Anyone who has ever heard a Billie Holiday record knows the sound of her voice—sad, sexy, always relaxed but securely aware of the beat. Conveying a poignancy that cut to the heart of a song, she redeemed even trivial material with her impeccable sense of dramatic phrasing and time. The well-known tale of her lifelong battle with drugs has obscured the artistry that has made her one of the most revered singers of the twentieth century. Everyone from Frank Sinatra (who in the 1950s called her ”unquestionably the most important influence on American popular singing in the last twenty years”) to Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan has recognized the singularity of her interpretations. The racism that Billie found at every turn, whether in Artie Shaw’s band or in the heart of the south, immortalized in the chilling song ”Strange Fruit,” cannot be overlooked in her biography. Jazz historian John Chilton has told the story of her short, tragic, influential career with restraint, correcting many of the more sensational tales she wrote about herself in Lady Sings the Blues. Buck Clayton, who knew Billie in the Basie band during the nineteen-thirties, has written a warm and personal foreword to this fascinating biography of a great American artist.
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About the Author
A professional trumpeter and jazz writer, John Chilton is the author of Billie's Blues, Who's Who of Jazz, and with Max Jones, Louis: The Louis Armstrong Story.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
billie's blues,
By A Customer
This review is from: Billie's Blues (Da Capo Paperback) (Paperback)
i got a closer look into billie holiday's life with each band she was introduced to. this book shed some light on her personal life, but it gives more reference to her career. i still enjoyed the book
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the Definitive Billie Books!,
This review is from: Billie's Blues (Da Capo Paperback) (Paperback)
I have read around 8 books on Billie Holiday and this is one of the best. Instead of regurgitating all the horrors of her traumatic childhood and lurid details of her life this book focuses on her career and her art. It is refreshing to read an insightful survey of how Billie got her start, the details of her career and what made her great. Of course there are some more lurid details that are part of Holiday's story but the book doesn't read like a glorified tabloid column or a work that aims to reinforce her as the archetypal tortured artist.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Monette's Supper Club on 133rd Street in Harlem, where John Hammond first heard Billie, was similar to hundreds of other little night-spots that flourished in New York during the Prohibition era. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
return booking, theatre dates, vocal chorus Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Down Beat, Lady Day, Billie Holiday, Teddy Wilson, Strange Fruit, Joe Glaser, John Hammond, Lester Young, Cafe Society, Louis Armstrong, Leonard Feather, Joe Guy, John Levy, Bobby Tucker, Melody Maker, Artie Shaw, Count Basie, Mal Waldron, Benny Goodman, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Basie's Band, Carnegie Hall, Bessie Smith New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Monette's Supper Club on 133rd Street in Harlem, where John Hammond first heard Billie, was similar to hundreds of other little night-spots that flourished in New York during the Prohibition era. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
return booking, theatre dates, vocal chorus Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Down Beat, Lady Day, Billie Holiday, Teddy Wilson, Strange Fruit, Joe Glaser, John Hammond, Lester Young, Cafe Society, Louis Armstrong, Leonard Feather, Joe Guy, John Levy, Bobby Tucker, Melody Maker, Artie Shaw, Count Basie, Mal Waldron, Benny Goodman, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Basie's Band, Carnegie Hall, Bessie Smith New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 34
books:
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26
books
cite this book:
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- Lady Sings the Blues by Billie Holiday on 5 pages
- From Satchmo To Miles by Leonard Feather on page 108, page 192, and Back Matter
- New Year (Get Set Go) by Helen Bliss on page 130, and page 139
- Dizzy Gillespie (Jazz Life & Times) by Barry McCrae on page 89, and Back Matter
- Golden Years Hb (Video) by Daily Mail in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 34 books this book cites
- Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday by Angela Y. Davis on 5 pages
- Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday by Angela Y. Davis on 5 pages
- Interpreting Popular Music by David Brackett on 4 pages
- The Da Capo Jazz and Blues Lover's Guide to the United States by Christiane Bird on page 130, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Cultural Front: The Laboring of American Culture in the Twentieth Century (The Haymarket Series) by Michael Denning in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
See all 26 books citing this book
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