“Ever feel kind of down and out / just don’t know what to do / Living all your days in darkness / Let the sun shine through,” crooned musician and poet Gil-Scott Heron. This song, much like his most celebrated output, is written within the context of a hectic 1960s and ’70s, one of urban decay, political disillusionment and social upheaval. And we certainly know what it feels like to live in such a socio-political climate. Gil Scott Heron asks: “Ever feel that somehow, somewhere / You lost your way? / And if you don’t get-a help quickly / You won’t make it through the day?” Your days blur into one another, a constant cycle of work and worry, with few pockets of rest and relaxation in between. What is the solution, you may ask? It is simple. You can call on Billie Holiday, the great Lady Day and tenor saxophone genius John Coltrane, because “they’ll wash you trouble / Your troubles, your troubles, your troubles away!” To honor John Coltrane’s centennial and the recording and release of Billie Holiday’s “Lady Sings the Blues,” here are a couple of songs that soothe the soul and shake us at our core, which could even help us shake off the troubles in our lives.
1. "Cousin Mary" by John Coltrane
It would be too easy to start this list with Giant Steps. It’s certainly a great and innovative track, but one worn by all the discourse and memes surrounding it. I want to turn our attention to the track in the Giant Steps album which allows the eponymous track: “Cousin Mary.” Named after his cousin, Mary Luter, this track has this simpler, insanely catchy 12-blues infused with Coltrane’s jaw-dropping sax solo and Tommy Flannagan’s superb piano solo.
2. "Lady Sings the Blues" by Billie Holiday
What truly distinguished Billie Holiday from the plethora of brilliant jazz singers of that era was the sheer vulnerability she brought to her performances. This title track of Lady Sings the Blues is a masterclass in this vulnerability. No one can truly sing the sad blues, the blues rooted in pain and history, like Lady Day, bearing to the world her suffering without ever surrendering to it.
3. "Naima" by John Coltrane
Here we have a gentler Coltrane, one often overshadowed by the technically explosive, frantic solos and compositions. Named after his first wife, Juanita Naima Grubb, we have this slow, nostalgic melody, a tenderness which, I imagine for Coltrane, conjured the bliss and pain of his first marriage. There is a stillness to this track, brought to life by McCoy Tyner’s piano and Coltrane’s saxophone, that acts as a welcome switch from the sheer energy of Giant Steps.
4. "God Bless the Child" by Billie Holiday
“God Bless the Child” is Billie Holiday at her most personal. Co-written with Arthur Herzog Jr., the song reflects on her hardships with money and her feeling of financial dependence on her mother. Holiday never lets this bitterness overwhelm her performance. There is a wisdom and dignity in her voice, one that stands strong in the face of hardship.
5. "Central Park West" by John Coltrane
In my mind, the most underrated track from John Coltrane’s underrated album, Coltrane’s Sound. This is one of the rare tracks that when I put this song on, headphones with background noise canceled, I can feel myself literally elevating. There is an elegance to his track that even Naima cannot touch, an infinitely re-listenable melody and harmony that cannot be beaten.
6. "Strange Fruit" by Billie Holiday
This single song was so effective in music and message, its performance made Billie Holiday a major target of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and its racist commissioner, Harry J. Anslinger. The song was originally written in 1939 by Adel Meeropol in the era of Jim Crow, and Billie Holiday risked jeopardizing her relationship with major record labels in order to record this track. Her unflinching bravery in singing this anti-lynching song shines through her performance; there is a chilling stillness in her voice and the piano-playing, one which forces us to sit with the inhumane horror of lynching, of the “strange fruit” produced in Southern trees.
The music of figures like Billie Holiday won’t solve your prelims, won’t help write that essay for you, won’t help you land a job. But it can provide a deeper palliative. As Johann Wolfgang von Goethe reminds us, we “should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.” The enjoyment we derive from Billie Holiday and John Coltrane, that shiver in our spines when we hear Lady Day’s voice or Coltrane’s solo, unlocks something deeper within us, a little taste of the beauty inherent to this world.
You can access the playlist here.
Basil Bob is a member of the Class of 2027 in the College of Arts and Sciences. He is a staff writer for the Arts & Culture department and can be reached at bbob@cornellsun.com.
