#Billie Holiday Strange Fruit Yolande Bavan

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Yolande Bavan and Billie Holiday

Yolande Bavan, a Sri Lankan born in Colombo in 1942                                  Click here for her official site and here for a detailed interview Bavan did with the website Jazz Wax.

Lambert,Hendricks & Bavan (replacing Annie Ross)

“...she befriended the legendary Billie Holiday while on a trip to Paris. The older woman took Bavan under her wing, giving her advice on her art. “Always tell the truth,” Holiday urged Bavan.”

READ MORE https://www.tajmahalfoxtrot.com/?p=3159

Looking Back At Jazz Singer Billie Holiday's Influence On American Music                                                                                           Aug 22,  2019

“Over the years, Billie struggled with alcohol and drug addiction, and federal agents used that as an excuse to target her. One FBI memo quotes a source in the Federal Bureau of Narcotics saying, "Because of the importance of Holiday, it has been the policy of this bureau to discredit individuals of this caliber using narcotics." And there was one agent in particular who was out to get her; his name - Harry Anslinger.” + “For years, Anslinger waged a campaign against Billie Holiday - sending agents to stalk her, throwing her in jail multiple times for drug possession and even preventing her from singing in clubs. And her career took a big hit.” +++ “In 1959, after years of battling addiction and harassment from agents...HARI: She collapsed.ABDELFATAH: She was suffering from liver disease.ARABLOUEI: Billie was taken to the hospital.HARI: But she said to her friend on the way in that Anslinger wasn't finished with her. She said, they're going to kill me in there. Don't let them. She wasn't wrong. Anslinger's men come into the hospital and arrest her on her hospital bed.ABDELFATAH: In a matter of weeks, Billie died.HARI: Billie Holiday had a friend called Yolande Bavan, who was a very young jazz singer. She called Yolande her daughter. And I said to Yolande, what would you say to Billie Holiday if you could speak to her now? And she told me how Billie Holiday, right at the end, thought that Anslinger had destroyed her, that no one would remember her. And she said, I'd say to her, Billie, this morning I went into Whole Foods in Columbus Circle, and they were playing your songs. Nobody forgot you, baby.“

If You Can't Be Free, Be a Mystery: In Search of Billie Holiday  2002