She spoke to Holidays friends, and to those who had been there for the most transformative chapters of her life. Her body as usual is still as a statue; only her hands wave occasionally in small restrained circles. Did Kuehl jump, or was she pushed? 05 January 2023. By all accounts, he was abusive and a heavy drug user. One is the subject Billie Holiday and the other, her biographer Linda Lipnack Kuehl. var captainformThemeStyle = {}; However, Linda's book was never finished and the tapes never heard . var captainformDomReady = captainformDomReady || function(e){var t=!1,n=function(){document.addEventListener? } Most Popular So, in the late 1960s journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl set out to write the definitive biography of. Whatever the real reasons for Holidays exit from the Count Basie Orchestra, her next career opportunity was one that was groundbreaking but controversial at the time. Kuehl had. After moving to Harlem, she started singing in the local nightclubs, where she was eventually discovered by producer John Hammond. Her name is eponymous with the phrase jazz singer. There is no jazz figure so well-known, yet shrouded in mystery, as Lady Day. Over the next decade, she tracked down and tape-recorded interviews with the extraordinary characters that populated the iconic singer's short, tumultuous life. } }); (document.removeEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",d),window.removeEventListener("load",d)):(document.detachEvent("onreadystatechange",d),window.detachEvent("onload",d))},d=function(){t||!document.addEventListener&&"load"!==event.type&&"complete"!==document.readyState||(t=!0,n(),e())};if("complete"===document.readyState)e();else if(document.addEventListener)document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",d),window.addEventListener("load",d);else{document.attachEvent("onreadystatechange",d),window.attachEvent("onload",d);var o=!1;try{o=null==window.frameElement&&document.documentElement}catch(a){}o&&o.doScroll&&!function c(){if(!t){try{o.doScroll("left")}catch(d){return setTimeout(c,50)}t=!0,n(),e()}}()}}; setTimeout(function () { The film includes rare photos of Billie Holiday taken by Hugh Bell, licensed to the production by Gartenberg Media, the exclusive representative of . Culture Representation:The documentary Billie features a group of white and black people, who were associated with Billie Holiday, discussing the life of the legendary jazz singer, who died at the age of 44 in 1959. Tarkoituksena oli kirjoittaa Billie Holidayn elmkerta , hn haastatteli ystvi, muita esiintyji ja Holidayn elmn avainhenkilit, mutta kuoli ennen sen valmistumista. She was sentenced to one year and one day in prison. (Its hard to believe he didnt know.) Her scholarly papers on Billie Holiday include: Two Gardenias for Civil Rights: Robin Carsons photo of Billie Holiday (read it here), This Bitter Earth: Infertility for Billie, Ella and Sarah. [13] Some of Kuehl's material was used in Donald Clarke's 1994 biography, Wishing on the Moon[14] and her interviews were used in Julia Blackburn's 2005 biography With Billie: a New Look at the Unforgettable Lady Day. Her death was ruled as a suicide. Over eight years, she tracked . Holiday was accustomed to being the only woman in a band, but with Artie Shaw and His Orchestra, she felt the pain of racial segregation, since she couldnt she wasnt allowed in whites only public places with the rest of the band, such as restaurants and hotels. In 1971, journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl set out to write the definitive biography of Billie Holiday. Line: 478 elementType: "script", Kim Nalley is on faculty at the California Jazz Conservatory and is writing her Doctoral dissertation on the Globalization of Jazz and Black Cultural Politics.. Holidays light brown skin contrasts dramaticallywith her dark dresses, and smooth-straightened glossy dark hair and the white gardenias (or lily or orchid.) clearInterval(captainForm772605PreloadInterval63c877fb82c45); Kim Nalley, a PHD Candidate in History at University of California Berkeley, is a historian, playwright, and actress and is most known as jazz & blues singer with a powerful, 3 1/2 octave range that can go from operatic to gritty blues on a dime, projection that can whisper a ballad yet is capable of filling a room with no microphone, and the ability to scat blistering solos without ever losing the crowds interest or the intense swing. if(typeof cfJsHost != 'undefined'){ var captainformThemeStyle = {}; In the late 60s, journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl set out to write the definitive biography of Holiday's life, interviewing everyone from jazz greats such as Charles Mingus, Tony Bennett and. [11] "Police deemed it suicide, Kuehl having supposedly jumped from her hotel room, although there was no proof of this",[3] and her family believes she may have been murdered. Hammond says of Goodman, He slept with Billie. resize77260663c877fb829bf(wrapper); To describe it any other way is to diminish her musicianship. captainformCustomVars['772605'] = ''; var captainformDomReady = captainformDomReady || function(e){var t=!1,n=function(){document.addEventListener? Kuehls extensive interviews of Holidays contemporaries have been the backbone of many Holiday biographies. captainformCustomVars['772606'] = ''; For the biography, Kuehl set out to interview hundreds of people, ranging from band members and pimps (Holiday . Billie stands in magnificent glory in a dark long-sleeved dress with a portrait collar that shows off her face. id: "captainform_js_global_vars", } Linda Lipnack Kuehl (January 24, 1940 - February 6, 1978) was an American arts journalist, based in New York City. On 6 February 1978, journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl fell from the balcony of a Washington DC hotel. Her death was ruled a suicide. I avsikt att skriva en biografi om Billie Holiday intervjuade hon vnner, andra artister och nyckelpersoner i Holiday's liv, men dog innan den slutfrdes. Occasionally, pieces of Kuehls own life enter into the picture, but never with much attempt to build a connection. Holidays career spanned 30 years. clearInterval(captainForm772606PreloadInterval63c877fb829bf); Both died young Holiday at age 44, of liver cirrhosis. Allen shows the cell where Holiday stayed and describes Holiday as quiet and certainly no trouble ever. Holidays time with Basie and his band ended on a sour note when she left. Linda delivers due diligence and interviews all the people involved to come up with an answer, or answers, that are closer to the truth than any other biographer. She was discovered by Michael Tilson Thomas while singing to packed audiences live with no amplification at San Franciscos Alta Plaza. It was brother and sister, but it was another thing He was one of the strangest people on Earth. Oddly enough, the just-released documentary Billie is an intertwining tragic tale of two women. She wasnt like a slut. Linda Lipnack Kuehl (January 24, 1940 February 6, 1978)[1] was an American arts journalist, based in New York City. Be the first to contribute! According to Luftman, her sister Kuehl was threatened by people close to Count Basie, who became close to Kuehl when she interviewed him for the book. Its implied that her addiction issues were inherited, because Sandy Williams, a bandmate of Holidays father Clarence, describes Clarence as a happy-go-lucky guy who loved his booze and was often drunk. Before her mysterious death in 1978, Lipnack Kuehl had taped over 200 hours of interviews. Particularly jarring is a small girl made up to look as if she was Billie as a child. Presentations and performance on Billie Holiday include: Rethinking Billie Holiday on her Centennial (Google Talk), Blues Legacies and Black Feminism with Angela Davis (SFJAZZ), Your email address will not be published. Before her death in 1978, Linda Lipnack Kuehl spent eight years trying to write the definitive biography of Billie Holiday. In the late-1960s - some 10 years after the performer's death - journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl set out to write the definitive biography of Billie Holiday (below). Linda Lipnack Kuehl was an American arts journalist, based in New York City. var readyStateOverflowInterval; The journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl worked for years on a Billie Holiday biography before Kuehl's sudden death in 1978. See also Other Works | Publicity Listings | Official Sites Billie Holiday. type: "text/javascript", Her family, however, believed otherwise. By the early Forties, she had worked with Basie and Artie Shaw. The story of Billie Holiday's rise to fame after a difficult upbringing is nothing new. And it seems that Holiday didnt want to settle down with anyone who was considered nice or normal., Irene Kitchen, one of Holidays friends, mentions musician Sonny White, who was briefly Holidays fianc, as nice, quiet, a very good musician Her mother and I hoped that she would marry him. She has also been seen playing folk guitar, singing R&B and spirituals as well as being an avid Lindy Hop and blues dancer. There are great archival photos of East Baltimore and of the reform school and the jail she was sent to. Kuehl was an experienced arts journalist who wrote for The Paris Review and The New York Times Sunday magazine. [11][14][15] Documentary director James Erskine bought the rights to Kuehl's tapes[3] and his subsequent film, Billie (2019), is "a journey through Holiday's life, narrated by the voices on those tapes",[3][14][16][17] including Kuehl's. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}, Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in, Please refresh your browser to be logged in, Documentary Billie squanders its incendiary premise, Extra 20% off selected fashion and sportswear at Very, Extra 20% off sale using this QVC discount code, Up to 20% off and extra perks with Booking.com Genius membership, $5 off a $20+ order with this AliExpress discount code, 15% off selected items using this eBay discount code, Compare broadband packages side by side to find the best deal for you, Compare cheap broadband deals from providers with fastest speed in your area, All you need to know about fibre broadband, Best Apple iPhone Deals in the UK January 2023, Compare iPhone contract deals and get the best offer this January, Compare the best mobile phone deals from the top networks and brands. The most important takeaway from Jo Jones is that anyone who believes music has no color negates the experiences of African American musicians who lived with racism dictating almost every aspect of their lives. Read jazz pianist Richard Fregulias review of Billie. Daviss and Parkers women are not given a megaphone to comment on them, and I never have seen their musical genius attributed to drug use. var wrapper = jQuery('#captainformForm772606EmbedPopup63c877fb834ac'); She lost her cabaret license to perform in New York City nightclubs, thereby limiting her income options. window.addEventListener('resize', function(){ Line: 208 (Courtesy of the Kuehl family) Kuehl left behind a trove of notes, transcripts and some 200 hours of interviews on cassette tapesmostly in shoeboxes, some labeled, some not. A more pertinent flaw would be the ending montage which shows images of current racism against African Americans over Drummer Papa Jo Jones voice. Culture Audience:Billie will appeal primarily to people who are interested in a raw and authentic look at Holidays life, as told by people who knew her best. Before completing her work, Kuehl died suddenly in February 1978. Tony Bennett, who says he briefly knew Holiday, sums up the way a lot of people feel about Holiday: She told her own story, just by being herself. At the time, she had her own girls on the street. resize77260663c877fb834ac(wrapper); Holidays mother Sadie (who took an interested in her daughters career) was nicknamed Duchess. She had $750 to her name when she died, according to the documentary. She was high profile, successful, and the opposite of small. See was a rugged, powerfully built man; handsome, athletic and. The problems became too much for her, and she quit working with Artie Shaw and His Orchestra. She was raped at age 10 and sent to a reform school as a result. Kuehl had even grown close to some of her interview subjects, including Holidays former bandleader Count Basie. The scene in Harlem was dense with famous clubs, famous musicians and a seemingly endless supply of white patrons eager to slum and see African American entertainment. Then in the late 1960's journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl set out to write the definitive biography of Billie. When she was released from jail at age 14, she left prostitution for good and set her sights on singing for a living. Her career of 30 years has no breaks, stops or retreats into obscurity. textContent: 'var frmRef=""; try { frmRef=window.top.location.href; } catch(err) {}; var captainform_servicedomain="app.captainform.com";var cfJsHost = "https://";', append_element({ She began working on the Holiday biography in 1971 and interviewed an impressive number of people. ("elementType"in e))return!1;var n=null;if(n=e.following?e.following.parentElement:e.inside?e.inside:e.replacing?e.replacing.parentElement:"script"==e.elementType?document.head:document.body,null==n)return!1;var l=document.createElement(e.elementType);delete e.elementType,l=jQuery.extend(l,e),e.replacing?n.replaceChild(l,e.replacing):n.appendChild(l)}; Holiday is clearly listening to, engaging with, and nodding her approval and at times stony apathy for the licks the instrumentalists take during their solos. {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. But the interviews are by numerous people who knew her best who wouldnt be able to be interviewed today, because almost everyone is now deceased. Pulled out of school at 11, she worked in a brothel at age 12, and by age 14 she was in Harlem singing at the Hot Cha Club. jQuery(wrapper).find('a').removeAttr('href'); She recorded from her teens until her untimely death in 1959 at age 44. The film highlights a review that scathingly derides Billie for being heavy reminding us that draconian female standards of beauty have been around for a long time. Kuehls only objective was to understand Holiday better, which she does better than any other biographer of Billie Holiday. He was like a visitor, but she was too.. Over the next decade, she tracked down and tape-recorded interviews with the extraordinary characters that populated the iconic singer's short, tumultuous life. I do not see the same attention given to Miles Daviss or Charlie Parkers drug use or their abusive relationships. Add a bio, trivia, and more. Her make-up is minimal. Over 8 years, she tracked down and tape-recorded over 200 hours of interviews with the extraordinary characters that populated the iconic singer's short, tumultuous life. Holiday can only be fairly described as oscillating from pleasingly plump to svelte for much of her career. There are so many photos in circulation of Holiday at the end of her life when she was skeletal it might be shocking for some to realize that for most of her life she was plump. The film highlights a review that scathingly derides Billie for being heavy reminding us that draconian female standards of beauty have been around for a long time. Her parents split up not long after getting married, and Halliday became an absentee father who remained out of his daughters life. captainForm772605PreloadInterval63c877fb82c45 = setInterval(function(){ That face! For some eight years in the 1970s, Kuehl interviewed everyone she could find who had a personal association with Holiday musicians, managers, childhood friends, lovers and FBI agents among. function resize77260563c877fb82c45(wrapper){ Her mother Sadie transported her to New York City to be a prostitute at age 13. append_element({ She just looked fast., However, Holidays former pianist Memry Midgett says in the documentary that Holidays prostitution past haunted her throughout her life. function resize77260563c877fb83722(wrapper){ Viewers will see sparkling flashes of Holidays personality that render other biographies and documentaries one dimensional. I sometimes see the hardships of being a Black man highlighted but I do not see the same courtesy given to Miss Holiday. Are you sure you want to cancel your membership with us? popupTrigger.click(function(){ }, true); var captainformCustomVars = {}; Her romances didnt get any better. Holiday was promptly arrested and did time in Welfare Island (now known as Roosevelt); she lied about her age to make sure she did not end up in juvenile until she was the age of majority. A frail-looking Holiday is shown holding a glass of alcohol. She sang and recorded till the end of her life. if(typeof cfJsHost != 'undefined'){ It ' s constructed from the tapes made by of an arts journalist, Linda Lipnack Kuehl, in the 1970s. The images of her are legion. Nalleys Ballads for Billie is now available on CD or as a digital album. For news, music (including some previously unreleased live recordings), complete discography, videos and much more visitKims websiteand many more performances can be found on herYouTube channel. captainform_preload_form_popup(popupParams); Along with Count Basie, we were the Royal Family, Holiday said in an archival interview. During the famous 1957 Sound of Jazz television recording of Fine & Mellow others have described Holidays face as smacked out on drugs or liquor; instead, this film makes it clear that the ecstasy on Holidays face is from hearing the sounds of her musical soulmate saxophonist Lester Young play. As much as Holiday was the first master of microphone singing, she is also a master of the camera. Holidays birth name was Eleanora Fagan, and she was born to teenage parents in Philadelphia on April 7, 1915. [7][3][8] Her archive on Holiday included these interviews on 125 audio tapes[8] as well as "a long paper trail, including police files, transcripts of court cases, royalty statements, shopping lists, hospital records, private letters, muddled transcripts and fragments of unfinished chapters. Kuehl was twice-divorced with no children, while Basie was married with children. The years with Teddy Wilson that brought her to fame are barely discussed. Cafe Society owner Barney Josephson says that it wasnt unusual for white customers to walk out of the club and complain if Holiday performed the song. Looking for Linda Kuehl online? jQuery(wrapper).css('top', jQuery(window).height() * 0.4 + wrapper.width() + wrapper.css('padding').replace('px', '') * 2); if ('' == 'left') They loved it. Several people in the documentary describe Holiday as a masochist who never knew what it was like to have a healthy love relationship when she was adult. var append_element = append_element || function(e){if(void 0==e)return!1;if(! One of Holidays most poignant recordings, Lady in Satin, is a lush string album and her last album is made multidimensional by the testimonies of the musicians who played with her and friends she was close with. She was a generous person, Id say, in thought anyway. }, true); var captainformCustomVars = {}; The director James Erskine does a great job inserting commentary during relevant moments. In his estimation, Holiday was a psychopath strictly in the sense that she was ruled by impulse. In 1971, she began plans for a biography: Holiday had died aged 44 in 1959 and, 11 years on, Kuehl wanted to speak to those who were there throughout her life. Joe Guy, a trumpet player in her band, was also one of her main drug connections. Many important details of her life and her musical genius have been overshadowed by a lurid interest in her love life and drug use. Shes a psychopath. While interviewer Kuehl can be heard gasping in shock when she hears this description, Hamilton elaborates that Holiday was impulse-driven, strong, talented but not a dependable individual. He noted that he thinks that Holidays inability to control her impulses made her psychopathic. Watching the footage of her face singing with no sound could reduce the watcher to tears alone without hearing a single note. elementType: "script", "[9] However, Kuehl did not complete the book. Basies saxophonist Lester Young is credited with giving Holiday the nickname Lady Day. As a woman, Kuehl seems to instinctively know that Holidays last husband, Louis McKay (Holiday filed for divorce but it was not completed before she died), who owned the rights to Billies estate after her death was an unreliable hustler who was prone to say anything to interviewers as long as he was paid for the interview. Racism is still an enduring feature of Black life in America, but it does pull the viewer out of Holidays time too much. captainform_preload_form_popup(popupParams); Message: Undefined variable: user_membership, File: /home/ah0ejbmyowku/public_html/application/views/user/popup_modal.php Read the latest opinions on key events by our acclaimed critics today The Official Billie Holiday website maintained by the Estate of Billie Holiday and hosted by Concord Jazz. }); } Skinny Davenport, a pimp who knew Holiday in her prostitution days, describes how the hookers in the neighborhood were treated: Knock em down, kick em in the ass. [3], Interviews that Kuehl conducted with writers were published in The Paris Review in 1972 and 1978. Billie certainly encompassed both requirements. Eleanoras parents got married when she was 3 years old, and she was raised primarily in Baltimore. For eight years in the 1970s, a journalist named Linda Lipnack Kuehl researched a biography of Billie Holiday, interviewing as many of the great jazz chanteuse's friends, relatives and . }); She also began hanging out at a brothel, which is where she first heard jazz music. else if ('' == 'right') Holidays eyes plead, her lips sneer and her single eyebrow rises suggestively and reproachfully. Linda Lipnack Kuehl (January 24, 1940 February 6, 1978)[1] was an American arts journalist, based in New York City. Her predilection for weed, opium and coke gave them the excuse to hound her relentlessly. She was fired by John Hammond. Jones says that Hammond fired Holiday because she refused Hammonds demands to sing blues music. Kuehl, in that period of eight years, began to see parts of herself in Holiday. It seems amazing that most writers have speculated on the reason Billie Holiday left both the Basie Band and the Shaw Band without getting the testimony of Basie and Shaw themselves. }, 50); Holidays boxer dog was used as a way to transport drugs underneath the dogs collar. Holiday can only be fairly described as oscillating from pleasingly plump to svelte for much of her career. They are particularly pertinent, showing what kind of child she was and what the neighborhood was like for poor African Americans. Many books have been written about her success and ongoing struggles. Dcouvrez la bande annonce du film Billie : BILLIE HOLIDAY est l'une des plus grandes voix de tous les temps. }); Shaw, bassist Sid Weiss, guitarist Al Arola, guitarist Les Robinson and friend Mae Weiss all mention in their documentary interviews that many racist people back then refused to accept a black female singer performing with a group of white musicians.