A life of suffering in song and in studio, Billie Holiday has never really been equalled... She was a far cry above the rest... Even in her less prolific moments.
Rape, prostitution, prison, alcohol, drugs, the seeds of desolation and penance that Billie Holiday would plant and draw from during her 44 short years would inspire any good Hollywood writer... But It is evidently all of this matter which flows through her mouth and indeed, her pen. And it is this open embrace of pain through song that the greatest creators of jazz music would draw on for inspiration for years to come. From Lester Young to Duke Ellington, Mal Waldron, Count Basie, her accomplice and pianist Teddy Wilson, as well as so many others, they would all go on to do beautiful justice to Billie's poetry.
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