All Of Me: The Betrayal of Billie Holiday 07-07-2009
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To mark next week's 50th anniversary of the death of singer Billie Holiday (1915-59), Neneh Cherry tells the story of how the jazz-blues legend was betrayed by her manager, resulting in a near-ten month spell in a tough segregated prison for narcotics offences. The year was 1947, and Holiday already had shown her formidable talent with recordings such as Easy Living (1937), Strange Fruit (1939), God Bless the Child (1941), Embraceable You (1944), and Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be?) (1945). The programme uses extracts from her FBI, prison and medical files, with input by those who knew and played with her. Noted for a singing voice that directly related to her troubled life, Holiday performed a career-high show at Carnegie Hall just 11 days after her prison release.
Producer Gail Champion
From The Radio Times
When Billie Holiday died at the age of 44 she did not have a dollar to her name. This hugely successful singer had been exploited for her whole career. Her addiction to drugs and alcohol meant that as long as she was getting her fix, she wasn't examining her bank balance. Presenter and fellow songstress Neneh Cherry grew up in a house full of Holiday's music and when she started singing, Billie was her inspiration. You can hear the hurt in Cherry's voice as she listens to extracts from an archive of interviews recorded around 30 years ago with friends and fellow musicians. These reveal that Holiday's own manager, Joe Glaser, was responsible for the prison-term that precipitated her long final decline.
-- Jane Anderson
To mark next week's 50th anniversary of the death of singer Billie Holiday (1915-59), Neneh Cherry tells the story of how the jazz-blues legend was betrayed by her manager, resulting in a near-ten month spell in a tough segregated prison for narcotics offences. The year was 1947, and Holiday already had shown her formidable talent with recordings such as Easy Living (1937), Strange Fruit (1939), God Bless the Child (1941), Embraceable You (1944), and Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be?) (1945). The programme uses extracts from her FBI, prison and medical files, with input by those who knew and played with her. Noted for a singing voice that directly related to her troubled life, Holiday performed a career-high show at Carnegie Hall just 11 days after her prison release.
Producer Gail Champion
From The Radio Times
When Billie Holiday died at the age of 44 she did not have a dollar to her name. This hugely successful singer had been exploited for her whole career. Her addiction to drugs and alcohol meant that as long as she was getting her fix, she wasn't examining her bank balance. Presenter and fellow songstress Neneh Cherry grew up in a house full of Holiday's music and when she started singing, Billie was her inspiration. You can hear the hurt in Cherry's voice as she listens to extracts from an archive of interviews recorded around 30 years ago with friends and fellow musicians. These reveal that Holiday's own manager, Joe Glaser, was responsible for the prison-term that precipitated her long final decline.
-- Jane Anderson
Thank You katydidit for this Wonderful Gem
Replies
Thank You Riklaa ^_^
Thank Katy, I just brought it from the other regualr documentary group to here. -------- R