"Southern trees bear a strange fruit

Blood on the leaves and blood at the root.

Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze

Strange fruit hangin' from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant South

Two bulging eyes and a twisted mouth

Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh

Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.

Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck

For the rain to gather

For the wind to suck

For sum to ret

For the tree to drop

Here is a strange and bitter crop."

The above lyrics from the newly-released Billie Holiday (Commodore Music Shop) of "Strang Fruit" are part of one of the most amazing mood records ever cut. Miss Holiday's singing, done in a bitterly poignant manner, makes even sharper the commentary on American democracy that this song conveys. Why does a colored band get one third as much money as a while band of equal ability. Why does a man have to go to the Supreme Court to he allowed to pay for his training as a lawyer? Why do political partics allow vestiges of Jim Crowism to hang on within then? We may be equalitarian, but Negroes can't vote in many parts of the country; we may be democratic, but how many hotels allow colored guests; we may be free, but why do most talented Negro artists live in virtual poverty? Why--why --why--over and over again the words to the song din that question into the cars of those who have listened to it--why a people must be submitted to the physical and moral subjugation that makes its songs temples of gloom and misery is the query of this freezing chant.

This is no problem of "aiding they inferiors." Taking the field of music alone, Duke Ellington, Paul Robeson, Roland Hayes, Marion Anderson and all the rest of the known Negro artists are peer if not superiors of their white competitors. If we are interested in American democracy, sheets should be used for beds, not hoods.

Notes between the notes: The new Count Basic of "Miss Thing" was made under some unusual conditions. Late one night after a recording session at the Brunswick studio, some of the big-wigs in the studio asked the Count to play the "Miss" which he had just written a few days before in Boston. Count did, and unbeknownst to the band, the rendition was recorded on a 16-inch master in the control room. The result, released this week on two sides of a Vocalion record, is very loose and easy with a tricky last chorus--the best he has done lately . . . One of the Brunswick higher officials swears that a be-spectacled clarinet player is going to start recording for them shortly . . . Started to compare some classical vocal records with those of various jazz artists last week in an effort to label differences of phrasing--ran across Marion Anderson's new album of the Songs of Brahms and found it to be beautiful, simple singing, especially the Alto Rhapsody which is built around episodes in the lonely Hartz Mountains in Germany. Miss Anderson makes the stark tonality of the song ring long after the record is over. Indeed, one can find much to compare in the after effect of the Anderson and the Holiday records. They are sincere versions of different types of music, overshadowed by the tragedy evident in each. Byron said, "To be an artist, one must have lived through the griefs of life." Jimmy Rushing, Count Basie's blues singer, puts it, "To sing the blues, man, you've gotta have the blues." Same thought--in different words,--but still significant.