“She sang every song not only as if she had written it herself, but as if she had written it that very morning.” -- Maya Angelou
Billie Holiday & Louis Armstrong - The Blues Are Brewin' - Live performance of the two legends together (1947).
God Bless The Child and Now Or Never - Video of live performance with Count Basie Septet (1950).
Billie Holiday and Count Basie Live at Carnegie Hall - Billie Holiday's sold out 1954 performance (audio only).
Billie Holiday: Fine And Mellow - Live at CBS Studios (1957).
Little-Known Photos of Billie Holiday - Historic photographs from the William P. Gottlieb Collection of photos from the Golden Age of Jazz (Library of Congress).
All Billie Holiday's Songs from New Orleans (feature film) - The 1947 film, by the Jim Crow standards of the day, cast Billie Holiday as a maid. This 10-minute video, however, presents only her songs from the film, showcasing her wonderful voice, and minimizing the racist storyline.
Your Mother's Son-in-Law - Billie Holiday's very first record, with Benny Goodman (1933)
Billie's Blues - Billie Holiday's first recorded performance of this song with Cozy Cole, Bunny Berigan and Artie Shaw (1936). She also performed this song at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York (1944).
Billie Holiday Complete Album - 20 songs, available for free listening online. Includes many of her iconic songs.
Strange Fruit - First recording of Billie Holiday's protest song (1939).
Symphony in Black (A Rhapsody of Negro Life) - This 9-minute film (1935) is Billie Holiday's first film appearance, at age 19, singing with Duke Ellington's Orchestra. The film is seen as a landmark because the presentation of Duke Ellington and his musicians lacks the stereotypical, racist depictions of African-American musicians which were common in early jazz films. However, although the film presented Ellington as a serious composer on the same level as leading White composers of the day, the storyline betrays the racist stereotyping of the day, with the character Billie Holiday portrays being a tragic one. Her voice, as always, is amazing.
Billie Holiday - Profile on BlackPast. Many of the profiles of Billie Holiday dwell on her struggles with addictions. What is not well-known, however, is that, in addition to the everyday racism that cast its stench on the world around her, the FBI essentially hunted her to death. The details are too grim to recount, but do an internet search of Billie Holiday with Harry Anslinger, and you'll find the history of this notorious instance of police violence and racist hate. #BlackLivesMatter in this case also.
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