Billie Holiday

Summary

Dominique Pagani mentions Billie Holiday in a few sessions between 2020 and 2022, mainly for her way of singing. During the lockdown sessions, what he takes from her is the simplicity of the popular song: she needs only to say "it's cold and I'm alone"1. He also speaks of her last concert as a swan song2. In the Musicosophie session on modal and tonal music, he uses her as an example for analysis: her notes are not points but curves, small glissandos3. Her glissando on the word "cold" serves him to show the link between singing and tonal languages4. In 2022, in a session on John Lewis where he asks whether that musician belongs to classical music or to jazz, he cites her ballads, which he calls deeply moving, among the works bound to become classics5.

1. 1#3 Harnessed to confinitude4 Apr 2020 · 1:24:47
2. 2#6 Harnessed to confinitude26 Apr 2020 · 42:42
3. 3#11 Modal and tonal music24 Jan 2021 · 6:01
4. 4#11 Modal and tonal music24 Jan 2021 · 1:36:36
5. 5John Lewis: classical or jazz?29 Jun 2022 · 3:40

Summary produced automatically from 5 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.