Billie Holiday: The Musician and the Myth

John Szwed is Professor of Music and Director of the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University. . He is the author of sixteen books, including So What: The Life of Miles Davis, Space is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra, and Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded the World. As a jazz musician, he played professionally for more than a decade

He needs them all to track down a subject whose every word seems intended to protect him from scrutiny." —Brent Staples, The New York Times Book Review. Now, on the centennial of her birth, John Szwed, a veteran biographer and jazz musician, seeks to redress this imbalance . Mr. Praise for Billie Holiday: The Musician and the Myth“A concise and sharply focused critical biography. A meta-biography, about the creation of Holiday’s public image in media of all sorts: print, television, movies, and, of course, her recordings, but with special attention to the composition of her autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues.&r

Kirsten D. said Fabulous!. This is a biography about Billie Holiday as it should be written--it focuses almost exclusively on Billie as one of the greatest jazz singers the world has known. The emphasis here is on her as a brilliant musician, how she approached/worked with her songs and the way she worked with her fellow musicians. Although there is biographical detail, that is no. Gregory Marquette - Screenwriter said well researched piece of writing about one of America's greatest vocalists. While so much has been written about. A well researched piece of writing about one of America's greatest vocalists. While so much hasbeen written about her, this book takes the time to cut through the celebrity right to the bone marrow.And it is worth the time it takes to get there. Billie is still a mystery in many ways - but more and morewe appreciate her artistry and her life with each ye. Biker Dude said Five Stars. Well-written and has a lot of new material not in previous books on the subject!

• 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 talentWhen 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