Billie Holiday: Persecuted Jazz Icon

 Lady Sings the Blues by Billie Holiday 

Billie Holiday by tonynetone CC by 2.0

Mural of Billie Holiday by Matt Green CC by NC SA 2.0

I read this book after watching The United States versus Billie Holliday. I know that there is another book (Chasing the Scream) that the movie was based on, but this was another interesting and quick read. I was not aware that this was a book until doing a little more research on Billie Holliday. I’ve also seen the Diana Ross movie, so I was somewhat familiar with Lady Day’s life. What I really enjoyed about this book was her storytelling. Her voice was so authentic, and Holliday’s co-writer did a great job capturing her language, style and tone in the stories. The stories in this book ran a range of emotions—funny, sad, sweet, heartbreaking, shocking, fascinating. I couldn’t believe the trauma and hardship that Holliday faced growing up in Baltimore. What was even more shocking was how much of a survivor she was—how tough and resilient she was. I think that whenever I listen to her sing, I can hear this kind of sadness in her voice, and reading these stories and experiences from her childhood and adolescence helped me understand that sound in her voice. In addition to Holliday’s personal experiences, the book highlights the challenges that African Americans faced in the 1930s-1950s. Holliday frequently discusses traveling throughout the south and other segregated areas as one of the first integrated bands and the hardships she especially faced in trying to do things we might take for granted—like eating in a restaurant, getting a hotel room to sleep, or even using a bathroom. It was also interesting to see how her bandmates stood up for her. Part of the book also deals with Holliday’s struggle with addiction and how the US DOJ used this as the beginnings of the war on drugs. This was another important element of the book that I did not anticipate—how Holliday experienced and described the impact of mass incarceration on African Americans. More importantly, as one of the most well-known and influential entertainers at the time, it’s important to see how the DOJ was trying to silence Holliday. What I enjoyed most about this book, though, was the music. There were so many interesting musical stories—whether about how Holliday got her start, how she developed her voice, how she wrote certain songs, or the different artists she worked with, I found this aspect of the book—where she discussed her art—to be the most interesting and engrossing aspect of the book. Lady Sings the Blues is an important book, and I hope that with Lee Daniels’ new film about Billie Holliday, the book gets the renewed interest it deserves.