Research Catalog

Title

Billie Holiday : the last interview and other conversations / with an introduction by Khanya Mtshali.

Author

Holiday, Billie, 1915-1959

Publication

• Brooklyn ; London : Melville House, 2019.
• ©2019

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Mtshali, Khanya

Description

xxi, 112 pages; 21 cm

Summary

"Legendary singer Billie Holiday comes alive in this first-ever collection of interviews from throughout her career. Included is her last interview, given from her deathbed in a New York City hospital, where police were standing by ready to arrest her for a parole violation should she recover. Also included: The transcript of an interrogation by a US Customs official questioning about whether she'd violated her parole by using drugs on a foreign tour. But the book is more than a look at just the famously tragic side of her life. In other conversations, drawn from music magazines, late-night radio programs, and newspapers across the US and Canada, she discusses her childhood, musicians who influenced her, her friendship -- and falling out -- with the influential sax player Lester Young, why she chose the gardenia as her symbol, why she quit Count Basie's band, her substance abuse problems, writing songs and whether she wrote her own memoir, and more. In frank and open conversations, Billie Holiday proves herself far more articulate, aware, intelligent, and even heroic than the way she's often portrayed. This collection is an essential volume for all who have been moved by her music."--Amazon.com.

Series Statement

Last interview series

Uniform Title

Last interview series.

Alternative Title

Last interview and other conversations

Subjects

• Jazz musicians
• African American singers
• Women jazz singers
• United States
• Interviews
• Jazz musicians > United States > Interviews
• African American singers > United States > Interviews
• Holiday, Billie, 1915-1959 > Interviews
• Women jazz singers > United States > Interviews
• Black author

Genre/Form

Interviews.

Contents

Introduction by Khanya Mtshali -- Billie Holiday: "I'll never sing with a dance band again" / interview with Dave Dexter, Jr., DownBeat Magazine, November 1, 1939 -- "Don't blame show biz!" / interview with Michael Levin, DownBeat Magazine, June 4, 1947 -- MacDougall and Friends / interview with Dick MacDougall, August 16, 1952 -- The lost Billie Holiday interview / interview with George Walsh, The Green Room on KNX radio Los Angeles, September 1956 -- Voice of America jazz hour / interview with Willis Conover, March 20, 1956 -- Night beat (Dumont television) / interview with Mike Wallace, November 8, 1956 -- Statement of Mrs. Elanor Gough Mckay, also known as Miss Billie Holiday / taken in the office of the Supervising Custom Agent, 201 Varick Street, New York 14, N.Y., Room 455, 3:40 p.m. on January 15, 1959 -- The last interview: "I needed heroin to live" / by Billie Holiday, Confidential Magazine, October 1959.

Call Number

Sc D 19-1042

ISBN

• 1612196748
• 9781612196749

LCCN

2019563605

OCLC

1110671900

Author

Holiday, Billie, 1915-1959, interviewee.

Title

Billie Holiday : the last interview and other conversations / with an introduction by Khanya Mtshali.

Publisher

Brooklyn ; London : Melville House, 2019.

Copyright Date

©2019

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Last interview series

Last interview series.

Local Subject

Black author.

Added Author

Mtshali, Khanya, writer of introduction.

Research Call Number

Sc D 19-1042