 If
You Can't Be Free, Be a Mystery : In Search of Billie Holiday by
Farah Jasmine Griffin
Singer, composer,
actress, lover, wife, writer, pleasure seeker, drug addict, icon,
commodity, myth and mystery: Billie Holiday is still one of the
most famous jazz vocalists of all time. But Holiday's image --
the gifted torch singer with insatiable appetites for food, sex,
alcohol and drugs -- is not the full story. Farah Jasmine Griffin's
enchanting investigation of Holiday, her world and how she is
remembered, at last fully liberates Lady Day from the tragic songstress
myth.
Griffin argues
that the stereotype of a black woman who can always take center
stage to command an audience because of her incredible ability
to feel, but not to think, continues to hide the real Holiday
from public view. Instead of a mindless "natural" with
incredible talent but no discipline, Griffin's Holiday is a jazz
virtuoso whose passion and technique made every song she sang
forever hers. Instead of being helpless against the racism, sexism
and poverty that dominated her life, Holiday is an artist, willing
to pay a tremendous price to change the sound of jazz forever.
And far from being a victim of overwhelming obstacles, Lady Day
is an independent spirit whose greatest legacy is that all hurdles
can be overcome, whatever the odds.
Holiday's
voice has permeated American music from Frank Sinatra to Macy
Gray. But, until now, Holiday's influence has never been reconciled
with her image. Farah Jasmine Griffin unravels the threads that
make up the Holiday mystique and weaves together a new, true Lady
Day that jazz fans will both love and respect.
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