"Lady Sings the Blues" is a song written by jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 singer Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing...

, and jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 pianist

Pianist

A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...

 Herbie Nichols

Herbie Nichols

Herbie Nichols , was an American jazz pianist and composer who wrote the jazz standard "Lady Sings the Blues". Obscure during his lifetime, he is now highly regarded by many musicians and critics.-Life:...

.

It is the title song to her 1956 album

Lady Sings the Blues (Billie Holiday album)

Lady Sings the Blues is an album by Billie Holiday. This was Holiday's last album released on Clef Records, for the following year, it would be absorbed into Verve Records. Lady Sings the Blues was taken from sessions taped during 1954 and 1956...

, released on Clef/Verve Records (MGC 721/Verve MV 2047).

The song was also chosen to be the title of the 1956 autobiography by Holiday and author William Dufty

William Dufty

William Francis Dufty was an American writer, and nutrition activist. Including ghostwriting, he wrote approximately 40 books.-Biography:...

, and the 1972 movie starring Diana Ross

Diana Ross

Diana Ernestine Earle Ross is an American singer, record producer, and actress. Ross was lead singer of the Motown group The Supremes during the 1960s. After leaving the group in 1970, Ross began a solo career that included successful ventures into film and Broadway...

 as Holiday.

Recording Session

Studio Session #75 New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, June 6, 1956, Tony Scott

Tony Scott (musician)

Tony Scott was a jazz clarinetist known for an interest in folk music around the world...

 & His Orchestra (Verve

Verve Records

Verve Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded by Norman Granz in 1956, absorbing the catalogues of his earlier labels, Clef Records and Norgran Records , and material which had been licensed to Mercury previously.-Jazz and folk origins:The Verve...

), with Charlie Shavers

Charlie Shavers

Charles James Shavers , known as Charlie Shavers, was an American swing era jazz trumpet player who played at one time or another with Dizzy Gillespie, Roy Eldridge, Johnny Dodds, Jimmy Noone, Sidney Bechet, Midge Williams and Billie Holiday...

 (trumpet), Tony Scott

Tony Scott (musician)

Tony Scott was a jazz clarinetist known for an interest in folk music around the world...

 (clarinet), Paul Quinichette

Paul Quinichette

Paul Quinichette was a jazz tenor saxophone musician. He was known as the Vice President or Vice Prez for his uncanny emulation of the breathy style of Lester Young, known as Prez. Young, who affectionately called everyone "Lady ****" , called him "Lady Q"...

 (tenor saxophone), Wynton Kelly

Wynton Kelly

Wynton Kelly was a Jamaican-born jazz pianist, who spent his career in the United States. He is perhaps best known for working with trumpeter Miles Davis from 1959-1962.-Biography:...

 (piano), Kenny Burrell

Kenny Burrell

Kenneth Earl "Kenny" Burrell is an American jazz guitarist. His playing is grounded in bebop and blues; he has performed and recorded with a wide range of jazz musicians.-Biography:...

 (guitar), Aaron Bell (bass), Lennie Mc Browne (drums), Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing...

 (vocal)

Notable cover versions

• Ella Fitzgerald
  Ella Fitzgerald
  Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
  
   (1957)
• Archie Shepp
  Archie Shepp
  Archie Shepp is a prominent African-American jazz saxophonist. Shepp is best known for his passionately Afrocentric music of the late 1960s, which focused on highlighting the injustices faced by the African-Americans, as well as for his work with the New York Contemporary Five, Horace Parlan, and...
  
   (1966)
• Diana Ross
  Diana Ross
  Diana Ernestine Earle Ross is an American singer, record producer, and actress. Ross was lead singer of the Motown group The Supremes during the 1960s. After leaving the group in 1970, Ross began a solo career that included successful ventures into film and Broadway...
  
   (1972)
• Terence Blanchard
  Terence Blanchard
  Terence Oliver Blanchard is an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, arranger, and film score composer. Since he emerged on the scene in 1980 with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra and then shortly thereafter with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Blanchard has been a leading artist in jazz...
  
   (1993)
• Peter Nero
  Peter Nero
  Peter Nero is an American pianist and pops conductor.-Early life:Born in Brooklyn, New York, As Bernard Nierow, Nero started his formal music training at the age of seven. He studied piano under Frederick Bried...
  
   (1995)
• Nnenna Freelon
  Nnenna Freelon
  Nnenna Freelon, , is an American jazz singer, composer, producer, and arranger. She has been nominated for five Grammy Awards for her vocal work, and has performed and toured with such top artists as Ray Charles, Ellis Marsalis, Al Jarreau, Anita Baker, Aretha Franklin, Dianne Reeves, Diana Krall,...
  
   (1999)
• Lonnie Liston Smith
  Lonnie Liston Smith
  Lonnie Liston Smith, Jr. is an American jazz, soul, and funk musician who played with important free jazz artists such as Pharoah Sanders and Miles Davis before forming Lonnie Liston Smith And The Cosmic Echoes, recording a number of albums widely regarded as classics in the fusion / Quiet Storm /...
  
   (1999)
• Smokey Robinson
  Smokey Robinson
  William "Smokey" Robinson, Jr. is an American R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, and former record executive. Robinson is one of the primary figures associated with Motown, second only to the company's founder, Berry Gordy...
  
   (2001)

External links

• ladyday.net - The Unofficial Billie Holiday Website
• billieholidaysongs.com discography
• [ Song: Billie Blues]