According to Ida B. "[9] However, Kuehl did not complete the book. Meanwhile, Basie doesnt offer much insight about Holiday in his interview commentary, because he claims he didnt really know what was going on when she was in his band. The project is centered around 200 hours of previously. captainformThemeStyle['772606'] = ''; [3], Interviews that Kuehl conducted with writers were published in The Paris Review in 1972 and 1978. Midgett says that Holiday would talk for hours about how she started in prostitution when she was 13 years old. At times the interviews use words that grate on modern ears. Joe Guy, a trumpet player in her band, was also one of her main drug connections. When she was released from jail at age 14, she left prostitution for good and set her sights on singing for a living. Function: _error_handler, File: /home/ah0ejbmyowku/public_html/application/views/user/popup_harry_book.php 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. Billie certainly encompassed both requirements. 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. Hammond says of Goodman, He slept with Billie. Linda Lipnack Kuehl (January 24, 1940 February 6, 1978)[1] was an American arts journalist, based in New York City. if ('' == 'left') Linda Lipnack Kuehl IMDbPro Starmeter See rank Help contribute to IMDb. captainformCustomVars['772606'] = ''; Eleven years after Billie Holiday died at the age of 44, from heart failure due to drug and alcohol abuse, journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl, a Lady Day devotee, interviewed as many people as. Her name is eponymous with the phrase jazz singer. There is no jazz figure so well-known, yet shrouded in mystery, as Lady Day. 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). type: "text/javascript", ("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)}; Find Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and TikTok profiles, images and more on IDCrawl - free people search website. Kuehls extensive interviews of Holidays contemporaries have been the backbone of many Holiday biographies. Holidays birth name was Eleanora Fagan, and she was born to teenage parents in Philadelphia on April 7, 1915. The tapes have never [] Read the full article: Glasgow Film Festival 2020: Billie Glasgow Film Festival 2020 Glasgow Film Festival 2020: Anderson Falls captainformCustomVars['772605'] = ''; append_element({ Jo Jones says bitterly and vehemently, Holiday was persecuted less for the song Strange Fruit or drugs and more for being an uppity Negress who lived large wearing furs, diamonds, driving a Cadillac and spending money freely. clearInterval(captainForm772605PreloadInterval63c877fb82c45); Her death was ruled a suicide. She spoke to Holidays friends, and to those who had been there for the most transformative chapters of her life. In the 1970s, journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl recorded over 200 hours of interviews for a biography she intended to write about Billie Holiday. Eleanoras parents got married when she was 3 years old, and she was raised primarily in Baltimore. ("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)}; Documentary showcasing American legend Billie Holiday, capturing her depths and complexity through the voices of those who knew her best. }, 10); Her career of 30 years has no breaks, stops or retreats into obscurity. She wasnt like a slut. It also brings up a few necessary, if rarely confronted questions. 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. resize77260663c877fb829bf(wrapper); [3] She worked as a high school teacher and free lance writer. captainform_create_form_popup(popupParams); captainform_preload_form_popup(popupParams); } Like most documentaries on older famous Black jazz musicians, stock photography is used since there was no available footage, but better photography could have been used. [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. Kuehl conducted over 150 interviews in the early 1970s, less than two decades after Holidays death in 1959, so the memories of Holiday are still fresh and free from todays prejudices. It ' s constructed from the tapes made by of an arts journalist, Linda Lipnack Kuehl, in the 1970s. When they reach the top, something tragic happens.. Kuehl's parents were Sol and Ida Lipnack and she had a sister, Myra Luftman. 9.45pm, BBC Two Director James Erskine brings this detailed, fascinating documentary charting the tumultuous life of jazz singer Billie Holiday, based on hundreds of hours of interviews conducted. Nalley combines music and history in her award-winningTributes to Ella Fitzgerald,Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone and Black Broadway. Her playElla: the American Dreampremiered in 2008 and can be viewed onEat My Shorts. jQuery(wrapper).find('a').removeAttr('href'); She was the victim of repeated sexual abuse. [1], File: /home/ah0ejbmyowku/public_html/application/views/user/popup_modal.php 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. Being a solo act gave Holiday the freedom to record whats considered the most important and most controversial song of her career: Strange Fruit. Written by Abel Meeropol under the alias Lewis Allan, and released in 1939, the song is a poetically brutal commentary on racial injustice, particularly in describing the lynching of black people in the South. See also Other Works | Publicity Listings | Official Sites She was the singer for Artie Shaw and His Orchestra, who were all white. There might also be a tad too much focus on the woman who made those 125 cassettes, Linda Lipnack Kuehl, who was clearly a gifted writer and smart interviewer. At the time, she had her own girls on the street. Intending to write a biography of Billie Holiday, she interviewed friends, fellow performers, and key figures in Holiday's life, but died before its completion. Some people in the documentary allude to Holiday being fond of sex orgies. She never bothered anybody. And to the best of anyones knowledge, Holiday didnt sing while she was incarcerated. One is the subject Billie Holiday and the other, her biographer Linda Lipnack Kuehl. formId: '772606' 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. Allen shows the cell where Holiday stayed and describes Holiday as quiet and certainly no trouble ever. var popupParams = { A side by side comparison of a pop singer singing a Billie Holiday tune compared to Billies version would have illuminated exactly why Holiday is a genius musically. captainformThemeStyle['772605'] = ''; captainform_preload_form_popup(popupParams); The book was never completed, but the tapes have been . That archive is where director James Erskine first began pulling . Instead we hear the voices of personal friends and colleagues who often played with Holiday, such as Count Basie and Artie Shaw. A frail-looking Holiday is shown holding a glass of alcohol. An avid fan of Holiday, she planned to write a biography of the hero with whom she, perhaps to an unhealthy degree, self-identified. 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. The next thing I know, she was using coke.. A new documentary, Billie, will delve into the life of jazz great Billie Holiday with the help of hours of never-before-heard interviews. The insightful documentary Billie (directed by James Erskine) is a highly unusual non-fiction film because most of it is based on previously unreleased audio interviews that were conducted in the 1970s. else if ('' == 'right') The song she chose exposed discrimination, [by] putting it on stage., Jazz/swing singer Billy Eckstine says that one of the biggest racial inequality problems that black artists had to deal with was that their music was being controlled and judged by white people. "She excited me with just three notes," drummer Roy Harte tells Kuehl. Line: 24 Function: _error_handler, File: /home/ah0ejbmyowku/public_html/application/views/page/index.php This is not to say that there is no filmed footage. A psychiatrist, at one point, weighs in with a diagnosis. [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. Be the first to contribute! Did Kuehl jump, or was she pushed? I think she felt the pain of someones struggles. [3], Interviews that Kuehl conducted with writers were published in The Paris Review in 1972 and 1978. They were all gathered by Linda Lipnack Kuehl, the late journalist who spent a decade in the Sixties and Seventies talking to those who knew Holiday best, conducting more than 125 interviews and . Intending to write a biography of Billie Holiday, she interviewed friends, fellow performers, and key figures in Holiday's life, but died before its completion. Billie is playing in selected cinemas and various streaming services. She was discovered by Michael Tilson Thomas while singing to packed audiences live with no amplification at San Franciscos Alta Plaza. Can an author ever truly separate themselves from their subject? }, 50); Billie Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan on April 17, 1915, in Philadelphia, but she was raised in the Pigtown slum of Baltimore, Maryland. Her archive passed to a private collector and was later used in other writers' biographies of Holiday. Sylvia Syms, a singer and longtime friend of Holidays, comments on Holidays drug addiction: She really dug being high, but I never saw anyone with such a capacity., Its mentioned several times in the documentary that Holidays well-known drug problem and the controversy over Strange Fruit led to a conspiracy to bring her down, with the FBI involved. In 1928, Holiday and her mother moved to New York Citys Harlem neighborhood. Memry Midgett, an Oakland pianist who played with Holiday in the 1950s and remained close with her, said Holiday confided that she was worried about the sins of her youth and Gods forgiveness. And by the age of 14, Holiday was singing professionally in nightclubs. Yoshi Kato wrote inMetrowith a flowing tone, an articulate delivery and a formidable understanding of musical principles and history, Nalley is comfortable in many a vocal setting. She is the former owner of the San Francisco jazz club Jazz at Pearls and was awarded Most Influential African American in the Bay Area.. The book was left unfinished, Kuehls tapes buried away until now. [3] In 1978 she was found dead on a Washington, D.C. sidewalk,[3][8][10] after attending a Count Basie concert. By singing and recording the anti-lynching protest song Strange Fruit Holiday became a race woman and outspoken proponent of civil rights 15 years before Brown v. Board and almost 20 years before the March on Washington. }, true); var captainformCustomVars = {}; popupTrigger.css('visibility', 'visible'); Function: _error_handler, Message: Invalid argument supplied for foreach(), File: /home/ah0ejbmyowku/public_html/application/views/user/popup_modal.php var captainformThemeStyle = {}; Because McKay was still legally married to Holiday when she died, he inherited Holidays estate and future earnings. resize77260563c877fb83722(wrapper); An epilogue at the end of the documentary mentions that because of the destruction of police records, investigations into Lindas death made during the film proved inconclusive., In the documentary, Luftman explains why her sister wanted to write a Billie Holiday biography: Even thought they came from totally different backgrounds, I think she really identified with Billie. The official cause of death was ruled a suicide, but her younger sister Myra Luftman (who is not interviewed on camera) says in the documentary that Kuehl probably died from foul play because of the research that Keuhl was doing for the book. }); I would expect that at least they could have found a child with the same coloring as Holiday. var readyStateOverflowInterval; 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. 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. else if ('' == 'right') Kuehl had dedicated the last eight years of her life to a biography of jazz singer Billie Holiday, whose rich, sensuous voice had been steeped in a lifetime of pain. Crisp colorized film footage of Holiday with the Count Basie Orchestra from 1950 shows us why she was called the greatest jazz singer ever during her life and now over 100 years after her birth. var wrapper = jQuery('#captainformForm772605EmbedPopup63c877fb83722'); The Last Dance, which chronicles the rise of basketball superstar Michael Jordan and the 1990s Chicago Bulls, won the documentary series Emmy ahead of American Masters, Hillary, McMillion$ and. He was 18, she was 16, and I was three" - but was also full of inaccuracies. Kuehl died in what was deemed. The testimonies of those who knew Holiday before she became famous help make up for that deficiency. Oddly enough, the just-released documentary Billie is an intertwining tragic tale of two women. In a 1971 interview, Ruby Davis, who was Holidays roommate before the singer was famous, says that Holidays nickname was Mr. Billie Holiday because she was seldom seen with fellas Her mother put it in her mind to be careful [of men] because theyll always break your heart, just like Billies father., Harry Sweets Edison, a trumpeter in the Count Basie Orchestra comments on Holiday: She was like a man, but feminine. John Simmons, who was her bass player and lover, calls her a sex machine. Music conductor Ray Ellis also comments on Holidays sex appeal: I was in love with Billie, not necessarily Billie, but somebody. var append_element = append_element || function(e){if(void 0==e)return!1;if(! window.addEventListener('resize', function(){ var captainformThemeStyle = {}; Enjoy our special Billie Holiday Gallery of photos, posters, record covers, surprises and film clips with lots of great music. var popupTrigger = jQuery("#captainformForm772606EmbedPopup63c877fb829bf"); It was brother and sister, but it was another thing He was one of the strangest people on Earth. Then, in 1971, journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl set out to write the definitive biography of Billie. Shortly after she became a professional singer as a teenager, Holiday began working with musician/producer John Hammond, who introduced her to Benny Goodman in 1933. There were reports that McKay was very controlling and unscrupulous when it came to Holidays finances. Her second drug bust came in San Francisco in 1949, but she didnt get any prison time for that arrest. }, 10); She began working on the Holiday biography in 1971 and interviewed an impressive number of people. 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. [3] She worked as a high school teacher and free lance writer. ("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)}; var wrapper = jQuery('#captainformForm772606EmbedPopup63c877fb829bf'); The journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl worked for years on a Billie Holiday biography before Kuehl's sudden death in 1978. Then, before she could finish her biography, Kuehl died: In 1978, her body was found on a Washington, D.C. street. 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. if(typeof cfJsHost != 'undefined'){ Although Luftman couldnt be sure if Basie and her sister had a sexual affair, she thinks those threats might have had something to do with Kuehls death. In the 1970s, journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl embarked on a deep dive into Billie Holiday's history with an eye towards writing a more comprehensive and truthful biography than that which was available. By the time that Holiday was arrested in 1947, she listed her marital status as separated. She and Monroe got divorced the same year. Before completing her work, Kuehl died suddenly in February 1978. She sang and recorded till the end of her life. The biopic will follow Holiday's life through the eyes of Linda Lipnack Kuehl, who as a fan and literary journalist in 1970 began a biography of Holiday. 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. And the only way to save her was to have her knocked out by the government. George H. White, who was a narcotics agent at the time, says Holidays lavish lifestyle also made her a target for the FBI and other law enforcement: Billie flaunted her way of living..
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