Billie Holiday at the Monterey Jazz Festival (1958)

During the first weekend of October 1958 jazz, which had been every place from Carnegie Hall to aboard a ship at Long Island, came to Monterey, California. This big event, never seen before on the West Coast, was organized by James Lyons and Ralph J. Gleason, and became the First Annual Monterey Jazz Festival. The fairground’s Jazz Arena could hold nearly 6,000 people at a time, but nobody knows exactly how many people attended the various concerts. It is a confirmed fact that nearly 300 artists did play there that weekend. One of them was 44-year old Billie Holiday. MC Mort Sahl announces the first part of her performance on Sunday, October 5, 1958.

Billie Holiday was accompanied by pianist Mal Waldron, bassist Eddie Khan and drummer Dick Berk.

The first four songs are “Ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do,” published in 1922 by Porter Grainger and Everett Robbins; ”Willow Weep For Me,” a 1932 composition by Ann Ronell, who also wrote the lyrics; “When Your Lover Has Gone,” written in 1931 by composer/lyricist Einar Aaron Swan; and ”God Bless The Child,” which Billie Holiday had created in 1939 with Arthur Herzog, Jr.