deserve pride of place in any discerning listener's library.” So says JazzTimes magazine about the San Francisco jazz treasure, whose tribute to the immortal songwriter Bob Dylan is sold out Saturday night. With this celebration of rock icon Dylan, Paula West embraces this most American of voices, making his iconic words and melodies undeniably her own.

The final night of this first Summer Sessions week brings a tribute to the great Nat King Cole by his enormously gifted younger brother, Freddy Cole, accompanied by his swinging, telepathic quartet. The New York Times described Freddy this way: “Freddy has an impeccable sense of swing…he is, overall, the most maturely expressive male jazz singer of his generation, if not the best alive.” He performs in Miner Auditorium on Sunday. Buy Tickets

Who are your favorite female jazz vocalists?

Billie Holiday

This month, SFJAZZ honors Women in Jazz, beginning Thursday by paying tribute to four of the greatest female jazz vocalists—Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Etta James & Sarah Vaughan—with Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers all weekend in Joe Henderson Lab. Of course, the four vocalists chosen represent just a few of many. What other songstresses do you think should don the list? We posed this very question on social media and got a wealth of responses. Below are a few highlights. Feel free to contribute your own in the comments section below.

And still more... Dinah Washington, Carmen McRae, Maxine Sullivan, Anita O'Day, Paula West, Annie Ross, Flora Purim... To view all the contributions, check out SFJAZZ on Facebook and Twitter. Still a few seats left for Lavay Smith's Bessie Smith tribute tomorrow night... And more to come throughout March: Japanese piano superstar Hiromi's 'The Trio Project,' as well as singer Clairdee's Jazz Express Family Matinee.

PHOTO: Mary Stallings & Kenny Barron at SFJAZZ Center

Last night, Mary Stallings appeared alongside NEA Jazz Master Kenny Barron to a sold out Miner Auditorium. The performance marked the first time the beloved San Francisco native took the stage at the SFJAZZ Center since its Grand Opening nearly one year ago (the Center celebrates it's first birthday on January 21st!).

The two jazz giants ran down classics such as "Yesterdays" and Billie Holiday's "Me, Myself and I." Kenny Barron also embarked on a solo segment including Eubie Blake's "Memories of You" and Thelonious Monk's "Shuffle Boil." Barron chuckled as he recalled something Eubie Blake, well in his 90s, told him years ago:

"If I'd known I'd live this long, I would have taken better care of myself."

Below are a few photos, courtesy of Scott Chernis. Mary Stallings performs at the Center again tonight with pianist and past collaborator Eric Reed!

For more info on Mary Stallings, visit sfjazz.org. Check out more photos on SFJAZZ Flickr.