... introduced to the producer Benny Goodman, who assisted her with her first recording session in 1933; over the next 11 years Holiday recorded over 200 cuts of jazz and swing music. Despite a lack of technical training, Holiday's unique diction, inimitable phrasing and acute dramatic intensity made her the outstanding jazz singer of her day. White gardenias, worn in her hair, became her trademark. During the late '30s Holiday performed with Count Basie, Artie Shaw and other jazz greats and between 1939 and 1945 Holiday scored several hits, including "Fine and Mellow," "God Bless the Child," "Lover Man" and the infamous "Strange Fruit." The darkly, atmospheric lyrics of Strange Fruit, are so vivid that they are almost frightening, as they describe a scene picturing a lynched black man and address the injustice of racial hatred and violence. STRANGE FRUIT Southern trees bear strange fruit, Blood on the leaves and blood at the root, Black ...

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