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Eleanor Fagan Gough, now known as Billie Holiday was born in Baltimore Maryland on April 7, 1914. She was born to Clarence Holiday and Sadie Fagan. Her father Clarence was a jazz guitarist and banjo player. She never really knew him he left when she was a baby. When Billie was ten she was sentenced to a catholic reform school but was released only after two year. She moved with her mother to New York and worked alongside her doing work until she was discovered at a local speakeasy. Billie was singing at clubs in New York as early as 1930. In 1935 she debuted at the Apollo and appeared in a short film with Duke Ellington. She was a hit. At Billie Holidays peak in her performing career her emotional life began to fall apart, she was into alcohol, marijuana and later began to smoke opium. In 1947 she was sentenced to eight months in jail for possession of heroin. She died on July 17, unable to fight withdrawal from the drugs and heart disease. Billie Holiday forever changed the art of jazz. Ella Fitzgerald was born in Newport News, Virginia into poverty. She used her talent to get by. She first performed with the Chick Webb Orchestra when she was seventeen. A first hit, “A Tisket, A Tasket,” was recorded with Web