         |
all performances in Connecticut (1937 - 1958) Friday, 3/26/1937 – embarks with the Count Basie Band on a short tour which includes Hartford Wednesday, 7/7/1937 – performs with the Count Basie Band in a “Battle of the Bands” with Jimmie Lunceford in Hartford. (She also performed with Count Basie at the Butterfly Room in Springfield, MA on Tuesday, 9/17/1937) Sunday, 1/2/1938 – performs with the Count Basie Band at a dance in Hamilton Park, Waterbury Sunday, 6/26/1938 - performs with the Artie Shaw Orchestra at Roton Point, South Norwalk Friday, 12/16/1939 – performs with the Jimmy Lunceford Orchestra at State Theater, Hartford Friday, 9/26/1958 – performs in a Seven Ages of Jazz concert at Oakdale Musical Theater, Wallingford. Performing with Billie were Buck Clayton on trumpet, Mal Waldron on piano, Milt Hinton on bass, and Don Lamond on drums. This concert was recorded and issued on LP as “Seven Ages of Jazz” -- available now on CD as Jazz at the Philharmonic: The Billie Holiday Story, Vol. 1 [LIVE] -- Polygram Records). This concert was produced by Leonard Feather, who introduced Billie Holiday with the following words: “And it was through the recordings of Teddy Wilson that many of us first got to hear one of the most wonderful things to happen to jazz in the 1930s: the beautiful, melancholy sound of a memorable girl singer. Perhaps some of her roots went back to Bessie Smith, the greatest blues singer of them all, and to Louis Armstrong, whose records she knew so well. But the raw material of Billie Holiday’s singing was the raw material of Billie Holiday’s life. Billie’s was the rugged voice of sorrow, and you lived just a little bit of her life with her when you heard Lady Day singing of the love she never knew … Miss Billie Holiday” Sources: 1. Billie Holiday. Jazz at the Philharmonic: The Billie Holiday Story, Vol. 1 [LIVE]. Polygram Records. Includes Leonard Feather Announcement. 2. Billie Holiday Discography: Lady Day's Live Sessions. http://www.billieholidaysongs.com/live_songs.htm#1958 3. Display Ad 20 -- No Title. The Hartford Courant (1923-present). Hartford, Conn.: Sep 18, 1937. pg. 12, 1 pgs 4. Lunceford's Band At State 'In Groove'. M O C. The Hartford Courant (1923-present). Hartford, Conn.: Dec 16, 1939. pg. 14, 1 pgs 5. Vail, Ken. Lady Day's diary: The Life of Billie Holiday, 1937 - 1959. Surrey, England: Castle Communications, c1996. |