Career

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In 1928 Billie Holiday got a job singing in a Harlem nightclub after moving in with her mother. In 1933 she made her first recording with Benny Goodman and others. Later she began a series of recordings with Teddy Wilson and members of Count Basie's band, This made her one of the leading jazz singers of her time. In 1937 she then joined the Count Basie Orchestra and within a few months moved to the Artie Shaw's band, becoming the first African American singer to be featured in an all white orchestra.

By 1939, she was the headliner at Cafe Society in Greenwich Village. She then recorded her great artistic and controversial success "Strange Fruit".

In 1946 she starred in  the movie "New Orleans" along side Louie Armstrong, but then began her destructive path of heavy drug abuse.