Billie Holiday - Hardcover

Reissued in stunning new cover, to match the new edition of Nicholson's Billie Holiday 'This biography is a model not only of research, but of musical insight' Observer 'Just to state that this book is a full account of this splendid lady's life and times barely hints at the depth and detail which the indefatigable Nicholson has unearthed ... A triumph' Crescendo & Jazz Music 'When it comes to the music Nicholson is right on' Washington Post Nicholson is a shrewd critic, handling the roll-call of names from bebop and beyond with care and judgement ... his discography is exemplary' The Times 'Knocks spots off earlier attempts at Ella's biography' The Wire

Nicholson's polished, just-the-facts approach to biography was perfect for his book about Ella Fitzgerald and is certainly valuable when it comes to chronicling Billie Holiday's tumultuous life, but one craves psychological illumination of Holiday's complex, even perverse psyche. Fortunately, we've had that in Donald Clarke's superb Wishing on the Moon: The Life and Times of Billie Holiday , so we feel free to praise Nicholson for his precise and eloquent analysis of Holiday's incomparable music. He extols Holiday's "remarkable ear" and gift for learning lyrics, speculates that she must have had relative pitch, and raves about her "maximum minimalism." In discussing her unique, "slow, torchy" style, Nicholson explains that Holiday matched her music to her experiences, creating a persona that elevated her far beyond the emotional range of most performers. As Nicholson tracks Holiday's rapid ascent and abrupt decline, he draws a map of the jazz world during her lifetime, placing Holiday's bright star within that dizzying whirl of musical, narcotic, and sexual improvisation. Holiday and her music will always be open to interpretation; that's what makes her so great. Donna Seaman