Billie Holiday as Viewed by Others
Review of the Vintage paperback (2006) of the original Pantheon Books / Random House Inc. hardcover (2005)

With Billie consists primarily of journalist Julia Blackburn's selection from the archived taped interviews and transcripts by the eminent Billie Holiday researcher Linda Kuehl (1940-1978), who died before she could complete and publish her work. Kuehl recorded interviews with over 150 people on 125 tapes who had known and / or worked with Billie Holiday (1915-1959) from her childhood up until her passing at the age of 44. Kuehl's research forms the basis of every Billie Holiday biography written afterwards and also of a film documentary (see Links below).

The amount of material is staggering of course and Blackburn admits that she also had difficulty in attempting to fashion it into a convincing story line with many of the interviewees providing self-serving and often contradictory stories about the same events. Blackburn then decided she would simply present selections from the interviews 'as is' and include her own observations, bridging story chapters and footnotes to provide context.

The result is an all encompassing view of Holiday's life and career, which admittedly makes for sad and difficult reading at times with the amount of exploitation and abuse that Holiday suffered from various hangers-on, drug dealers, boy friends, husbands and often criminal agents and club owners. There is still enough light in the darkness, especially from the warm memories from her musician friends and in the descriptions of some of the classic performances and recordings. This is not recommended as a first Billie Holiday biography, but it should definitely be considered essential.

Reading With Billie continues my Billie Holiday deep dive which began with February 2022 readings of "Billie Was a Black Woman" (2021), "Billie Holiday: The Last Interview and Other Conversations" (2019), "Lady Sings the Blues: The 50th-Anniversay Edition with a Revised Discography" (orig. 1956/reissue 2006) and "Billie Holiday: The Musician and the Myth" (2015).

Soundtrack
These were the main Billie Holiday albums that I was listening to while reading With Billie:
1. The Essential Billie Holiday: The Columbia Years A 2-CD selection from the recordings first issued/recorded 1935-1942 on the Brunswick, Vocalion, Columbia and Okeh labels. This is a 'Best Of' selection from Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia 1933-1944, a 10-CD boxed set.
See CD cover at https://i.discogs.com/ruSFuQLgTgA1B5Y2aDlMeJWhSUgTckFkagHB2OA8Meg/rs:fit/g:sm/q:...
Double CD set cover image sourced from Discogs.

2. Billie Holiday: Ray Ellis and his Orchestra (orig 1959), the final album, some later reissues rename it Billie Holiday: Last Recording.
See LP cover at https://i.discogs.com/8wr0sg-Ayue90UPZ7wXqGfHC84l3BD_v7Id_yTvZh5Y/rs:fit/g:sm/q:...
Vinyl LP cover image sourced from Discogs.

Trivia and Link
With Billie features an extended description of the filmed performance of the song "Fine and Mellow" by Billie Holiday and select musicians including Lester (Prez) Young (saxophone), for the CBS television program "The Sound of Jazz" in 1957. You can watch that excerpt on YouTube here.

The documentary film Billie (2019) dir. James Erskine also includes excerpts from the interviews by and footage of Billie Holiday researcher Linda Kuehl. You can read an article about the film here and watch a trailer here. ( )

First off, I don't know if you can fully appreciate this book unless you've listened to Billie Holliday extensively and have a cursory knowledge of what happened to her...

Just picking up this book and plodding through it -- I think will leave you frustrated -- if you don't know which years, were her best recording years and when life started to go horribly wrong for her then you lose many details that are given away in the book -- if you haven't listened to several different recordings of the same song, you won't understand what makes this woman so talented, because by all accounts most people would find her voice unique -- but not classified under the definition of a spectacular voice -- so the fact that she never sung the same song the same way, twice and that her phrasing and timing is one of a jazz instrumentalist, not a singer... you'll end up wondering why Blackburn wasted her time on an alcoholic drug addicted and abused woman.

In the end, the book will paint a faded picture of a woman -- her fears -- unrealized dreams -- and her music will fill in the rest. If you've ever listened to out takes of Holliday talking between takes -- you would suspect she was a pretty rough woman -- I found this book shed some light on her compassionate side... the fact that if you were her friend, she would give you the shirt off her back.

Through interviews, layers of assurance are slowly built up -- and what is left is not a laundry list of facts -- because many of the people interviewed were old -- or junkies -- or drunks -- so sometimes things are hazy... but they still convey the spirit of the woman -- they know she was a good person, that was caught in an endless cycle of booze, drugs and abuse, she just couldn't rise above it --

I think the most fascinating thing about this book, why it ranks so highly in my opinion -- is the discovery that this giant of her industry feared the same thing that the people that live in everyday America do -- and her desires and dreams were not far from the person that goes to a cubicle everyday --in the end, and what makes her life seem somewhat tragic -- she realized too late that all that matters are the people we love and those that love us back. --originally posted as mkubee(er, that's me) ( )

If you are at all a fan of Billie Holiday, then you will want to read this book. It is not your average biography; the author presents basic facts in a timeline up front, then proceeds to tell Billie Holiday's story through the words of those people who worked with her or knew her in other ways throughout her life. Most of the interviews were actually done in the 1970s by another person, who was going to write a book based on these interviews, but who committed suicide before the book went to press. Julia Blackburn took these interviews, did a great deal of work on her own, and has put them down in the words of those who knew Billie Holiday. Fascinating book and story of a tragic figure. I VERY highly recommend this one. My only complaint is that there's one picture in this book outside of the cover picture, but that's okay. ( )