Billie Holiday

by David Burnett James

extremely rare,very good condition

Hardcover

First published May 1, 1984

About the author

David Burnett James was born in 1919. He was originally intended for a career in the Royal Navy (he was actually named after Admiral Beatty) but a disabling attack of polio in 1935, when he was fifteen and a cadet at the Nautical College in Pangbourne, altered the course of his life and put an end to all nautical ambitions. Thereafter he took steps to develop an already embryonic interest in music, which soon became the dominant motive force in his life, largely through the medium of records.
He has been for many years a leading music/ records critic and has held editorial appointments on literary and musical publications. He has written books on Beethoven, Wagner and Sibelius and also on Spanish and English music. He has also worked regularly in jazz criticism and was for some years co-editor of ‘Jazz Journal’ with its founder the late Sinclair Traill. He has a special interest in the music of Duke Ellington and has written monographs on Billie Holiday and Coleman Hawkins. Among current projects are books on the music of Elgar and the recorded work of Otto Klemperer, plus a further autobiographical volume.
He married in 1947 and now lives with his wife in Sussex.
This is text on the dust jacket of his book ‘The music of Gustav Mahler’, published 1985.