A special tribute to one of the most important and influential Jazz vocalists in history whose story and music enthrall us still, some six decades after her untimely passing at the age of 44. #ladyday #billieholiday #jazz #womeninmusic #jazzday

There’s an adage about the woman born Eleanora Fagan in Philadelphia in 1915 and raised in Baltimore, then Harlem: Billie Holiday’s story depends on who’s telling it, which also was the headline on an article in the New York Times recently by Robert Ito reminding us all that this may be the most honest thing anyone has written in mass media in far too long.

The cover of Lady In Satin, 1958, Billie Holiday’s last release while she was still alive. Photo by Don Hunstein, courtesy of Columbia Records.

You know the lurid highlights, or lowlights, so to speak: born into poverty, raped at the age of ten, a prostitute as a teenager and at the age of 18 singing for Benny Goodman’s band. Then came fame, money, bad relationships, Jim Crow segregation, racism, inept management, drug addiction, a jail sentence, the government hounding you, unable to play nightclubs due to a criminal record, cirrhosis of the liver, penniless, death at 44 while handcuffed to a hospital bed…for crying out loud, it’s 10 Lifetime women in distress movie of the week stories in one woman and more than enough drama to make most VH1 Behind The Music stories look like a trip to the grocery store in comparison.

Part of the problem with Holiday’s story is that even her autobiography, entitled Lady Sings The Blues, omits a great deal and fudges others. Some of this was due to the threat of lawsuits from her former lovers, including Orson Welles (yes, the man who created Citizen Kane) and Oscar-nominated actress Tallulah Bankhead. This kind of laissez-faire fast and loose telling of the truth, unfortunately, seems to permeate every single telling of the story of the woman called Lady Day by Jazz legend and saxophonist Lester Young. (Young was “The Prez”, and Holiday’s mother was “The Duchess”).

Poster for this event, designed by yours truly. Pictured: Billie Holiday in 1947 in New York City. Based upon an original photograph by William Gottlieb.

So what story am I going to tell here that hasn’t already been told or is currently being told? Seriously, there are TWO, count ’em, TWO recent films of Holiday available for streaming right now: A 2019 documentary, currently playing on Hulu, entitled Billie, based upon book research notes of Jewish feminist Linda Lipnack Kuehl, who died before her tome could be finished, and of course, the brand new Lee Daniels’ flick The United State vs. Billie Holiday, also on Hulu.

78 RPM 10″ single label for “Strange Fruit”, 1939, named the most iconic song of the 20th Century by Time Magazine.