Songbird or Subversive? Instrumental vocalisation technique in the songs of Billie Holiday
2002; Routledge; Volume: 11; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/09589230120115130
ISSN1465-3869
Autores Tópico(s)Musicology and Musical Analysis
ResumoPerceptions of the vocalist Billie Holiday are constructed amid confusion about how to label her and her music. The lyrical material of her songs has led to 'easy' understanding of her as a 'torch singer,' but her earthy delivery is reflective of blues vocal technique. Furthermore, her early recordings were made in a period of redefinition for jazz music as the smoother, more commercial Swing sound settled into its evolution from the chaotic solo-driven texture of the New Orleans style. The social dynamics of this period were also complex as vocalists and women became more integrated into jazz performance practice. Holiday emerged as a highly distinctive singer in an artistically confined situation, contributing short choruses to showy instrumental numbers. However, from her first recording, she employed the dominant male instrumental discourse of these performances as a framework for the development of her own singing technique.
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