Two astonishingly talented artists. Even though they worked in similar realms, still kind of apples and oranges. Max respect for both, but I definitely find myself listening to Billie more.
I'm one of the bigger jazz fans on here, but I don't care for scat (except for Louie). Billie's one of the most influential singers of all time, on pop/R&B as well as jazz. Fitzgerald's influential too, but less so outside the jazz world.
craola wrote:
Billie Holiday performing Strange Fruit was possibly the bravest and boldest moment in music history and gets a pretty easy vote from me.
Agree. It makes me cry or at least gives me chills every time I hear it (both versions).
Yann wrote:
God that was close. I went for life affirming Ella rather than beautiful despair Billie (although in a sense life-affirming too, I know). I love both.
Billie's very closely associated with "Strange Fruit," her last album, Lady for Satin, and her work for Verve, when her voice was already in decline. But in the 1930s, when she was young, she recorded just as much for Columbia and a lot of those songs are upbeat, if not outright joyful.
To be fair to Ella, Billie recorded a lot of fluff too, she's just not as closely associated with it.
No matter how down I am, this always makes me happy:
Thanks for the reminder on Ella's scat singing - that is something she excels in over Billie.
Ella probably the greatest scat singer of all time and deserves credit for that, but to be fair, Billie never tried to scat, at least on record (she started singing professionally a few years earlier than Ella).
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RoundTheBend
Fischman
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