The Official Billie Holiday website maintained by the Estate of Billie Holiday and hosted by Concord Jazz. Missing from this documentary is incisive exploration about exactly what makes Billie Holiday so great musically. [8], Kuehl's research revealed that Holiday's addictions were "becoming a crutch for a life beset with violence, misogyny and racism."[2]. }); popupTrigger.css('visibility', 'visible'); captainformCustomVars['772606'] = ''; She sang and recorded till the end of her life. if('' == 'floating') { 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. 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. [3] The interviews were a major source for the text in Robert O'Meally's book of photographs Lady Day: The Many Faces of Billie Holiday (1991)[12] and around the same were used for the script for a Masters of American Music series documentary of the same name. A psychiatrist, at one point, weighs in with a diagnosis. The story of Billie Holiday's rise to fame after a difficult upbringing is nothing new. var popupParams = { "[9] However, Kuehl did not complete the book. var readyStateOverflowInterval; 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. resize77260563c877fb82c45(wrapper); 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. }, 10); Considering the documentary is made almost exclusively of one persons previously unheard interviews, I cannot agree. [4], She was a Jewish feminist[5] and a fan of Billie Holiday. She was a highly talented and unique star, but she also complicated and deeply troubled. Show more 3 months left to watch 1 hour, 30 minutes Last on. However, Linda's book was never finished and the tapes never heard . elementType: "script", She wanted to sing. She was the singer for Artie Shaw and His Orchestra, who were all white. type: "text/javascript", These incredible testimonies reveal Holiday's . She wasnt like a slut. Kuehl's parents were Sol and Ida Lipnack and she had a sister, Myra Luftman. Unearthing a trove of audio recordings from the journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl, who planned to write a biography of Billie Holiday before committing suicide, James Erskine's approachable documentary Billie dives into the life of Holiday through Kuehl's myriad interviews with the people in the artist's orbit. Courtesy of the Kuehl family. Lipstick and brow pencil are the hallmark features. She was high profile, successful, and the opposite of small. She wanted to retire and care for orphans. }, true); var captainformCustomVars = {}; }, 50); window.addEventListener('resize', function(){ Before her mysterious death in 1978, Lipnack Kuehl had taped over 200 hours of interviews. 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. if('' == 'floating') { Some people in the documentary allude to Holiday being fond of sex orgies. Considering all the trauma that Holiday had when she was a child (she was also raped more than once when she was a teenager), its no surprise that she ended up way that she did. [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. type: "text/javascript", jQuery(wrapper).find('a').removeAttr('href'); Add a bio, trivia, and more. When they reach the top, something tragic happens.. Dr. James Hamilton, a psychiatrist who interviewed Holiday when she was in prison, had this diagnosis of her. 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. Function: require_once. Kuehl was and still is, posthumously, THE preeminent biographer of Billie Holiday, despite never having completed Holidays biography before she died in 1978. [6] In 1971, she began plans for a biography of Holiday, who had died aged 44 in 1959. Read the latest opinions on key events by our acclaimed critics today captainformThemeStyle['772605'] = ''; He reportedly ripped her off. (The documentary has lots of images of cassette recorders and reel-to-reel tap machines in operation, to give a visual representation of these interviews.) jQuery(wrapper).css('top', jQuery(window).height() * 0.4 - wrapper.outerHeight()); As for Holidays love life, several people in the documentary say that Holiday was openly bisexual. She was raped at age 10 and sent to a reform school as a result. gallery of images and videos of both singers. Josephson sums up the usual complaint that he got was: We came to your nightclub to be entertained. Kuehl had even grown close to some of her interview subjects, including Holidays former bandleader Count Basie. if ('' == 'left') append_element({ The documentary Billie, now showing, does not start at Billies birth or death, but rather the date of Linda Kuehls death. if (document.getElementById('captainform_js_global_vars') == null) { Her mother Sadie transported her to New York City to be a prostitute at age 13. popupTrigger.click(function(){ In 1971, journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl set out to write the definitive biography of Billie Holiday. However, drummer Jo Jones has a entirely different recollection of why Holiday parted ways with Basie. She began working on the Holiday biography in 1971 and interviewed an impressive number of people. Contact Us Her drug problems led to her multiple arrests at the height of her fame. }); window.addEventListener('resize', function(){ Born in Philadelphia in 1915, Billie Holiday was raised in poverty in Baltimore, where she ran errands in a brothel as a child, before moving to New York in 1928. Her cousin John says, During them times, she had to survive. var wrapper = jQuery('#captainformForm772606EmbedPopup63c877fb834ac'); Be the first to contribute! Keuhl is also remarkable for not trying to angle the information in a Procrustean manner to fit her argument. textContent: 'var frmRef=""; try { frmRef=window.top.location.href; } catch(err) {}; var captainform_servicedomain="app.captainform.com";var cfJsHost = "https://";', var wrapper = jQuery('#captainformForm772605EmbedPopup63c877fb83722'); [3] She worked as a high school teacher and free lance writer. var append_element = append_element || function(e){if(void 0==e)return!1;if(! Here, Erskine has been given the opportunity to illuminate the lives of two women by seeing where they intertwine. This documentary offers viewers the rare opportunity to see Billie Holiday through the eyes of those who knew her best. Racism is still an enduring feature of Black life in America, but it does pull the viewer out of Holidays time too much. if (document.getElementById('captainform_js_global_vars') == null) { }); var readyStateOverflowInterval; Linda Lipnack Kuehl was an American high-school teacher and arts journalist, based in Washington. Many important details of her life and her musical genius have been overshadowed by a lurid interest in her love life and drug use. Eleanoras parents got married when she was 3 years old, and she was raised primarily in Baltimore. }); Holiday can only be fairly described as oscillating from pleasingly plump to svelte for much of her career. Her highs, lows and everything in between are detailed in the film, but theres still a sense of mystery about Holiday that remains to this day. captainform_preload_form_popup(popupParams); Her death was ruled as a suicide. 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. 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. 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. To describe it any other way is to diminish her musicianship. [3], Interviews that Kuehl conducted with writers were published in The Paris Review in 1972 and 1978. In the late '60s, journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl set out to write the definitive biography of Billie. The songs that she sings in performance clips include Strange Fruit, Blues Are Brewin' (with Louis Armstrong), Fine and Mellow, My Man (Mon Homme), I Loves You Porgy, God Bless the Child and Dont Explain, the song that Holiday said represented her the best. James Erskine's documentary, built around lengthy interviews conducted in the 1970s by journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl, demonstrates how dangerous it can be to mesh with one's subject matter. Despite her early hardships, Billie Holiday pioneered the refinement of microphone technique, minimalism, and jazz phrasing for subsequent generations. } "She excited me with just three notes," drummer Roy Harte tells Kuehl. [2] } Kuehl was white, born in the Bronx and relatively prosperous. Function: _error_handler, File: /home/ah0ejbmyowku/public_html/application/views/user/popup_harry_book.php 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 them. [2] Various other writers' biographies on Holiday have drawn upon Kuehl's material, as did the film Billie (2019), which is narrated by Kuehl's recorded interviews. Did someone consider the pairs intimacy a threat? At the time of her death, she and McKay were separated and not divorced. 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.. Linda Lipnack Kuehl . Function: _error_handler, Message: Invalid argument supplied for foreach(), File: /home/ah0ejbmyowku/public_html/application/views/user/popup_modal.php Kuehl is heard in the interview going back and forth with Jones and Hammond to get their reactions to these conflicting allegations. }; 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. She changed her last name to Holiday to capitalize on her fathers connection as a guitarist with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, one of the most respected Black Big Bands of its day. var captainformDomReady = captainformDomReady || function(e){var t=!1,n=function(){document.addEventListener? Elle recueille 200 heures de tmoignages incroyables : Charles . A snippet plays in the new documentary Billie, a . Along with Count Basie, we were the Royal Family, Holiday said in an archival interview. Recently some articles based on faulty interviews emphasize her persecution in Hoovers war on drugs without realizing this was a fact of life for all African American jazz musicians. 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. captainForm772606PreloadInterval63c877fb829bf = setInterval(function(){ Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in, Linda Lipnack Kuehl was writing a biography of Holiday when she died suddenly in 1978, though her family believe she may have been murdered, Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. This unusual, ambitious doc doubles down on the challenge, adding an extra frame to the portrait: the obsession that drove journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl to toil for years on an epic biography of . popupTrigger.click(function(){ else if ('' == 'right') var readyStateOverflowInterval; }); UNSUNG HEROES THROUGH THE NIGHT- Special Free Screening Thursday, Jan. 19, NEW YEARS CHEER- A Nostalgic Look at Past New Years Through Images, Movies and Music, They Were Calling It the Twentieth Century, THE ART OF EATING: THE LIFE OF M.F.K. 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. She also began hanging out at a brothel, which is where she first heard jazz music. popupTrigger.click(function(){ At the time, she had her own girls on the street. (Its one of the reasons why biopics about Holiday portray her in very different ways.). captainForm772605PreloadInterval63c877fb82c45 = setInterval(function(){ There were reports that McKay was very controlling and unscrupulous when it came to Holidays finances. 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. Your email address will not be published. resize77260663c877fb834ac(wrapper); Holidays boxer dog was used as a way to transport drugs underneath the dogs collar. Her archive passed to a private collector and was later used in other writers' biographies of Holiday. popupTrigger.css('visibility', 'visible'); 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 the victim of repeated sexual abuse. Her family, however, believed otherwise. 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. Then, before she could finish her biography, Kuehl died: In 1978, her body was found on a Washington, D.C. street. The first of the two films - "Billie" is a documentary built around some previously unheard audio interviews conducted by Linda Lipnack Kuehl, who was working on a comprehensive biography on Billie Holiday before her untimely death in 1978.Ms. Her second drug bust came in San Francisco in 1949, but she didnt get any prison time for that arrest. Said in an archival interview were separated and not divorced knocked out by the Estate of Holiday. 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Who were all white collector and was later used in other writers ' biographies of Holiday generations! Out at a brothel, which is where she first heard jazz music was later used other. An impressive number of people Holidays sex appeal: I was in love with,! Her bass player and lover, calls her a sex machine an enduring feature of Black life in America but. Excited me with just three notes, & quot ; she excited me with just three notes linda lipnack kuehl biography.
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