Before the week­end slips away, we want to remem­ber Bil­lie Hol­i­day who was born 98 years ago today. To this day, Hol­i­day is wide­ly con­sid­ered the great­est jazz vocal­ist of all time, known for her dis­tinc­tive phras­ing and melan­choly voice. Above, we bring you her per­for­mance of “Strange Fruit,” a song record­ed in 1939 that protest­ed the lynch­ing of African Amer­i­cans in the South. The com­po­si­tion intro­duced Hol­i­day to a main­stream audi­ence, giv­ing her career a big break. Down the line, Hol­i­day closed every con­cert with the song, which con­tin­u­al­ly grew in cul­tur­al impor­tance. By 1999, TIME called “Strange Fruit” the song of the cen­tu­ry, solid­i­fy­ing its place in the Amer­i­can song­book.

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We love the design and over­all lay­out of The Illu­mi­nat­ed Playlists by Brook­lyn-based design­er Adam Parks, but the real delight of the web­site is its sound, not its look. Parks has grouped 21 music col­lec­tions into four cat­e­gories, from slow to very fast  (or rather, Ada­gio to Presto), so you can choose a playlist depend­ing on the pace of your cur­rent activ­i­ty or mood.

As a DJ, Parks has made con­sis­tent­ly sol­id choic­es, culling from both the clas­sics (Bob Dylan, Neal Young, Rolling Stones, Cur­tis May­field) and more recent artists (TV on the Radio, The Decem­berists, Arcade Fire, etc.). These aren’t the lists you would use to impress the cool kids with your eclec­ti­cism, iron­ic tastes, or love of the obscure, but if you’re just look­ing for great sound­tracks for the shift­ing rhythms of the day, they’re a per­fect fit. Dive in here.

We’d love to see sim­i­lar col­lec­tions for jazz and clas­si­cal — we might just need to make a few of our own.

via Metafil­ter

Sheer­ly Avni is a San Fran­cis­co-based arts and cul­ture writer. Her work has appeared in Salon, LA Week­ly, Moth­er Jones, and many oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. You can fol­low her on twit­ter at @sheerly.