Most Popular Books by Billie HOLIDAY

Perfect for fans of The United States vs. Billie Holiday, this is the fiercely honest, no-holds-barred memoir of the legendary jazz, swing, and standards singing sensation—a fiftieth-anniversary edition updated with stunning new photos, a revised discography, and an insightful foreword by music writer David Ritz Taking the reader on a fast-moving journey from Billie Holiday’s rough-and-tumble Baltimore childhood (where she ran errands at a whorehouse in exchange for the chance to listen to Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith albums), to her emergence on Harlem’s club scene, to sold-out performances with the Count Basie Orchestra and with Artie Shaw and his band, this revelatory memoir is notable for its trenchant observations on the racism that darkened Billie’s life and the heroin addiction that ended it too soon. We are with her during the mesmerizing debut of “Strange Fruit”; with her as she rubs shoulders with the biggest movie stars and musicians of the day (Bob Hope, Lana Turner, Clark Gable, Benny Goodman, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, and more); and with her through the scrapes with Jim Crow, spats with Sarah Vaughan, ignominious jailings, and tragic decline. All of this is told in Holiday’s tart, streetwise style and hip patois that makes it read as if it were written yesterday.

The first-ever collection of interviews with the tortured but groundbreaking singer Billie Holiday, part of Melville House’s beloved Last Interview series Legendary singer Billie Holiday comes alive in this first-ever collection of interviews from throughout her career. Included is her last interview, given from her deathbed in a New York City hospital, where police were standing by ready to arrest her for a parole violation should she recover. Also included: The transcript of an interrogation by a US Customs official questioning about whether she''d violated her parole by using drugs on a foreign tour. But the book is more than a look at just the famously tragic side of her life. In other conversations, drawn from music magazines, late-night radio programs, and newspapers across the US and Canada, she discusses her childhood, musicians who influenced her, her friendship -- and falling out -- with the influential sax player Lester Young, why she chose the gardenia as her symbol, why she quit Count Basie''s band, her substance abuse problems, writing songs and whether she wrote her own memoir, and more. In frank and open conversations, Billie Holiday proves herself far more articulate, aware, intelligent, and even heroic than the way she''s often portrayed. This collection is an essential volume for all who have been moved by her music.

(Piano/Vocal/Guitar Artist Songbook). Two dozen songs are presented in this centenniel edition saluting jazz musician and singer/songwriter Billie Holiday. It includes piano/vocal/guitar arrangements of: Billie''s Blues (I Love My Man) * Crazy She Calls Me * Don''t Explain * Easy Living * God Bless'' the Child * Good Morning Heartache * I''ll Be Seeing You * Lady Sings the Blues * Now or Never * Stormy Weather (Keeps Rainin'' All the Time) * Strange Fruit * Them There Eyes * and more.

An illustrated version of the swing spiritual based on the proverb "God blessed the child that''s got his own"; lacks music; also lacks sound CD that was issued with the first printing.

For 16 years, like the colors of a rainbow, Tony “T-Soul” Hughes found beauty, pain, hope, empathy, inspiration, sadness, peace and enlightenment in spite of his diagnosis. It is a rarity to mentally inhale an individual’s private thoughts during internal physical chaos, mind spinning thoughts and uncertainty. T-Soul’s poetry and excerpts of his beautiful well thought mind spills carefully onto the page, as he fought to survive and live in peace simultaneously while a warring faction resided inside him. As his body transformed, so did his mind, into a poignant outpouring of emotions. It produced an unyielding higher elevation of self-reflection, admiration, a deeper relationship with God, adorning thoughts of family, pathways chosen, and unfulfilled dreams. Tony unlocked his freedom in truth on the page crowning his life’s trials and triumphs self-guided with faith towards an uncertain future.