0:00:02 > 0:00:03Listen, listen, listen.
0:00:05 > 0:00:08Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald,
0:00:08 > 0:00:11Billie Holiday, Peggy Lee and Nina Simone.
0:00:11 > 0:00:14Five queens of jazz who helped to forge
0:00:14 > 0:00:18the soundtrack of American life in the mid-20th century.
0:00:23 > 0:00:25Creatures of troubled times,
0:00:25 > 0:00:30but resplendent in their poise, virtuosity and musical truth,
0:00:30 > 0:00:33these women triumphed, often at great personal cost,
0:00:33 > 0:00:37both embodying and transcending their era.
0:00:37 > 0:00:41From the way they sounded to the way they looked,
0:00:41 > 0:00:44from the joy of seeing them to the pain of being them,
0:00:44 > 0:00:47this is the story of the jazz queen.
0:01:05 > 0:01:09These are images of the lost world that paved the way
0:01:09 > 0:01:10for the great jazz diva.
0:01:10 > 0:01:13America at the dawn of the 20th century.
0:01:14 > 0:01:17All of the great figures who invented jazz
0:01:17 > 0:01:23and the classic American songbook were born in the same period.
0:01:23 > 0:01:27They were all born in the 1890s, early 1900s.
0:01:27 > 0:01:29They grew up listening to the same thing,
0:01:29 > 0:01:31subject to the same social conditions,
0:01:31 > 0:01:35reading the same newspapers, hearing the same recordings.
0:01:35 > 0:01:37But even though they don't know each other
0:01:37 > 0:01:40and may not be thinking of themselves as one big group,
0:01:40 > 0:01:42they were all feeding off each other.
0:01:43 > 0:01:47Have we seen anybody like Ella or Sarah in the last 30 or 40?
0:01:47 > 0:01:49That's a long time, 30 or 40 years.
0:01:49 > 0:01:51They belong to their time.
0:01:53 > 0:01:57Their time was the mid-30s to the mid-60s.
0:01:57 > 0:01:59Three glorious decades
0:01:59 > 0:02:04that now seem as remote and romantic as the jazz diva herself.
0:02:04 > 0:02:07There is certainly something a bit exotic about them.
0:02:09 > 0:02:13And singing those beautiful songs,
0:02:13 > 0:02:16full of imaginary late-night hangs
0:02:16 > 0:02:19in speakeasies and telling these wonderful stories.
0:02:22 > 0:02:25It was a smoky place because people were smoking,
0:02:25 > 0:02:28not cos there was a smoke machine and there was a mist in the air
0:02:28 > 0:02:31because there was sweat and smoke together,
0:02:31 > 0:02:35and there was a grit and dirt about it and it was very cabaret.
0:02:36 > 0:02:41People still felt the need to believe in something bigger.
0:02:41 > 0:02:46And you strove, you had a reason to strive to be better.
0:02:49 > 0:02:55It was a golden era of songwriting, a golden era in great bands
0:02:55 > 0:02:59and it was a golden era of singers.
0:02:59 > 0:03:02# Love is just like a faucet
0:03:04 > 0:03:07# It turns off and on
0:03:11 > 0:03:14# Love is like a faucet
0:03:16 > 0:03:19# It turns off and on
0:03:23 > 0:03:27# Sometimes when you think it's on, baby
0:03:27 > 0:03:31# It has turned off and gone. #
0:03:42 > 0:03:45The jazz diva transcends ordinary life.
0:03:45 > 0:03:48She came into being during the golden age of Hollywood,
0:03:48 > 0:03:51which is why she looks like a movie star
0:03:51 > 0:03:55and why her demise coincided with the death of old Hollywood.
0:03:57 > 0:03:59But while she reigned supreme,
0:03:59 > 0:04:02her looks could be as mesmerising as her voice.
0:04:03 > 0:04:05It was all about mystery,
0:04:05 > 0:04:10and I think mystery is one of the most beautiful things
0:04:10 > 0:04:13to feed people's imaginations.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19That whole glamour thing that happened,
0:04:19 > 0:04:21it happened from ordinary women up,
0:04:21 > 0:04:25so if you were in showbusiness and you had photographers,
0:04:25 > 0:04:30you had that beautiful lighting and black-and-white
0:04:30 > 0:04:34and all of the paraphernalia that goes with presentation.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41They look magnificent, they're overly made up,
0:04:41 > 0:04:46their hair is in a bouffant, six inches above their heads.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49They're wearing these sleek, satiny gowns or beaded things.
0:04:51 > 0:04:53And they're beyond gorgeous.
0:04:53 > 0:04:57They're very human, very real.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00Approachable. Touchable.
0:05:02 > 0:05:03Yet...
0:05:05 > 0:05:10..better than we are. That's just it.
0:05:11 > 0:05:15Nina Simone, she was like a goddess floating through.
0:05:15 > 0:05:18Literally, at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam,
0:05:18 > 0:05:20she seemed to float up the stairs.
0:05:20 > 0:05:21She had this gown on,
0:05:21 > 0:05:23she looked like the empress from another planet,
0:05:23 > 0:05:26like from a Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon movie.
0:05:26 > 0:05:30The elegance, the surreality of it all,
0:05:30 > 0:05:34and the down-to-earthiness of it all, that was unique.
0:05:34 > 0:05:36And that was Nina Simone.
0:05:39 > 0:05:43The talented female jazz singer wasn't always in control of the way she looked.
0:05:45 > 0:05:48Sarah Vaughan's early image as just one of the band
0:05:48 > 0:05:51was radically changed by her label, Columbia Records,
0:05:51 > 0:05:53on her way to individual diva stardom.
0:05:56 > 0:05:59They're the ones who changed her teeth. They changed her hairline.
0:06:00 > 0:06:03They're the ones who taught her how to be gowned,
0:06:03 > 0:06:06they're the ones who put her in the spotlight
0:06:06 > 0:06:10and told her how to stop being the gawky New Jersey girl
0:06:10 > 0:06:13who won the Monday night competition at the Apollo.
0:06:13 > 0:06:15And to be a diva.
0:06:16 > 0:06:19# My heart's in a dither, dear
0:06:20 > 0:06:25# When you're at a distance
0:06:27 > 0:06:31# But when you are near
0:06:33 > 0:06:36# Oh, my... #
0:06:40 > 0:06:45But some jazz queens succeeded in creating their own look from the ground up.
0:06:45 > 0:06:48Peggy Lee's image as a cool, white,
0:06:48 > 0:06:52sexy screen goddess with a voice was entirely of her own making.
0:06:52 > 0:06:55She ended up designing her own gowns, and she knew her figure,
0:06:55 > 0:06:58she knew what she wanted to look like on stage.
0:06:59 > 0:07:04She had a strong idea of who she wanted to be,
0:07:04 > 0:07:08who she wanted this persona of Peggy Lee to be.
0:07:08 > 0:07:13And she didn't want somebody else to dictate that to her.
0:07:13 > 0:07:16# Sitting down, wondering what it's all about
0:07:16 > 0:07:20# You ain't got no money, they will put you out
0:07:20 > 0:07:25# Why don't you do right, man, like some other men do?
0:07:30 > 0:07:35# Get out of here and get me some money too. #
0:07:48 > 0:07:52Behind the glamour of the jazz diva often lurks the potent mythology
0:07:52 > 0:07:59of a troubled childhood scarred by all kinds of deprivations, hardships and abuse.
0:07:59 > 0:08:01It's a sort of cliche now, isn't it?
0:08:01 > 0:08:04You know, that, "Well, they had early struggles
0:08:04 > 0:08:08"and bad times and it gives depth to what you do," and yet...
0:08:08 > 0:08:10I suppose, in a way it does.
0:08:10 > 0:08:14Billie Holiday had a dreadful childhood.
0:08:14 > 0:08:16Abused, she was in an orphanage,
0:08:16 > 0:08:19she was farmed out to a madam to clean, I mean,
0:08:19 > 0:08:22the worst things happen to Billie Holiday as a child.
0:08:22 > 0:08:25And people say, "Ah", you know?
0:08:25 > 0:08:29You can't listen to Piaf and not know her early life.
0:08:29 > 0:08:33You can't listen to Billie Holiday, particularly when she's older
0:08:33 > 0:08:36and frailer and absolutely not in the space,
0:08:36 > 0:08:39without knowing that she's a drug addict.
0:08:39 > 0:08:42You can't do that, you can't separate the information.
0:08:42 > 0:08:47# Hush now, don't explain
0:08:50 > 0:08:55# You're my joy and pain
0:08:58 > 0:09:05# My life's yours, love
0:09:08 > 0:09:10# Don't explain. #
0:09:10 > 0:09:13There's a part of me that says, you know,
0:09:13 > 0:09:15the personal lives of the artists,
0:09:15 > 0:09:19I mean, for all we know, Brahms may have had a sour stomach.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22But Billie Holiday, we tend to read into it.
0:09:22 > 0:09:28But I think that she was such a great artist that her stuff transcended it.
0:09:30 > 0:09:32Thousands of people had horrible childhoods
0:09:32 > 0:09:35and they weren't Billie Holiday.
0:09:35 > 0:09:39They created what they did in spite of it all, not because of it.
0:09:39 > 0:09:44Some come from hard backgrounds, of course, but not all of them did.
0:09:44 > 0:09:47Sarah Vaughan had a quite nice, middle-class upbringing,
0:09:47 > 0:09:53and wasn't too up against it, like, say, Ella Fitzgerald was.
0:09:58 > 0:10:02Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday were born around the same time.
0:10:02 > 0:10:06They both had very horrible, horrible childhoods.
0:10:06 > 0:10:09What I don't hear in Ella's voice,
0:10:09 > 0:10:14that was very present in Billie's voice, is the pain.
0:10:14 > 0:10:20Ella suffered but somehow that did not translate in her delivery.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23# My fur coat's so low Lord, ain't it cold?
0:10:23 > 0:10:26# But I'm not going to holler cos I still got a dollar
0:10:26 > 0:10:30# And when I get low oh-oh-oh-oh, I get high. #
0:10:30 > 0:10:33Ella Fitzgerald had a very tough start.
0:10:33 > 0:10:37Her mother died very young, she was in an orphanage,
0:10:37 > 0:10:39she was running the numbers for the Mafia,
0:10:39 > 0:10:42she ended up in some very, very dodgy situations.
0:10:42 > 0:10:48So you don't always have to parade your neurotic,
0:10:48 > 0:10:52awful behaviour and this terrible life you've had.
0:10:52 > 0:10:58# Love for sale
0:11:03 > 0:11:08# If you want the thrill of love
0:11:08 > 0:11:12# I've been through the mill of love. #
0:11:13 > 0:11:20Once Ella gets close to tragedy, to the dark side of Billie,
0:11:20 > 0:11:23for instance, it doesn't sound right.
0:11:23 > 0:11:25She's acting.
0:11:25 > 0:11:30But it's cheerful. Cheerfulness keeps breaking through with her.
0:11:30 > 0:11:31# A-tisket
0:11:31 > 0:11:32# A-tasket
0:11:32 > 0:11:35# I lost my yellow basket
0:11:35 > 0:11:38# Won't someone help me find my bask
0:11:38 > 0:11:40# And make me happy again, again?
0:11:40 > 0:11:43- # Was it red? - No, no, no, no
0:11:43 > 0:11:44# Was it green?
0:11:44 > 0:11:48# No, no, just a little yellow basket
0:11:51 > 0:11:53# My little yellow basket. #
0:11:57 > 0:12:00The shiny, white carapace that was the glamorous facade
0:12:00 > 0:12:04of Miss Peggy Lee reflected nothing of a childhood
0:12:04 > 0:12:06spent at the mercy of a cruel stepmother
0:12:06 > 0:12:09and an uncaring, alcoholic father.
0:12:10 > 0:12:16That's how she got through her childhood, I believe, through music
0:12:16 > 0:12:19and writing songs in her head and singing.
0:12:20 > 0:12:23She didn't want to talk about her problems on stage,
0:12:23 > 0:12:29but definitely all of that was there with her when she sang.
0:12:29 > 0:12:31It couldn't not be.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35For all of those women, the important thing was the music.
0:12:35 > 0:12:39They were in it for the music. It was the thing that saved them.
0:12:44 > 0:12:46They're trying to solve a problem.
0:12:46 > 0:12:51They're trying to fix something and they're grasping at straws,
0:12:51 > 0:12:54and sometimes they must feel like they're falling
0:12:54 > 0:12:57and they can't grab onto something
0:12:57 > 0:13:00that will hold them together and this is the nearest thing.
0:13:01 > 0:13:08The effect of years of unhappiness...
0:13:11 > 0:13:13..and not having love...
0:13:15 > 0:13:19..and not knowing that you really are worth something -
0:13:19 > 0:13:25it's very difficult to instil that in someone who doesn't feel that.
0:13:29 > 0:13:31Annie Ross knew about childhood unhappiness.
0:13:31 > 0:13:38She arrived on an immigrant ship from Scotland to New York in 1934
0:13:38 > 0:13:41only to be left there by her parents in the care of an aunt,
0:13:41 > 0:13:43the singer, Ella Logan.
0:13:43 > 0:13:47Only four years old at the time, Ross was a precocious talent
0:13:47 > 0:13:52destined not only to discover the work of the great American jazz divas
0:13:52 > 0:13:56but also to be a fellow traveller on the jazz highway.
0:13:58 > 0:14:01The first time I heard Billie Holiday,
0:14:01 > 0:14:06the first time I heard Sarah Vaughan, the first time
0:14:06 > 0:14:13I heard Ella Fitzgerald, it's such a blissful thing to know
0:14:13 > 0:14:18that you're young and you've got to listen to all these people.
0:14:18 > 0:14:20It's breathtaking.
0:14:20 > 0:14:24# Those that have shall get
0:14:24 > 0:14:27# Those that don't shall lose
0:14:27 > 0:14:30# So the Bible says
0:14:30 > 0:14:34# And it still is news. #
0:14:34 > 0:14:36I hated being a child.
0:14:36 > 0:14:40I hated my childhood. I never wanted to be a child.
0:14:40 > 0:14:44I wanted to be grown and free.
0:14:44 > 0:14:48# But God bless the child that's got his own
0:14:50 > 0:14:51# That's got his own. #
0:14:53 > 0:14:55Singing was part of me...
0:14:57 > 0:15:00..and it was the one treasure I had.
0:15:03 > 0:15:06If singing offered a way out of a bad situation
0:15:06 > 0:15:07for a girl with a voice,
0:15:07 > 0:15:11her best escape route in the '30s and '40s was to join a band,
0:15:11 > 0:15:15most of which were comprised entirely of men.
0:15:15 > 0:15:18She might be hired just to be looked at,
0:15:18 > 0:15:20to be what the band often called "the canary".
0:15:22 > 0:15:25# We keep spending all our time in beauty parlours. #
0:15:26 > 0:15:30They were definitely a flower, you know, cos people
0:15:30 > 0:15:33maybe get tired of just hearing "Da-doop-da-da,
0:15:33 > 0:15:37"da-doop-da-da," hour after hour, blah-blah-blah.
0:15:37 > 0:15:42Finally, a singer coming out, she's wearing...she's dressed lovely.
0:15:42 > 0:15:47Most of these singers were not of the musical level or experience
0:15:47 > 0:15:49of the musicians in the band,
0:15:49 > 0:15:51so I don't think that they cared very much about them.
0:15:51 > 0:15:54They were a cutie-pie, a guy or girl, they were cute
0:15:54 > 0:15:57and the young people came to see them and they sang the song and they got off.
0:15:58 > 0:16:04I think the band always was a little bit snooty, ha-ha!
0:16:04 > 0:16:07You know, the chick singer was a big joke.
0:16:07 > 0:16:10The difference was when a Billie Holiday or an Ella Fitzgerald
0:16:10 > 0:16:13or a Sarah Vaughan, even at the earliest stages
0:16:13 > 0:16:16were on that bandstand, I think it became very clear to the musicians
0:16:16 > 0:16:19that they were dealing with at the very least a peer,
0:16:19 > 0:16:22and for probably many of the musicians, somebody who was superior to them.
0:16:24 > 0:16:28Ella Fitzgerald, you know, initially people didn't want to hire her
0:16:28 > 0:16:31because she was overweight and they didn't think she was pretty enough.
0:16:31 > 0:16:36She really didn't look that great. Smelt a bit.
0:16:36 > 0:16:39Her first frock was a whip-round from the band.
0:16:39 > 0:16:42They said, "We can't have her, look at her, look at her."
0:16:42 > 0:16:45And Chick Webb heard her and said, "Yes, but she can sing.
0:16:45 > 0:16:51"We can fix the look, we can fix the look but we've got to have her."
0:16:53 > 0:16:57The queens of jazz began their careers with busy swing bands
0:16:57 > 0:17:00under the control and leadership of famous bandleaders
0:17:00 > 0:17:03such as Benny Goodman, Chick Webb,
0:17:03 > 0:17:06Count Basie and Duke Ellington.
0:17:06 > 0:17:11This meant spending months and months touring on the bus.
0:17:11 > 0:17:1618 guys in the band and a girl singer.
0:17:16 > 0:17:19There's 200 one-nighters in a row, some of them,
0:17:19 > 0:17:23and it was a constant 300-mile trip every night.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29Ella Fitzgerald was the life of the party.
0:17:29 > 0:17:32She was the only girl on the bus,
0:17:32 > 0:17:35with a big orchestra-sized bus travelling around,
0:17:35 > 0:17:39whether it was early Chick Webb when she was 16 or Duke Ellington
0:17:39 > 0:17:42later on and those guys were working every day, sleeping sitting up.
0:17:44 > 0:17:48How did they present themselves night after night as a figure of glamour?
0:17:48 > 0:17:53What kind of mental strength and backbone did it take
0:17:53 > 0:17:56just to get out of bed and look nice after eight hours on a bus
0:17:56 > 0:17:59without being able to eat or use the bathroom on the way,
0:17:59 > 0:18:01and then in a crummy backstage dressing room,
0:18:01 > 0:18:05if there was a dressing room, probably just the back seat of a bus,
0:18:05 > 0:18:08apply the make-up, put on the gown
0:18:08 > 0:18:11and go and satisfy what these people who came to hear the band
0:18:11 > 0:18:16wanted to see, as the figure of glamour, of sex, of femininity.
0:18:17 > 0:18:22It certainly was difficult but, you know, you're young,
0:18:22 > 0:18:26so riding on a bus with all these guys was great.
0:18:28 > 0:18:32You know, the really hip guys sat in the back.
0:18:35 > 0:18:39And I found love there.
0:18:42 > 0:18:45Love wasn't the obvious thing to find on a bus full of male
0:18:45 > 0:18:51musicians, running on a tank full of testosterone, bound for jazz glory.
0:18:51 > 0:18:56Some girls had reputations, I suppose, you know,
0:18:56 > 0:19:00she might have done the saxophones first and then the trumpets!
0:19:00 > 0:19:04Oh, no, start with the rhythm section, wouldn't you say? Yes.
0:19:04 > 0:19:07If you want a good beat behind your singing!
0:19:08 > 0:19:13Ha-ha! That was tough, tough on the girl!
0:19:13 > 0:19:1618 guys taking a shot at her all the time.
0:19:18 > 0:19:24There were guys, sure, I was young, you know?
0:19:25 > 0:19:29It was quite a combination of music and love.
0:19:29 > 0:19:34It was a fascinating world. I loved it to bits.
0:19:39 > 0:19:43But the fascinating world, tin-canned by the tour bus,
0:19:43 > 0:19:46would, sooner or later, have to disembark
0:19:46 > 0:19:49in those parts of the country where skin colour mattered
0:19:49 > 0:19:51much more than musicianship.
0:19:51 > 0:19:56There were still, you know, black toilets, black restaurants.
0:19:56 > 0:20:01You couldn't go into the white ones. It was kind of embarrassing.
0:20:01 > 0:20:05Going to towns where you went in through the kitchen
0:20:05 > 0:20:07and people spat at you in the street.
0:20:07 > 0:20:11If you were a black woman, your life was untenable in the South
0:20:11 > 0:20:12and if you were a white woman,
0:20:12 > 0:20:15people thought you were a slut and a whore.
0:20:15 > 0:20:17What was it like being a black woman
0:20:17 > 0:20:21and singing to all these white guys in the audience that,
0:20:21 > 0:20:25you know, were noisy and rowdy and disrespectful, how did you do that?
0:20:25 > 0:20:28They had a sense of expression
0:20:28 > 0:20:32and a family within the musicians that they worked with.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38They did have their art as a kind of salve,
0:20:38 > 0:20:42a kind of bond to heal over it for a time.
0:20:46 > 0:20:49If being part of a big band offered the black female jazz singer
0:20:49 > 0:20:51comfort and protection in a white, male world,
0:20:51 > 0:20:55it was also where she learnt about how to be a musician herself.
0:20:56 > 0:21:01Ella Fitzgerald, being on the bandstand with Chick Webb every night,
0:21:01 > 0:21:04can you imagine what she learned about rhythm from him?
0:21:04 > 0:21:07Billie Holiday, for one year, night after night,
0:21:07 > 0:21:09with the Count Basie Orchestra.
0:21:09 > 0:21:15# Them that's got shall have
0:21:15 > 0:21:18# Them that's not shall lose. #
0:21:18 > 0:21:23Night after night, hearing that, and also them hearing her.
0:21:25 > 0:21:28# Mama may have
0:21:28 > 0:21:32# Papa may have
0:21:32 > 0:21:35# But God bless the child that's got his own
0:21:38 > 0:21:40# That's got his own. #
0:21:42 > 0:21:43When you sing with a big band
0:21:43 > 0:21:48and you learn the discipline that goes on in the big band,
0:21:48 > 0:21:50you're special.
0:21:50 > 0:21:54# You're mean to me. #
0:21:54 > 0:21:57They weren't in charge of their repertoire.
0:21:57 > 0:22:01The arranger said, "I think we'll do this", or the bandleader said, "Why don't we do that?"
0:22:01 > 0:22:08And so, in a sense, they had this quite demanding apprenticeship.
0:22:08 > 0:22:14Someone like Peggy Lee, when she got with the Benny Goodman Orchestra in 1941,
0:22:14 > 0:22:16she wasn't the Peggy Lee of five or six years later.
0:22:16 > 0:22:19There was time for her to mature.
0:22:21 > 0:22:24When you work with Benny Goodman, if you keep your mouth shut,
0:22:24 > 0:22:28and watch what's going on, that's a college education -
0:22:28 > 0:22:30it is four years of college with Benny.
0:22:30 > 0:22:32And that is what she got.
0:22:34 > 0:22:38# You had plenty money, 1922
0:22:38 > 0:22:42# You let other women Make a fool of you
0:22:42 > 0:22:43# Why don't you do right? #
0:22:43 > 0:22:46She was just a member of the band.
0:22:46 > 0:22:47She was one of the instruments
0:22:47 > 0:22:52and she needed to fit in and conform and please Benny.
0:22:52 > 0:22:57# And get me some money too... #
0:22:57 > 0:23:00Benny said, "Don't do that, don't do that."
0:23:00 > 0:23:02HE LAUGHS
0:23:04 > 0:23:08That's the way to do it. He's the boss.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14But the power of the big band bosses didn't survive World War II.
0:23:18 > 0:23:20Nor did the bands themselves -
0:23:20 > 0:23:24their personnel decimated by military service, the rebuilding of life
0:23:24 > 0:23:28after the war, the expense of big band touring and union trouble.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36While the men were at war, a new kind of women had slipped
0:23:36 > 0:23:39out of the kitchen and into popular entertainment -
0:23:39 > 0:23:41a woman of dubious virtue,
0:23:41 > 0:23:44with a troubled past and an uncertain future.
0:23:44 > 0:23:49Resourceful, independent, even dangerous. A femme fatale.
0:23:51 > 0:23:55Meanwhile, the hippest sidewalks now marched to the tune of a new
0:23:55 > 0:23:59kind of jazz called bebop. Modern jazz for a modern age.
0:23:59 > 0:24:04Perfect for a new kind of modern musical woman. The jazz diva.
0:24:04 > 0:24:07After World War II, when the bands died, the singers were liberated
0:24:07 > 0:24:12and the really good ones had a glorious decade in the '50s and early...middle '60s.
0:24:14 > 0:24:16They were all signed to major labels,
0:24:16 > 0:24:21they recorded with luxurious orchestras and string ensembles.
0:24:21 > 0:24:24They were backed up by radio.
0:24:25 > 0:24:29There were jazz clubs around the country.
0:24:29 > 0:24:31And there were the record companies themselves,
0:24:31 > 0:24:33that knew how to publicise them.
0:24:36 > 0:24:39The jazz diva's time had come.
0:24:39 > 0:24:42Like a film noir heroine, she took centre stage,
0:24:42 > 0:24:45this time in a smaller group of musicians
0:24:45 > 0:24:49playing more complex music for audiences to listen to,
0:24:49 > 0:24:51no longer surrounded by 20 guys in a big band
0:24:51 > 0:24:54whose main job was to get people dancing.
0:24:54 > 0:24:57Now she was the focus of attention.
0:24:57 > 0:25:02With Ella, what musicians listen for is the sheer perfection.
0:25:02 > 0:25:10First of all, the instrument, her diction, and her phrasing.
0:25:10 > 0:25:12# Heaven
0:25:12 > 0:25:18# I'm in heaven
0:25:19 > 0:25:26# And my heart beats so That I can hardly speak... #
0:25:26 > 0:25:30Ella's music came out so perfect, it would be the
0:25:30 > 0:25:35envy of any composer to be able to write the things that she sang.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39# Say, hey, hey, hey The bo-o-o-o-o-oy
0:25:39 > 0:25:41# From Ipanema
0:25:41 > 0:25:44# Say the boy from Ipanema
0:25:44 > 0:25:51# Say the boy from Ipanema, Ipanema Yes, the boy from Ipanema. #
0:25:51 > 0:25:55They say that when she first joined Chick Webb's band, she would come on
0:25:55 > 0:25:57and she was, completely sort of blank.
0:25:57 > 0:25:59She would stand there and the music would start
0:25:59 > 0:26:02and she would suddenly come to life.
0:26:06 > 0:26:11And as long as the music was playing, she was animated and moving about, she was smiling and waving.
0:26:11 > 0:26:13And the music stopped, and she stopped.
0:26:20 > 0:26:22The great jazz divas were able to steal
0:26:22 > 0:26:27the limelight by virtue of their own very special and private instrument,
0:26:27 > 0:26:32one that they played inside their own flesh - their voice.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35Singing is the most intimate form of music making.
0:26:37 > 0:26:41Every other musician on the stage has a filter between himself
0:26:41 > 0:26:47and the audience and that is the instrument, but the singer is naked.
0:26:49 > 0:26:53It is all about her insights, her diaphragm, her vocal chords.
0:26:53 > 0:26:56It is different from every other instrument because of that.
0:26:56 > 0:27:01It's inside you. Every part of you goes to making that sound.
0:27:05 > 0:27:10The jazz diva is born with her instrument. It is uniquely hers.
0:27:12 > 0:27:16They had a good sense of how to make themselves individuals.
0:27:16 > 0:27:20And that was something that no-one could really take from them
0:27:20 > 0:27:25- and that was where their power was. - They were copying no-one else.
0:27:25 > 0:27:27They were the beginning.
0:27:27 > 0:27:29Ella Fitzgerald says that she loved Connie Boswell
0:27:29 > 0:27:33and wanted to sound like her. They had people... I'm sure
0:27:33 > 0:27:36Betty Smith and the other blues singers from before their days
0:27:36 > 0:27:38would have influenced them, but they were trailblazers.
0:27:40 > 0:27:44And no-one could blaze a vocal trail like Billie holiday.
0:27:44 > 0:27:51# Treat me right, baby And I will stay home every day
0:27:57 > 0:28:00# Just treat me right, baby. #
0:28:00 > 0:28:06You cannot teach someone to sound like Billie Holiday.
0:28:06 > 0:28:09I don't know.
0:28:09 > 0:28:11Billie, Billie, Billie!
0:28:11 > 0:28:16What have you done? I don't know, it's just so free and natural
0:28:16 > 0:28:22and does she care if she was drunk? No. To imitate her would be folly.
0:28:24 > 0:28:27You couldn't stop her and say, "You shouldn't do it like that."
0:28:27 > 0:28:29It was too subtle, too cute.
0:28:31 > 0:28:34Everything has a sheen, a perfection,
0:28:34 > 0:28:40- and it seemed so carefree and so lazy.- Her tuning was impeccable.
0:28:40 > 0:28:46She was off her tits most of the time, and her tuning was bang on.
0:28:46 > 0:28:50You hear her life and you hear her truth
0:28:50 > 0:28:53and I think a lot of people throw out cliches like that.
0:28:53 > 0:28:56But it is true. Truth is what you hear.
0:28:56 > 0:29:00With Billie Holiday, you begin with the strange fact that she
0:29:00 > 0:29:03only has a range of about 12 to 15 notes.
0:29:03 > 0:29:05If you were to look at what she sings written down
0:29:05 > 0:29:08and then look at the song copy, the song copy the notes go up and down
0:29:08 > 0:29:10like this... Billie just goes like this.
0:29:10 > 0:29:13It is the opposite of Sarah Vaughan.
0:29:13 > 0:29:18Sarah Vaughan could have probably have done opera if she had been born in a different world.
0:29:18 > 0:29:22I heard her singing Bali Hai on an opera version of the musical
0:29:22 > 0:29:26South Pacific, with Kiri Te Kanawa.
0:29:26 > 0:29:30Sarah's voice is as pure and powerful as beautiful as Kiri's soprano.
0:29:30 > 0:29:38# Sweet and clear as can be
0:29:40 > 0:29:43# Come to me
0:29:43 > 0:29:46# Here am I
0:29:46 > 0:29:53# Come to me
0:29:53 > 0:30:00# If you try You will find me
0:30:00 > 0:30:05# Where the sky meets the sea
0:30:05 > 0:30:10# Here am I your special island... #
0:30:10 > 0:30:12I wanted to be her manager.
0:30:12 > 0:30:14# Come to me... #
0:30:14 > 0:30:15But Sarah was of
0:30:15 > 0:30:20the school that her manager had to be her guy, you know.
0:30:20 > 0:30:22And that was her school.
0:30:22 > 0:30:24She always felt that way.
0:30:24 > 0:30:25And she never found the right guy.
0:30:25 > 0:30:30I was not interested in being Sassy's guy.
0:30:30 > 0:30:34I respected her as an artist, I thought she was a beautiful woman,
0:30:34 > 0:30:36but that wasn't what I wanted,
0:30:36 > 0:30:39and so that didn't work.
0:30:41 > 0:30:45Sarah was a great artist who also understood modern jazz,
0:30:45 > 0:30:47also understood modern harmonies,
0:30:47 > 0:30:49because she came up through
0:30:49 > 0:30:52the Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie era.
0:30:52 > 0:30:53She was THEIR singer.
0:30:54 > 0:31:01# I don't know why, but I'm feelin' so sad
0:31:01 > 0:31:04# I long to try... #
0:31:04 > 0:31:06Just about the first record she made
0:31:06 > 0:31:08had Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker on it,
0:31:08 > 0:31:09and it was a bebop record.
0:31:09 > 0:31:14And in the late '40s, she's singing the sort of thing
0:31:14 > 0:31:18that most instrumentalists couldn't get at, let alone singers.
0:31:18 > 0:31:19And she never, ever put a foot wrong.
0:31:22 > 0:31:24The jazz divas were able to sing
0:31:24 > 0:31:28in a way best suited to their individual range and personality
0:31:28 > 0:31:32because of technical advances in microphone technology.
0:31:32 > 0:31:36As these sculptural devices became more sensitive,
0:31:36 > 0:31:40so the jazz voice could become more detailed and powerful
0:31:40 > 0:31:43or more conversational and minimal.
0:31:43 > 0:31:48Someone like Billie, who came up in the age of the microphone,
0:31:48 > 0:31:51couldn't belt out loudly.
0:31:51 > 0:31:52But they could...
0:31:52 > 0:31:56they could bring it down to like what Marlon Brando did later, which
0:31:56 > 0:31:59is just to that, you know, that essence of the slightest movement.
0:32:01 > 0:32:03No jazz diva embraced the microphone age
0:32:03 > 0:32:07more than Peggy Lee whose solo career motto was,
0:32:07 > 0:32:09"Softly, with feeling,"
0:32:09 > 0:32:12which she coupled with method-actor minimalism.
0:32:12 > 0:32:15APPLAUSE
0:32:15 > 0:32:18# Never know how much I love you
0:32:18 > 0:32:21# Never know how much I care
0:32:21 > 0:32:23# When you put your arms around me
0:32:23 > 0:32:26# I get a fever that's so hard to bear
0:32:26 > 0:32:28# You give me fever... #
0:32:29 > 0:32:33She kind of toned it down and made it almost conversational
0:32:33 > 0:32:37and made these rowdy clubs that she sang in come to her.
0:32:37 > 0:32:40She's almost purring at you, isn't she?
0:32:40 > 0:32:43And the sound is so intimate.
0:32:43 > 0:32:46# Fever, in the morning
0:32:46 > 0:32:49# Fever all through the night... #
0:32:49 > 0:32:52Stillness. And...
0:32:52 > 0:32:55she's just, like...like that.
0:32:55 > 0:32:57And her hands, she's like, still.
0:32:57 > 0:32:59# You give me fever
0:33:01 > 0:33:02# When you kiss me
0:33:02 > 0:33:05# Fever when you hold me tight
0:33:05 > 0:33:07# Fever... #
0:33:07 > 0:33:10Just two pieces. Bass and drums.
0:33:10 > 0:33:11# Fever, ba-dum! #
0:33:13 > 0:33:15That was her arrangement, you know.
0:33:17 > 0:33:19She would whisper when she sang,
0:33:19 > 0:33:21and she sang beautiful, slow tempos
0:33:21 > 0:33:23and she sold the lyrics.
0:33:23 > 0:33:25And she made you believe it.
0:33:30 > 0:33:34Peggy Lee believed that every song was a little story that had to
0:33:34 > 0:33:37be acted out and stage-produced.
0:33:37 > 0:33:41The person she chose to do this was Miss Peggy Lee,
0:33:41 > 0:33:46a persona she constructed right down to the last detail.
0:33:46 > 0:33:48We would go into the dressing room
0:33:48 > 0:33:51and she would start her transformation with make-up,
0:33:51 > 0:33:54with hair, with the costume,
0:33:54 > 0:33:56and I would watch this person,
0:33:56 > 0:33:58my grandmother,
0:33:58 > 0:34:00become Miss Peggy Lee, the star.
0:34:00 > 0:34:02And then I would run around,
0:34:02 > 0:34:04go out on...into the theatre,
0:34:04 > 0:34:08and watch her, and it was amazing.
0:34:11 > 0:34:14I have to say, it was amazing for me.
0:34:14 > 0:34:16And then she'd come off stage,
0:34:16 > 0:34:18and she would just be high.
0:34:21 > 0:34:24And then she'd say, "Oh, I'm just famished,"
0:34:24 > 0:34:26and we would go to McDonald's
0:34:26 > 0:34:29or Carl's Jr or something. Wendy's.
0:34:33 > 0:34:36But Peggy Lee was white.
0:34:36 > 0:34:40Popping out for a bite to eat after the show hadn't always been an option
0:34:40 > 0:34:44for those singers who were black, however famous they were.
0:34:44 > 0:34:50Racism was still at the very dark heart of jazz in America in the '60s.
0:34:50 > 0:34:54The struggles for African-American female singers were doubly daunting.
0:34:57 > 0:35:00Well, they are queens.
0:35:00 > 0:35:03I mean, they're royalty in American culture,
0:35:03 > 0:35:06but they're royalty
0:35:06 > 0:35:10during a fractious time in society,
0:35:10 > 0:35:13before desegregation in America.
0:35:16 > 0:35:19To be a black woman in America before the civil rights movement,
0:35:19 > 0:35:21and even during the civil rights movement, is...
0:35:21 > 0:35:24has got to be something that's unimaginable today.
0:35:24 > 0:35:29They'd be people that would be worshipped around the world
0:35:29 > 0:35:32and couldn't go into a restaurant in America.
0:35:32 > 0:35:36This created tremendous psychological problems.
0:35:38 > 0:35:41These ladies experienced that, even though they are divas.
0:35:41 > 0:35:45They could be well-known, selling, you know, tens of thousands
0:35:45 > 0:35:48of records, and they're going to have these moments every day.
0:35:48 > 0:35:50And if there's trouble in the land...
0:35:52 > 0:35:55..then you gotta sing about it. You've got to.
0:35:55 > 0:35:57And that's what these women did.
0:36:02 > 0:36:05# Southern trees
0:36:06 > 0:36:11# Bear strange fruit
0:36:14 > 0:36:17# Blood on the leaves
0:36:19 > 0:36:22# And blood at the root... #
0:36:22 > 0:36:26Those singers can deliver performances
0:36:26 > 0:36:31that reach a level of emotional uneasiness
0:36:31 > 0:36:33for the audience that is profound.
0:36:33 > 0:36:36# Black bodies swingin'
0:36:38 > 0:36:40# In the Southern breeze
0:36:42 > 0:36:45# Strange fruit hangin'
0:36:46 > 0:36:51# From the poplar trees. #
0:36:51 > 0:36:54Protest music. Jazz has always been protest music,
0:36:54 > 0:36:56and it's supposed to be.
0:36:59 > 0:37:02Sometimes, when we listen to Ella Fitzgerald,
0:37:02 > 0:37:04we hear her sunny disposition.
0:37:04 > 0:37:07# Oooh... #
0:37:07 > 0:37:08We think that we're not hearing
0:37:08 > 0:37:12so much of a reflection of the tough times of the eras
0:37:12 > 0:37:14when we hear someone like Billie Holiday, but I think if we take
0:37:14 > 0:37:19a step back and think, "What did it take for Ella to present that face?"
0:37:21 > 0:37:24I think, with all these iconic figures we're talking about,
0:37:24 > 0:37:26whether it's Billie, Sarah, Ella, all those great
0:37:26 > 0:37:30African-American women who were trailblazers,
0:37:30 > 0:37:33anything and everything that we saw of them on the stage spoke
0:37:33 > 0:37:34to their condition of the time.
0:37:34 > 0:37:37This is either by omission,
0:37:37 > 0:37:42or you have to dig deeper underneath the surface to see these things.
0:37:43 > 0:37:47The youngest of our jazz queens found omission impossible.
0:37:47 > 0:37:50You don't need to dig very far beneath the surface of Nina Simone's
0:37:50 > 0:37:55music to find the racial indignation of the last of the great jazz divas.
0:37:55 > 0:37:59# I don't belong here I don't belong there
0:37:59 > 0:38:02# I've even stopped believing in prayer
0:38:02 > 0:38:06# Almost but not quite... #
0:38:06 > 0:38:11She took the race issue on in that she actually became involved
0:38:11 > 0:38:13with the whole civil rights movement.
0:38:13 > 0:38:16She took it on at a very different level.
0:38:16 > 0:38:18# Well, that's just the trouble
0:38:18 > 0:38:19# Do it slow
0:38:19 > 0:38:21# Desegregation
0:38:21 > 0:38:22# Do it slow
0:38:22 > 0:38:24# Mass participation
0:38:24 > 0:38:25# Do it slow
0:38:25 > 0:38:27# Unification
0:38:27 > 0:38:28# Do it slow
0:38:28 > 0:38:31# Do things gradually
0:38:31 > 0:38:32# Do it slow
0:38:32 > 0:38:34# But bring more tragedy
0:38:34 > 0:38:35# Do it slow
0:38:35 > 0:38:37# Why don't you see it? Why don't you feel it?
0:38:37 > 0:38:42# I don't know, I don't know... #
0:38:42 > 0:38:45There was a woman who had enough balls to talk about the things
0:38:45 > 0:38:47that nobody wanted to talk about and do it in a way that it wasn't
0:38:47 > 0:38:50entertainment tonight and it wasn't television, it was real,
0:38:50 > 0:38:52and it was significant.
0:38:52 > 0:38:55# You don't have to live next to me, love
0:38:55 > 0:38:58# Just give me my equality, love
0:38:58 > 0:39:01# Everybody knows about Mississippi
0:39:01 > 0:39:05# Everybody knows about Alabama
0:39:05 > 0:39:08# Everybody knows about Mississippi
0:39:08 > 0:39:13# Goddam. #
0:39:14 > 0:39:17Here's somebody with a great talent and a great genius
0:39:17 > 0:39:18and a great composing genius,
0:39:18 > 0:39:24who took a social stand to the detriment of her pop career.
0:39:24 > 0:39:29She was being moulded to be like Sarah Vaughan or Ella Fitzgerald.
0:39:31 > 0:39:37There was a song she sang after the death of Martin Luther King.
0:39:39 > 0:39:46There was...such disgust in her voice, she gets to this lyric,
0:39:46 > 0:39:48"He was not a violent man."
0:39:49 > 0:39:53- SOFTLY:- # He was not a violent man... #
0:39:53 > 0:39:58Now, she could sing it that way. But she sang it...
0:39:58 > 0:39:59# He was not
0:39:59 > 0:40:02# A vi-i-i-i-olent man... #
0:40:02 > 0:40:07She just...she just squalls all the juice she possibly could.
0:40:07 > 0:40:12# He was not a vi-i-i-olent man
0:40:14 > 0:40:17# Tell me, folks, if you can
0:40:20 > 0:40:22# Just why
0:40:22 > 0:40:27# Why was he shot down the other day? #
0:40:28 > 0:40:31The voice is sometimes not beautiful.
0:40:31 > 0:40:34She is not easy to listen to sometimes, sometimes she is
0:40:34 > 0:40:39so in the space of whatever it is she is telling you, that there is no
0:40:39 > 0:40:44distance between the information and you, and it rips your heart out.
0:40:44 > 0:40:47# And did Martin Luther King
0:40:47 > 0:40:49# Just die
0:40:49 > 0:40:52# In vain? #
0:40:54 > 0:40:56Nina Simone didn't have a choice.
0:40:56 > 0:40:58Ella Fitzgerald didn't have a choice.
0:40:59 > 0:41:04They do what they do, so when one tries to figure out, "Did they trade
0:41:04 > 0:41:08"this off at the expense of that?" They didn't have a choice.
0:41:09 > 0:41:13Nina Simone's voice wouldn't work, her brain wouldn't work,
0:41:13 > 0:41:14her heart wouldn't beat,
0:41:14 > 0:41:17if she wasn't going to sing Mississippi Goddam.
0:41:17 > 0:41:20I choose Nina over all of them because she was crazy enough
0:41:20 > 0:41:23to do it, and she was sane enough to make it sound right.
0:41:23 > 0:41:25She was also the kind of woman who, apparently she put
0:41:25 > 0:41:29a man at gunpoint to return a pair of shoes, which is pretty crazy.
0:41:29 > 0:41:30I like that story.
0:41:36 > 0:41:40She was proud, but the jazz diva proved that love has no pride.
0:41:41 > 0:41:45Although she transcended her time, she seemed to be its victim
0:41:45 > 0:41:47when it came to romance.
0:41:52 > 0:41:56Behind all the poise was the pain of man trouble, which she
0:41:56 > 0:42:00endured like a sacrificial heroine for those audiences
0:42:00 > 0:42:03that preferred their jazz divas coloured blue.
0:42:05 > 0:42:07Billie Holiday was a masochist.
0:42:07 > 0:42:10Literally, a masochist, from what I understand.
0:42:10 > 0:42:14She chose bad husbands, she chose bad lovers, my next-door neighbour,
0:42:14 > 0:42:17the late Billy Taylor, told me a story of seeing her
0:42:17 > 0:42:21beat up once by her manager husband in a club in front of other people.
0:42:22 > 0:42:26Even though she has always been reported to be at the very
0:42:26 > 0:42:30least bisexual, if not often gay, she loved men,
0:42:30 > 0:42:33she liked having a man in her life.
0:42:33 > 0:42:36And she chose the worst possible man, I mean,
0:42:36 > 0:42:39she just chose one thug after another.
0:42:41 > 0:42:45Sarah Vaughan, whom I knew quite well, did not do a lot better.
0:42:45 > 0:42:49She just seemed to choose men who would exploit her.
0:42:50 > 0:42:54I'm going to say something that will make a lot of women very unhappy.
0:42:56 > 0:42:59But all those singers, every one of them, needed a man.
0:43:01 > 0:43:02They needed a man behind them.
0:43:04 > 0:43:08You need that support, and for a man to take that time to give you
0:43:08 > 0:43:11that support means he doesn't have his own life.
0:43:13 > 0:43:15They were taken advantage of.
0:43:16 > 0:43:20They all ran into problems because these guys looked upon them
0:43:20 > 0:43:24as meal tickets, and they needed that.
0:43:25 > 0:43:28I don't know why, but philosophically,
0:43:28 > 0:43:31psychologically, they needed that.
0:43:31 > 0:43:33What is interesting about all of them
0:43:33 > 0:43:36is the number of times they all get married.
0:43:36 > 0:43:40You know, there is a big thing going on with marrying a lot.
0:43:40 > 0:43:43I think that is partly because that is protection, there is
0:43:43 > 0:43:47a lot of marrying your musicians.
0:43:47 > 0:43:50Peggy Lee's first marriage was to Benny Goodman's guitarist,
0:43:50 > 0:43:53Dave Barbour. They had a child.
0:43:53 > 0:43:56But that turned out to be only the first of four marriages
0:43:56 > 0:43:59for Peggy, who was likely to greet a husband with
0:43:59 > 0:44:04the unwelcome news that dinner was not ready, but the song was.
0:44:06 > 0:44:09She really did want that white picket fence,
0:44:09 > 0:44:17that dream of everlasting love, a family, she really wanted that.
0:44:17 > 0:44:20# Some day
0:44:20 > 0:44:25# We'll build a home on a hilltop high
0:44:27 > 0:44:29# You and I... #
0:44:29 > 0:44:32She wanted that dream of the folks who live on the hill,
0:44:32 > 0:44:35that song was her favourite song, and it's not surprising,
0:44:35 > 0:44:42it's just about this love that grows old together and stays together.
0:44:42 > 0:44:48# And we'll be pleased to be called
0:44:49 > 0:44:55# The folks who live on the hill. #
0:44:55 > 0:44:57DOG BARKS
0:44:57 > 0:45:00That, unfortunately, is not what she got.
0:45:00 > 0:45:06But what she did get was this unbelievable career.
0:45:07 > 0:45:11So the choice, life or art, isn't straightforward
0:45:11 > 0:45:16because what you get from art is life.
0:45:20 > 0:45:23Meanwhile, Billie Holiday made private disappointments
0:45:23 > 0:45:27the very subject of increasingly painful public performances
0:45:27 > 0:45:31in the unflinching glare of the spotlight.
0:45:31 > 0:45:33# But I love him
0:45:36 > 0:45:40# I don't know why I should
0:45:42 > 0:45:45# He isn't true
0:45:48 > 0:45:51# He beats me too
0:45:55 > 0:45:59# What can I do?
0:46:02 > 0:46:05I do sing it and I always preface it with saying,
0:46:05 > 0:46:09"Well, it's of its time, you know." It's still a great song.
0:46:09 > 0:46:11# He'll never know
0:46:12 > 0:46:16# How my life is just despair... #
0:46:16 > 0:46:20And you know, "sometimes he beats me" is in the lyric.
0:46:20 > 0:46:23And, "I don't know why I should, he isn't good.
0:46:23 > 0:46:26"He isn't true, he beats me too, but what can I do?
0:46:26 > 0:46:28"Oh, my man, I love him so."
0:46:28 > 0:46:29You think...
0:46:29 > 0:46:30SHE EXHALES
0:46:30 > 0:46:34# What's the difference if I say...? #
0:46:34 > 0:46:38I always imagine outside the spotlight, the circle of rather
0:46:38 > 0:46:43blank-faced, mild-looking men rather interested by this,
0:46:43 > 0:46:48and the women, I think, just think, "Thank God it's not me."
0:46:48 > 0:46:51# For whatever my man is
0:46:53 > 0:46:57# I'm his. #
0:46:57 > 0:46:59The question is, what were people...
0:46:59 > 0:47:02what was the attraction for people?
0:47:02 > 0:47:08Schadenfreude is one of the more disturbing aspects of the human condition,
0:47:08 > 0:47:13that we get pleasure out of pain, other people's pain.
0:47:13 > 0:47:18They're singing the songs, the emotions,
0:47:18 > 0:47:23and sometimes the solutions to life's problems.
0:47:23 > 0:47:29They're sometimes solving it, the question,
0:47:29 > 0:47:31solving the problem for people.
0:47:31 > 0:47:34One person has a hard time and the other person in the audience
0:47:34 > 0:47:37listens to it and hears those words, like,
0:47:37 > 0:47:38Ray Charles, Hard Times, man.
0:47:38 > 0:47:42# My mother told me Before she passed away
0:47:42 > 0:47:46# Said darling when I'm gone Don't forget to pray
0:47:46 > 0:47:51# Cos there'll be hard times Hard times
0:47:51 > 0:47:53# Who knows better than I? #
0:47:53 > 0:47:56You know, when he says that, I listen to that and I go, "Man!"
0:47:56 > 0:47:58Well, I soon found out just what she meant,
0:47:58 > 0:48:01had to sell all my clothes just to pay the rent.
0:48:01 > 0:48:03I did that eight times in my life.
0:48:03 > 0:48:09Man, when someone writes a lyric that is real, everybody understands.
0:48:11 > 0:48:14I mean, it sounds like you're talking about the Greek Furies
0:48:14 > 0:48:17all of a sudden and we're going back to the whole problem
0:48:17 > 0:48:21of catharsis, you know, that we all need that.
0:48:21 > 0:48:25We need to believe in these stories
0:48:25 > 0:48:30in order to purge the pain from our own lives.
0:48:34 > 0:48:38Another way to purge the pain from your life was to develop
0:48:38 > 0:48:41a keen appetite for all kinds of drugs -
0:48:41 > 0:48:45jazz's default setting in the bad old days.
0:48:45 > 0:48:49I think singers in the '50s would be stumbling upon all sorts
0:48:49 > 0:48:53of stuff going on, you know, heroin was rife, cocaine,
0:48:53 > 0:48:57you know, everybody was smoking reefers, everybody.
0:48:57 > 0:49:02I think you'd have to dodge it to come out unscathed, you know.
0:49:04 > 0:49:08In the '30s and '40s, and I've interviewed a lot of musicians on this,
0:49:08 > 0:49:12the idea that heroin was suicide was not genuinely known.
0:49:12 > 0:49:13It really wasn't.
0:49:13 > 0:49:17People thought that they could take it and if they exercised a lot
0:49:17 > 0:49:21and ate well, that it was less dangerous than alcohol.
0:49:24 > 0:49:26'It's one extreme to the other.'
0:49:26 > 0:49:30You're either really busy or not have anything to do whatsoever,
0:49:30 > 0:49:34you're teetotal or you're getting drunk all the time.
0:49:36 > 0:49:39Loads of different things, it's all...
0:49:39 > 0:49:43There's one extreme to the other in most musicians' lives.
0:49:46 > 0:49:50As with everything else in the world of the jazz diva, Billie Holiday
0:49:50 > 0:49:54fulfilled the role of drug addict better than any other jazz queen,
0:49:54 > 0:49:57with fellow heroin user Annie Ross
0:49:57 > 0:50:00sometimes on hand to take care of her.
0:50:00 > 0:50:02When she was really bad...
0:50:04 > 0:50:08..and when she wasn't, I would go up to her little apartment.
0:50:10 > 0:50:15I remember I even gave her a bath because she said, "I'm too weak,"
0:50:15 > 0:50:22I said, "I'll do it," and I would sit by the bed, so that as she smoked,
0:50:22 > 0:50:25she wouldn't burn the place up,
0:50:25 > 0:50:30and she would watch cartoons. She loved cartoons.
0:50:32 > 0:50:37And I was happy to do it. I mean, this was my idol.
0:50:38 > 0:50:43Did Billie need to be on drugs? Did Lester Young need to be on drugs?
0:50:43 > 0:50:46Did Charlie Parker need to be on drugs?
0:50:48 > 0:50:51You know...maybe they did.
0:50:53 > 0:50:56Maybe they did. Maybe that was part.
0:50:57 > 0:51:03And...all I know is they could play a song and make you cry.
0:51:05 > 0:51:08Thank you. And now I'd like to do a little tune,
0:51:08 > 0:51:12entitled Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone.
0:51:20 > 0:51:26The last time I saw Billie live, her voice was light and...
0:51:26 > 0:51:29"Ooooh, what a little moonlight can do to you"
0:51:29 > 0:51:32and you know, lovable, huggable Emily Brown,
0:51:32 > 0:51:34Miss Brown, she was singing all those songs.
0:51:34 > 0:51:37# Please don't talk about me when I'm gone
0:51:40 > 0:51:45# Though our friendship ceases from now on... #
0:51:47 > 0:51:50I says, "Lady, you sound better than I've ever heard you,"
0:51:50 > 0:51:54and she says, "I'm straight now, George, I'm straight."
0:51:54 > 0:51:56Talking about drugs.
0:51:56 > 0:51:58"You've got to help me."
0:51:58 > 0:52:02# It makes no difference
0:52:02 > 0:52:04# How I carry on... #
0:52:04 > 0:52:07Four weeks later, she was dead.
0:52:07 > 0:52:11# Please don't talk about me when I'm gone. #
0:52:17 > 0:52:20Lady was dead at 44. Long live the Lady.
0:52:23 > 0:52:27She was, of course, the first of the great jazz divas to die on the job
0:52:27 > 0:52:32but they all had to face the treachery of their own unique instrument,
0:52:32 > 0:52:34their body, letting them down.
0:52:42 > 0:52:47# I know that I'll
0:52:47 > 0:52:54# Be contented with yesterday's memories
0:52:57 > 0:53:03# Knowing you'll think of me
0:53:03 > 0:53:10# Once in a while. #
0:53:12 > 0:53:16In the latter years, her highs were getting lower and lower,
0:53:16 > 0:53:18and her lows were also not there.
0:53:18 > 0:53:22She was only singing in the middle range of her voice.
0:53:22 > 0:53:24Ella Fitzgerald, with only this much,
0:53:24 > 0:53:27saying more than anybody else.
0:53:27 > 0:53:29She lived for it.
0:53:29 > 0:53:33And even though she'd nearly smoked herself to death
0:53:33 > 0:53:37and had both her legs amputated and she's wheeled onto the stage,
0:53:37 > 0:53:39she's still doing it.
0:53:42 > 0:53:44Sarah Vaughan had that funny joke.
0:53:44 > 0:53:46She'd be perspiring, she'd have a drink of water,
0:53:46 > 0:53:49and she'd say, "Every night, I come up here looking like Lena Horne
0:53:49 > 0:53:53"and I go home looking like Sarah Vaughan."
0:53:53 > 0:53:57And, you know, so she would make fun of that. She became heavier.
0:53:57 > 0:54:00She became more diva-like. But she was Sarah Vaughan.
0:54:00 > 0:54:02And she could get away with that because her genius
0:54:02 > 0:54:05was so undeniable.
0:54:05 > 0:54:09# We seem
0:54:09 > 0:54:13# Like passing strangers now
0:54:15 > 0:54:20# How can you hurry by?
0:54:22 > 0:54:28# There were never two who loved
0:54:28 > 0:54:33# Half as much as you and I... #
0:54:33 > 0:54:39# Don't look for me... #
0:54:39 > 0:54:44Peggy Lee decided to keep Miss Peggy Lee the performer alive
0:54:44 > 0:54:46until the bitter end.
0:54:46 > 0:54:50You can still be running a fever when you're virtually bedridden.
0:54:50 > 0:54:52She arrived in a limousine.
0:54:52 > 0:54:58And they wheeled out this wheelchair in sequins!
0:54:58 > 0:55:01# Don't smoke... #
0:55:01 > 0:55:02It was covered in sequins!
0:55:02 > 0:55:04# ..in bed. #
0:55:04 > 0:55:07And she came in, she went, "Thank you.
0:55:07 > 0:55:09"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you."
0:55:09 > 0:55:13And they announced, "Miss Peggy Lee."
0:55:13 > 0:55:14APPLAUSE
0:55:14 > 0:55:20The lights went down, the lights came back up, and like magic,
0:55:20 > 0:55:21there she was.
0:55:21 > 0:55:24Now, imagine this woman,
0:55:24 > 0:55:29having had a stroke, wearing a blonde pageboy wig,
0:55:29 > 0:55:34big glasses with rhinestone so you were distracted from her face a bit.
0:55:34 > 0:55:37And she started to sing Fever.
0:55:37 > 0:55:39MUSIC: "Fever"
0:55:42 > 0:55:44She used to always start with her hand out like that.
0:55:44 > 0:55:47Always when she started that song.
0:55:47 > 0:55:50Well, she'd clearly had a stroke, so what they did,
0:55:50 > 0:55:55they had the drummer play the sound and her hand lightly snap,
0:55:55 > 0:55:59but there was the drummer, like, right on time,
0:55:59 > 0:56:01- and when she got to the point where she said...- # Fever... #
0:56:01 > 0:56:03..she held both hands up like that
0:56:03 > 0:56:06and then brought them down in a series of steps!
0:56:06 > 0:56:09She no longer had the fluidity or the timing
0:56:09 > 0:56:11in terms of her hand movements,
0:56:11 > 0:56:15but still you learn how you can adjust a performance.
0:56:16 > 0:56:19I think it's really hard for a singer
0:56:19 > 0:56:23to age in front of us on stage,
0:56:23 > 0:56:28when you're a beauty and you're singing about desire
0:56:28 > 0:56:30and you're trying to be sexy
0:56:30 > 0:56:34and you're singing Fever and Big Spender and I'm A Woman...
0:56:34 > 0:56:39# I can wash out 44 pairs of socks and have 'em hangin' on the line
0:56:41 > 0:56:43# I can starch and iron two dozen shirts
0:56:43 > 0:56:46# 'Fore you can count from one to nine... #
0:56:47 > 0:56:52But then do you stop? She didn't want to stop singing.
0:56:56 > 0:57:01But in truth, it was curtains for the jazz diva by the mid-'60s.
0:57:01 > 0:57:06She was consigned to history by the triumph of pop and rock,
0:57:06 > 0:57:08leaving her struggling to remain relevant,
0:57:08 > 0:57:11forced to cover the odd Beatles song.
0:57:13 > 0:57:16# Been a hard day's night
0:57:16 > 0:57:20# I should be sleeping like a log
0:57:20 > 0:57:23# But when I get home to you I find the things that you do
0:57:23 > 0:57:26# Will make me feel all right... #
0:57:28 > 0:57:31# And he's got another woman now... #
0:57:31 > 0:57:36But Nina Simone, who had always embraced every kind of music,
0:57:36 > 0:57:39made it across the bridge from the lost world of the jazz diva
0:57:39 > 0:57:43to soul, R&B, gospel and beyond.
0:57:43 > 0:57:47# Hey, lordy, lordy, mama
0:57:47 > 0:57:52# What you gonna do about it?
0:57:52 > 0:57:53# Hey, lordy, mama... #
0:57:53 > 0:57:56There's a lot of singers and a lot of people in the world,
0:57:56 > 0:57:57but nobody reminds me of Nina.
0:57:57 > 0:58:02# Tell me what you gonna do now? What you gonna do? #
0:58:02 > 0:58:04I wish I could have met her
0:58:04 > 0:58:07and hung with her and got in all kinds of trouble with her.
0:58:07 > 0:58:10That would have been my sister. I'm not in trouble enough.
0:58:10 > 0:58:12I'd like to be in trouble with Nina Simone.
0:58:12 > 0:58:16# And don't know how to treat him... #
0:58:16 > 0:58:20Nina is just a big soul that nobody...
0:58:20 > 0:58:22I don't even know how they got her into a casket,
0:58:22 > 0:58:25cos her soul was so big, she didn't have a place to go.
0:58:25 > 0:58:26You know?
0:58:29 > 0:58:32The Ellas, the Sarahs, the Billies, the Dinahs, the Anitas,
0:58:32 > 0:58:35the Peggys, they become more and more magical
0:58:35 > 0:58:38because we know we're never going to see their like again.
0:58:40 > 0:58:44These women were the first, they are the originals and the best.
0:58:44 > 0:58:50And I often wonder... why I even bothered doing it,
0:58:50 > 0:58:53cos it's been done so well before!
0:58:55 > 0:58:57These are women that were artists
0:58:57 > 0:59:01and they found a platform to be artists,
0:59:01 > 0:59:05and to be heard and to be accepted
0:59:05 > 0:59:09and to be subtly, you know, freed.
0:59:09 > 0:59:12# Me myself and I
0:59:12 > 0:59:15# Are all in love with you
0:59:15 > 0:59:20# We all think you're wonderful We do
0:59:22 > 0:59:24# Me, myself and I
0:59:24 > 0:59:28# Have just one point of view
0:59:28 > 0:59:29# We're convinced
0:59:29 > 0:59:32# There's no-one else like you... #
0:59:32 > 0:59:34Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd