Billie Holiday
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Promoter John Hammond discovered and recorded her with Benny Goodman in 1933 and Teddy Wilson in 1935. After a brief stint with the Basie band in 1937, she toured the South with Artie Shaw’s all-white band in 1938, experiencing racism first-hand. Billie was a musician’s singer, attracting the finest instrumentalists, among them Lester Young whose style on saxophone much resembled Billie’s. They became lifelong friends—she called him “Pres,” short for “The President,” and he named her “Lady Day.”
Billie introduced many songs, among them “Easy Living” (1937), “Fine and Mellow” (1939), “God Bless the Child,” (1941) and “Lover Man” (1944) with which she had a big hit. “Good Morning Heartache”(1945) and “Don’t Explain” (1946) are also inextricably linked to her. An entire book has been written about just one song, “Strange Fruit,” which Billie introduced at Caf? Society in 1939. Its gruesome lyrics by Abel Meeropol are the strongest indictment of racism ever penned.
To perceive the magic that was Billie one need only watch her 1957 television appearance on The Sound of Jazz with Young, Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins, Gerry Mulligan and Roy Eldridge. Her empathy with “Pres” on “Fine and Mellow” is sheer ecstasy.
- Sandra Burlingame
At Amazon.com you can often buy used for a fraction of the new price
Billie Holiday, William Dufty
Lady Sings the Blues/With a Revised Discography
Penguin Books
Robert O'Meally
Lady Day: The Many Faces of Billie Holiday
Da Capo Press
Donald Clarke
Billie Holiday: Wishing on the Moon
Various
Down Beat: Sixty Years of Jazz
Hal Leonard Corporation
Wynton Marsalis, Geoffrey Ward
Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life
Random House Trade Paperbacks
Geoffrey C. Ward, Ken Burns
Jazz: A History of America's Music
Knopf
David Margolick, Hilton Als
Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song
Harper Perennial
Billie Holiday, Jr., Arthur Herzog
God Bless the Child
Amistad
Carole Weatherford
Becoming Billie Holiday
Wordsong
Holiday, Billie
Billie Holiday Pro Vocal Songbook and Cd for Female Singers Volume 33
Hal Leonard
Louis Armstrong, Danny Barker, Doc Cheatham, Vic Dickenson, Roy Eldridge
Billie Holiday - Ultimate Collection
Verve
DVD
(Includes Count Bassie, Billie Holiday, Coleman Hawkins, Jimmy Giuffre, Red Allen, Lester Young, and Milt Hilton)
The Sound of Jazz (1957)
The Life and Artistry of Lady Day
Music Video Distributors DVD 0265
Billie Holiday, Carmen McRae
Lady Day - The Many Faces of Billie Holiday (1991)
Billie Holiday: The Life & Artistry of Lady Day (2002)
Genius of Lady Day
Efor Films
The Lady Day's Life
Stars of Jazz
Arturo de Cordova, Marjorie Lord, Irene Rich, Louis Armstrong and His Band, Billie Holiday, Woody Herman, Woody Herman and His Orchestra
New Orleans
Kino Video
Joe Williams, Dave Brubeck, Sarah Vaughan, Thelonious Monk, Joshua Redman
Monterey Jazz Festival: 40 Legendary Years
Warner Home Video
Diana Ross, Billy Dee Williams
Lady Sings the Blues
Paramount
DVD Biographical film
Duke Ellington, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Cab Calloway, Bing Crosby
Blue Melodies
VHS
Lester Young & Billie Holiday
Vidjazz
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