Billie Holiday and her distinctively textured voice practically reinvented vocal jazz, building on the mournful blues of Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith with her own expert phrasing and an unparalleled ability to emotionally inhabit her material. Her incredibly sensitive and nuanced renditions of standards such as “Lover Man” and “Strange Fruit” and her performances of her own composition “God Bless the Child” are some of the most revered vocal recordings ever released.