Billie Holiday - The Musician and the Myth

Hardcover
230 pgs.
Viking Penguin, Publ.

John Szwed strips away the accumulation of myths surrounding Billie Holiday and reveals her strength, her insecurities, her wit, her warmth, and especially her outstanding musicianship. Drawing on a large amount of new material that has surfaced in the last decade, Szwed considers how Holiday presented herself in both her still-controversial autobiography, 'Lady Sings the Blues', and in her art, taking into account her influences, her collaborators, and her signature songs.