They hit all the high notes.
Hunter College celebrated the legacy of Billie Holiday and the publication of Bitter Crop: The Heartache and Triumph of Billie Holiday’s Last Year, a new book by Paul Alexander, by hosting The Billie Holiday Symposium at Hunter College’s Roosevelt House on February 8.
The event — created and directed by Alexander, a biographer and Hunter English professor — brought together prominent singers, musicians, scholars, and authors, including several who knew the legendary performer, to explore the lasting significance of the jazz singer’s music.
The day-long symposium, held at Roosevelt House, was broken into three parts to explore the life and music of Holiday, who was nicknamed “Lady Day.” Journalist David Margolick, and authors Margo Jefferson and Michael Meeropol, who is a son of composer and Holiday collaborator Abel Meeropol, discussed the legacy of Holiday’s famous song “Strange Fruit.”
Several friends and family members of the singer painted a picture of her personal life. Ricky Riccardi, director of Research Collections for the Louis Armstrong House Museum, spoke about Holiday and her friendship with Louis Armstrong. Mala Waldron, singer-songwriter and daughter of jazz great Mal Waldron, talked about her father’s time as Holiday’s accompanist for the last two years of her life. Lorraine Feather, goddaughter of Holiday and a Grammy-nominated singer, and writer Dan Morgenstern, whose coverage of Holiday led to a friendship with her, each spoke of their relationship with the singer. Tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins recounted his friendship with Holiday in an interview pre-recorded for the symposium.
Capping off the event, musicians and jazz vocalists Yolande Bavan, Feather, Maya Days, Waldron, and Madeleine Peyroux took the stage to perform some of Holiday’s songs.
