Interesting thoughts.
As someone who very much prefers Billie Holiday's earlier stuff,
the question of expression makes me think that no matter how
much expression you intend for a given performance, if you have
less of an instrument (voice) to work with, you have, well, you
have less to work with. There are places you cannot go. Sure you
can make up for it with inflection, etc, but that is compensation.
I wonder if she pulls half the hairs out of her paintbrush to intentionally
get more expression out of it. Somehow I doubt it. So I'm left with
the conclusion that her limited voice is something she has to work
around, and it is not so much intentional as the price of chain-smoking.
Not to dredge up the smoking issue again, but, as with any addiction,
not only the addict, but those around her also suffer.
RR
