Although Luftman couldnt be sure if Basie and her sister had a sexual affair, she thinks those threats might have had something to do with Kuehls death. Keuhl is also remarkable for not trying to angle the information in a Procrustean manner to fit her argument. Milt Hilton, a bass player who worked with Holiday during her last music recording sessions, remembers: She was in pretty bad shape. He took many of the widely published photos of her during these last sessions. She was a generous person, Id say, in thought anyway. Kuehl's parents were Sol and Ida Lipnack and she had a sister, Myra Luftman. captainForm772606PreloadInterval63c877fb834ac = setInterval(function(){ [11] "Police deemed it suicide, Kuehl having supposedly jumped from her hotel room, although there was no proof of this",[3] and her family believes she may have been murdered. Culture Audience:Billie will appeal primarily to people who are interested in a raw and authentic look at Holidays life, as told by people who knew her best. }; formId: '772606' Joe Guy, a trumpet player in her band, was also one of her main drug connections. A side by side comparison of a pop singer singing a Billie Holiday tune compared to Billies version would have illuminated exactly why Holiday is a genius musically. Some of the best moments of the documentary are hearing Billie talk about herself in her slight drawl infused with vocal fry. Read the latest opinions on key events by our acclaimed critics today Linda Lipnack Kuehl was writing a biography of Holiday when she died suddenly in 1978, though her family believe she may have been murdered Clarisse Loughrey Friday 13 November 2020 11:03 At one point, she began to receive strange, threatening calls. Jimmy Fletcher, an African American who was a narcotics agent for the FBI at the time, says that Holidays agent Joe Glaser worked with the FBI to arrest her in a drug bust for her own good., According to Fletcher, He [Glaser] confided in me that he wanted to save her. He reportedly ripped her off. } resize77260563c877fb83722(wrapper); Just click the "Edit page" button at the bottom of the page or learn more in the Biography submission guide. But the interviews are by numerous people who knew her best who wouldnt be able to be interviewed today, because almost everyone is now deceased. That made her a target of the FBI. Tony Bennett, who says he briefly knew Holiday, sums up the way a lot of people feel about Holiday: She told her own story, just by being herself. Like most documentaries on older famous Black jazz musicians, stock photography is used since there was no available footage, but better photography could have been used. The project is centered around 200 hours of previously. [2] Various other writers' biographies on Holiday have drawn upon Kuehl's material, as did the film Billie (2019), which is narrated by Kuehl's recorded interviews. The documentary includes stories of people witnessing McKay (whos been described as a mafia enforcer) being physically abusive to Holiday. An epilogue at the end of the documentary mentions that because of the destruction of police records, investigations into Lindas death made during the film proved inconclusive., In the documentary, Luftman explains why her sister wanted to write a Billie Holiday biography: Even thought they came from totally different backgrounds, I think she really identified with Billie. Her parents split up not long after getting married, and Halliday became an absentee father who remained out of his daughters life. The official cause of death was ruled a suicide, but her younger sister Myra Luftman (who is not interviewed on camera) says in the documentary that Kuehl probably died from foul play because of the research that Keuhl was doing for the book. Her family, however, believed otherwise. window.addEventListener('resize', function(){ I sometimes see the hardships of being a Black man highlighted but I do not see the same courtesy given to Miss Holiday. To describe it any other way is to diminish her musicianship. elementType: "script", Kuehl conducted over 150 interviews in the early 1970s, less than two decades after Holidays death in 1959, so the memories of Holiday are still fresh and free from todays prejudices. resize77260663c877fb834ac(wrapper); He was 18, she was 16, and I was three" - but was also full of inaccuracies. }, 10); She never bothered anybody. And to the best of anyones knowledge, Holiday didnt sing while she was incarcerated. She wanted to retire and care for orphans. Her death was ruled as a suicide. The tapes have never [] Read the full article: Glasgow Film Festival 2020: Billie Glasgow Film Festival 2020 Glasgow Film Festival 2020: Anderson Falls They were all gathered by Linda Lipnack Kuehl, the late journalist who spent a decade in the Sixties and Seventies talking to those who knew Holiday best, conducting more than 125 interviews and . Looking for Linda Kuehl online? Holidays time with Basie and his band ended on a sour note when she left. Documentary showcasing American legend Billie Holiday, capturing her depths and complexity through the voices of those who knew her best. append_element({ captainForm772606PreloadInterval63c877fb829bf = setInterval(function(){ She was a perfectionist, according to her sister, which is why it took so long for Kuehl to work on the uncompleted book. Then, in the late 1960s journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl set out to write the definitive biography of Billie. Contact Us } id: "captainform_js_global_vars", The Billie documentary gives added depth to Holidays memoir, since it includes the perspectives of people who talk about things that Holiday didnt want to talk about in her book. [3], Interviews that Kuehl conducted with writers were published in The Paris Review in 1972 and 1978. [11] "Police deemed it suicide, Kuehl having supposedly jumped from her hotel room, although there was no proof of this",[3] and her family believes she may have been murdered. clearInterval(captainForm772606PreloadInterval63c877fb829bf); formId: '772605' In the late '60s, journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl set out to write the definitive biography of Billie. Theres also a clip of her role as Endie in the 1947 film New Orleans., Because Billie is told in chronological order of her life, the documentary has a very easy narrative to follow. The film includes rare photos of Billie Holiday taken by Hugh Bell, licensed to the production by Gartenberg Media, the exclusive representative of . Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Kuehl died by suicide in 1978, though her sister appears in the documentary and asserts that she believes her sister was murdered. [3] The interviews were a major source for the text in Robert O'Meally's book of photographs Lady Day: The Many Faces of Billie Holiday (1991)[12] and around the same were used for the script for a Masters of American Music series documentary of the same name. According to Luftman, her sister Kuehl was threatened by people close to Count Basie, who became close to Kuehl when she interviewed him for the book. The girl looks absolutely nothing like Holiday. John Fagan, a cousin of Holidays, says in the documentary of their upbringing in East Baltimore: It was a nice community to live. captainformDomReady(function() { Required fields are marked *. FamousFix profile for Linda Lipnack Kuehl including biography information, wikipedia facts, photos, galleries, news, youtube videos, quotes . Line: 315 id: "captainform_js_global_vars", id: "captainform_js_global_vars", Kuehl died in what was deemed. In a 1971 interview, Ruby Davis, who was Holidays roommate before the singer was famous, says that Holidays nickname was Mr. Billie Holiday because she was seldom seen with fellas Her mother put it in her mind to be careful [of men] because theyll always break your heart, just like Billies father., Harry Sweets Edison, a trumpeter in the Count Basie Orchestra comments on Holiday: She was like a man, but feminine. John Simmons, who was her bass player and lover, calls her a sex machine. Music conductor Ray Ellis also comments on Holidays sex appeal: I was in love with Billie, not necessarily Billie, but somebody. Born in Philadelphia in 1915, Billie Holiday was raised in poverty in Baltimore, where she ran errands in a brothel as a child, before moving to New York in 1928. captainformThemeStyle['772605'] = ''; jQuery(wrapper).css('top', jQuery(window).height() * 0.4 + wrapper.width() + wrapper.css('padding').replace('px', '') * 2); This is not to say that there is no filmed footage. [4], She was a Jewish feminist[5] and a fan of Billie Holiday. She was sentenced to one year and one day in prison. Unearthing a trove of audio recordings from the journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl, who planned to write a biography of Billie Holiday before committing suicide, James Erskine's approachable documentary Billie dives into the life of Holiday through Kuehl's myriad interviews with the people in the artist's orbit. popupTrigger.click(function(){ Then in the late 1960's journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl set out to write the definitive biography of Billie. if('' == 'floating') { Before her mysterious death in 1978, Lipnack Kuehl had taped over 200 hours of interviews. "[9] However, Kuehl did not complete the book. if ('' == 'left') Kuehl spoke to musicians, obviously, like Shaw and Tony Bennett, but also to more obscure figures those involved in her drug busts and the man who acted as her pimp when she was a teen. Then, in 1971, journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl set out to write the definitive biography of Billie. Music producer Marty Gabler says in the documentary that Columbia Records didnt want to release Strange Fruit because of the social content and because of how unusual it was to do a protest song. Strange Fruit is considered historically important because it was one of the first social justice songs released by a mainstream performer prior to the U.S. civil rights movement. Not everyone wanted to share their memories with her. Kim Nalley is on faculty at the California Jazz Conservatory and is writing her Doctoral dissertation on the Globalization of Jazz and Black Cultural Politics.. She sang and recorded till the end of her life. elementType: "script", Kuehl was and still is, posthumously, THE preeminent biographer of Billie Holiday, despite never having completed Holidays biography before she died in 1978. Holidays career spanned 30 years. }); Linda Lipnack Kuehl was an American arts journalist, based in New York City. Her make-up is minimal. Linda Lipnack Kuehl (January 24, 1940 February 6, 1978)[1] was an American arts journalist, based in New York City. Culture Mix Survey At times the interviews use words that grate on modern ears. jQuery(wrapper).css('top', jQuery(window).height() * 0.4 + wrapper.width() + wrapper.css('padding').replace('px', '') * 2); Most Popular So, in the late 1960s journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl set out to write the definitive biography of. Intending to write a biography of Billie Holiday, she interviewed friends, fellow performers, and key figures in Holiday's life, but died before its completion. Shortly after she became a professional singer as a teenager, Holiday began working with musician/producer John Hammond, who introduced her to Benny Goodman in 1933. Other people interviewed in the documentary include trombonist Melba Liston and singer Carmen McCrae. [3] She worked as a high school teacher and free lance writer. She also began hanging out at a brothel, which is where she first heard jazz music. setTimeout(function () { Using the countless hours of recorded interviews Kuehl left behind, Erskine has crafted a film around the jazz singer's life and the journalist's attempt to capture it. Billie certainly encompassed both requirements. } Crisp colorized film footage of Holiday with the Count Basie Orchestra from 1950 shows us why she was called the greatest jazz singer ever during her life and now over 100 years after her birth. Shaw, bassist Sid Weiss, guitarist Al Arola, guitarist Les Robinson and friend Mae Weiss all mention in their documentary interviews that many racist people back then refused to accept a black female singer performing with a group of white musicians. Instead we hear the voices of personal friends and colleagues who often played with Holiday, such as Count Basie and Artie Shaw. The film highlights a review that scathingly derides Billie for being heavy reminding us that draconian female standards of beauty have been around for a long time. James Erskine's documentary, built around lengthy interviews conducted in the 1970s by journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl, demonstrates how dangerous it can be to mesh with one's subject matter. }); Yoshi Kato wrote inMetrowith a flowing tone, an articulate delivery and a formidable understanding of musical principles and history, Nalley is comfortable in many a vocal setting. She is the former owner of the San Francisco jazz club Jazz at Pearls and was awarded Most Influential African American in the Bay Area.. Her mother Sadie transported her to New York City to be a prostitute at age 13. }, 50); Beloved daughter of Sol and Ida Llpnack and loving sister of Myra Luttman died February 6th, 1978. 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