Billie Holiday: The Musician and the Myth

Billie Holiday: The Musician and the Myth

â€œRevelatory . . . one of the most briskly revealing pieces of jazz biography that Iâ€™ve read.â€ â€”Richard Brody, The New Yorker
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When Billie Holiday first stepped into a recording studio in November 1933, it marked the beginning of what is arguably the most remarkable and influential career in twentieth-century popular music. Her voice weathered countless shifts in popular taste, and today new reincarnations of her continue to arrive, most recently in the form of singers like Amy Winehouse and Adele.
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Most of the writing on Holiday has focused on the tragic details of her lifeâ€”her prostitution at the age of fourteen, her heroin addiction and alcoholism, her series of abusive relationshipsâ€”or tried to correct the many fabrications of her autobiography. But Billie Holiday strips away the myths and puts her music front and center, staying close to her artistry, her performance style, and the self she created and put on record and onstage.
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Drawing on a vast amount of new material that has surfaced in the last decade, critically acclaimed jazz writer and musician John Szwed presents not just a biography, but a meditation on Billie Holidayâ€™s art and its relation to her life. Along the way, he illuminates her influences, her uncanny voice and rhythmic genius, her signature songsâ€”including Strange Fruit and God Bless the Childâ€”and her enduring legacy as the greatest jazz singer of all time.
Country USA
Brand Penguin Books
Manufacturer Penguin Publishing Group
Binding Paperback
ItemPartNumber part_0143107968
Color Black
ReleaseDate 2016-03-01
UnitCount 1
EANs 9780143107965

Country	USA
Brand	Penguin Books
Manufacturer	Penguin Publishing Group
Binding	Paperback
ItemPartNumber	part_0143107968
Color	Black
ReleaseDate	2016-03-01
UnitCount	1
EANs	9780143107965

Billie Holiday: The Musician and the Myth

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