Lil Green

Life and career Originally named Lillian Green or Lillie May Johnson,

Green was noted for superb timing and a distinctively sinuous voice. In the 1930s, she and Big Bill Broonzy had a nightclub act together. which was later covered by many artists, such as Dinah Washington and Nina Simone (in 1967) (Billie Holiday recorded a different song with the same title), and Green's 1941 version of Kansas Joe McCoy's minor-key blues- and jazz-influenced song "Why Don't You Do Right?",

By 1949, Green had changed direction with the foresight to become a jazz vocalist, and tried to emulate the jazz style of Billie Holiday. She signed with Atlantic Records in 1951, but at this point was already in poor health. She died of pneumonia in Chicago in April 1954 and was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, in Gary, Indiana.