JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 109th anniversary of Bille Holiday’s birth.
Category: swing
Throwback: Happy 108th Birthday, Billie Holiday!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 108th anniversary of Billie Holiday’s birth.
Throwback: Black History Month: Cab Calloway
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Black History Month — and pays tribute to Cab Calloway.
Throwback: Happy 114th birthday, Cab Calloway!
JOVM celebrates the 114th anniversary of Cab Calloway’s birth.
Throwback: Happy 96th Birthday, Roy Haynes!
Yesterday was the legendary Roy Haynes’ 96th birthday. Over the course of his 77 year career — yes, 77! — Haynes has played swing, bop, fusion and avant garde jazz with a who’s who of jazz, including Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Stan Getz, Sarah Vaughan, Chick Corea, McCoy Tyner, Oliver Nelson and a long list of others. And unsurprisingly because of such a lengthy and productive career, Haynes is one of the most recorded drummers in jazz history.
I had the pleasure and honor of photographing and watching the imitable legend play on a SummerStage bill that featured Ron Carter and McCoy Tyner. At the time, I believe that Haynes was around 91 and even in his advanced age, he was full of energy, charming and incredibly spry: during his set, he got up from his drum kit to tap dance and sing. I hope to have that kind of energy and joy if I get to that age! He’s also still regularly playing and touring. And if it wasn’t for the COVID pandemic, Haynes would have been playing his annual Blue Note residency to celebrate his birthday.
Happy birthday, Mr. Haynes! May there be many, many, many more!
Throwback: Black History Month: Billie Holiday
Today is the eighth day of Black History Month. And if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past few days of this month, you’d see that I’ve been featuring Black artists across a wide and eclectic array of genres and styles that I think can guide you towards understanding the Black experience.
Black culture is American culture
Black music is American music.
Black history is American history.
America’s greatest and beloved contributions to the world are Black music styles — the blues, jazz, rock ‘n’ roll and hip-hop.
Black art matters.
You can’t love black art and black artists without loving black people.
Black lives matter — all of them, all of the time.
Arguably one of the most expressive and haunting voices ever recorded, Billie Holiday’s vocals could express yearning, longing, heartbreak and despair within the turn of a single phase. Of course, it shouldn’t be surprising that most of her life was filled with tragedy and heartbreak — with the result being her tragic death at 44.
