Billie Holiday
by Stuart Nicholson
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Book Summary Information
Author: Stuart NicholsonEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1995-07-13
ISBN: 1555532489
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Northeastern
Book Reviews of Billie Holiday
Book Review: New historical gems, but --my! -- the over-analysis!
Summary: 3 Stars
If one skips the heavy musicological analysis, there's fascinating history here. Nicholson nails Billie's disputed birth dates and parents. He corrects misconceptions about her marriages. He captures her temperament (and her temper), and details the darkest and brightest sides of this legend from Baltimore, and her awkward relationship with her mother Sadie. Finally, he depicts better than most "Billiecologists" the day-in, day-out, sing-here, sing-there, hired-here, fired-there nature of this unsurpassed song phraser's checkered career. But as a fan of Nicholson's, I wish this worked match the excellent standard of his Ella Fitzgerald biography published in 1995. "Ella" was compelling, precisely because one did not have to wade through psuedo-doctoral discussions of musicology to fine the real, shy Ella -- her music, her style, her history, her art. Alas, this is not the case here. While I still recommend this book to every serious Holiday fan because of the historical gems Nicholson serves up, one cannot but fault the over-analysis. Somehow, I just can't picture Billie striding into a studio, cigarette in hand, slightly high, tumbler of brandy on the piano, saying to herself: "Let's see: I'm going to sing with often conspicuous ornamentation -- vibrato, lelisma, a slur, a mordant, an appoggiatura, plus [my] inimitable growl." Do we really need to know that "Now They Call It Swing" is structured A (8 bars), A (8 bars), B (8 bars) and A (8 bars plus 4 bars)? Or, "...She essentially reduces the A theme to two semi-tones, which are repeated a third down and back in the tonic key again...An eight-bar introduction leads in the 32-bar ternary AABA song, followed by a four bar modulation into the minor and a 16-bar transition of two 8-bar sections before Billie's 32-bar AABA vocal." And, "...the confusing modulation, forcing her to syncopate her entry, making 'I jumped' into I-jumped," creating a precedent she follows with the subsequent 'When-I' and the final 'I-jumped'; the 'I' and 'When' would properly be written as an anacrusis, or pick-up." Say what? Spare me, O Lord. There are geographical inaccuracies, too. As a resident of West Virginia, I was surprised to learn that, in this book at least, the Federal Reformatory for Women, where Billie served time, has been moved from Alderson, West Virginia to "Alderston, Virginia." (At least in some chapters. In other chapters, it's "Alderston, West Virginia." That's wrong, too.) Nonetheless, if you're a serious Billie fan, and already have a few good books in your collection, add this one. Skip over the musicology and enjoy the documented history of the 30s, 40s and 50s. (For my money, though, if you're just starting out, the best Billie book of all -- best history, best "feel," best summary -- is Leslie Gourse's "THE BILLIE HOLIDAY COMPANION: Seven Decades of Commentary." Which, last time I checked, was available through Amazon.com.
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