With Billie: A New Look at the Unforgettable Lady Day

by Julia Blackburn

People didn’t really know Billie. She was always trying to keep a hard front, but she was a beautiful person. She was a great woman. She had more feeling for everything and for people than anybody I’ve been in touch with. She wasn’t selfish; she was generous to a fault. She always respected musicians. I don’t think she ever said an evil thing to me or ever looked around to say anything, if anything went wrong musically. Billie was a complete stylist. When you listen to her sing, you feel she has lived that experience and she is telling a story about it. I don’t think anyone can express a story better than Billie. She didn’t have a great range or any of that stuff, but most of the tunes she sang had good melody lines and good stories, and they’re not easy to sing or play. She didn’t sing a song unless she wanted to, or unless someone slipped her man some money under the table and her man told her to do the song; then she’d do it even if it wasn’t right for her.