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'A masterpiece, as fresh and shocking as if it were written
yesterday' Craig Brown "I've been told that no one sings the word
'hunger' like I do. Or the word 'love'." Lady Sings the Blues is
the inimitable autobiography of one of the greatest icons of the
twentieth century. Born to a single mother in 1915 Baltimore,
Billie Holiday had her first run-in with the law at aged 13. But
Billie Holiday is no victim. Her memoir tells the story of her life
spent in jazz, smoky Harlem clubs and packed-out concert halls, her
love affairs, her wildly creative friends, her struggles with
addiction and her adventures in love. Billie Holiday is a wise and
aphoristic guide to the story of her unforgettable life.
"Lady Sings the Blues" is the fiercely honest, no-holds-barred
autobiography of Billie Holiday, the legendary jazz, swing, and
standards singing sensation. Taking the reader on a fast-moving
journey from Holiday's rough-and-tumble Baltimore childhood (where
she ran errands at a whorehouse in exchange for the chance to
listen to Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith albums), to her
emergence on Harlem's club scene, to sold-out performances with the
Count Basie Orchestra and with Artie Shaw and his band, this
revelatory memoir is notable for its trenchant observations on the
racism that darkened Billie's life and the heroin addiction that
ended it too soon. We are with her during the mesmerizing debut of
" Strange Fruit"; with her as she rubs shoulders with the biggest
movie stars and musicians of the day (Bob Hope, Lana Turner, Clark
Gable, Benny Goodman, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, and more); and
with her through the scrapes with Jim Crow, spats with Sarah
Vaughan, ignominious jailings, and tragic decline. All of this is
told in Holiday's tart, streetwise style and hip patois that makes
it read as if it were written yesterday.
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