Fine & Mellow: “Anything I do sing, it’s a part of my life.”

by DRM

The blues to me is like being very sad, very sick, goin to church, being very happy. There’s twokinds of blues; there’s happy blues and there’s sad blues. I don’t think I ever sang the same way twice. I don’t think I ever sang the same tempo. One night it is a lit­tle bit slower, the next it’s a lit­tle brighter. It’s accord­ing to how I feel. I don’t know; the blues is sort of a mixed up thing, you just have to feel it. Any­thing I do sing, it’s a part of my life.
Bil­lie Hol­l­i­day

Imag­ine that life where every time you opened your heart, your feel­ing just poured out. It would be a bless­ing and a curse.

The horn play­ers know it. Lester Young and Ben Web­ster had a lot to say, and the power and skill to take the lead in say­ing what needed to be said in song. When they play with Bil­lie Hol­l­i­day, they step back. She’s the gifted one, the gift of sound, and they are there to hold her up.