Billie Holiday

The Musician and the Myth

Biography & Memoir, Composers & Musicians, Entertainment & Performing Arts, Nonfiction, Entertainment, Music
Cover of the book Billie Holiday by John Szwed, Penguin Publishing Group
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Author: John Szwed ISBN: 9781101614709
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group Publication: March 31, 2015
Imprint: Penguin Books Language: English
Author: John Szwed
ISBN: 9781101614709
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Publication: March 31, 2015
Imprint: Penguin Books
Language: English

**• Kirkus Best Books of 2015 selection for Biography

Published in celebration of Holiday’s centenary, the first biography to focus on the singer’s extraordinary musical talent**

When Billie Holiday stepped into Columbia’s studios 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 public taste, and new reincarnations of her continue to arrive, most recently in the form of singers like Amy Winehouse and Adele.

Most of the writing on Holiday has focused on the tragic details of her life—her prostitution at the age of fourteen, her heroin addiction and alcoholism, her series of abusive relationships—or tried to correct the many fabrications of her autobiography. But now, Billie Holiday stays close to the music, to her performance style, and to the self she created and put into print, on record and on stage.

Drawing on a vast amount of new material that has surfaced in the last decade, critically acclaimed jazz writer John Szwed considers how her life inflected her art, her influences, her uncanny voice and rhythmic genius, a number of her signature songs, and her legacy.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

**• Kirkus Best Books of 2015 selection for Biography

Published in celebration of Holiday’s centenary, the first biography to focus on the singer’s extraordinary musical talent**

When Billie Holiday stepped into Columbia’s studios 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 public taste, and new reincarnations of her continue to arrive, most recently in the form of singers like Amy Winehouse and Adele.

Most of the writing on Holiday has focused on the tragic details of her life—her prostitution at the age of fourteen, her heroin addiction and alcoholism, her series of abusive relationships—or tried to correct the many fabrications of her autobiography. But now, Billie Holiday stays close to the music, to her performance style, and to the self she created and put into print, on record and on stage.

Drawing on a vast amount of new material that has surfaced in the last decade, critically acclaimed jazz writer John Szwed considers how her life inflected her art, her influences, her uncanny voice and rhythmic genius, a number of her signature songs, and her legacy.

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