Billie's Blues: The Billie Holiday Story, 1933-1959

Published by Da Capo Press, 1989

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 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.
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