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Lady Day - The Many Faces of Billie Holiday
Price: $144.94 Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9780769712925
Format: Black & White, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
ISBN: 0769712924
Label: White Star
Languages: English (Original Language),
Manufacturer: White Star
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: White Star
Region Code: 1
Release Date: November 28, 2000
Running Time: 60 minutes
Studio: White Star
Theatrical Release Date: April 16, 1995
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Editorial Review:
Given the often inextricable relationship between art and suffering, it's no coincidence that Billie Holiday, popularly acclaimed as jazz's greatest (if not technically best) female singer, was also one of its most tragic figures. While both triumph and tragedy are covered in this hourlong documentary, we are mercifully spared excessive details about the more sordid aspects of Holiday's life (her drug and alcohol addictions, her disastrous relationships with abusive men) in favor of careful consideration of her music. Testimonials are offered by those who played with her (pianist Mal Waldron and trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry "Sweets" Edison), were influenced or inspired by her (singers Carmen McRae and Annie Ross), or worked with her (producer Milt Gabler). Together, they paint a portrait of a woman who was both tough and vulnerable, sad and defiant, an unschooled musician who became a supreme innovator.
Fairly or not, documentaries like this one will inevitably be compared to Ken Burns's Jazz, especially when they contain some of the same material, as is the case here. But while Lady Day doesn't always benefit from the comparison (actress Ruby Dee, reading from Holiday's autobiography, and narrator David Smyrl race through their lines as if they've got a train to catch), it surpasses Jazz in one vital respect: instead of constantly interrupting the music with voiceovers, Lady Day offers some of Holiday's few performances on film or TV in their entirety, including "Strange Fruit," her graphic and disturbing song about Southern lynchings, and "Fine and Mellow," in which a visibly and audibly deteriorating Holiday is backed by Lester Young, Ben Webster, and other jazz immortals. --Sam Graham
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Lady Day
This is the first music of Billie Holiday's that I have ever bought. It was beautiful, and I will treasure this CD always. She is such a singer that pulls at your heartstrings as you listen.
Rating:  - Lady Day...a must for Billie lovers
It is great to have a digital standard bio of such a great Lady...
Rating: - Best of the Available Video Biographies of Billie
This documentary, released concurrently with a hard-cover book of the same name in 1991, is a brief but highly accurate overview of the life and art of Billie Holiday. The book, with text by Robert O'Meally, contains literally hundreds of rare photographs, and a good deal of these are liberally sprinkled throughout the film. But ultimately, it is the sparsely produced but flawlessly executed narrative of her life and craft that make this DVD stand out among the few biographical pieces that have ... Read More
Rating:  - Kultur, this time you missed it!
If you are interested in the (ever fashionable) approach to Jazz, via the contemporary interpretation of the social environment in which the Jazz artists created, then there is a good chance you may like this DVD.
However, if real footage is what you are after, this DVD may well disappoint you too. In this latter case I strongly suggest you spend your money on "The Ladies Sing the Blues" DVD.
Being interested in a combination of real footage and adept commentary I got disappointed ... Read More
Rating: - SO INFLUENTIAL!!!!
This Billie Holiday album was like a ray of light to me when I first listened to it! It's so inspiring! You can see why so many artists of today are influenced by it! The music really took me to the borderline. I thank my lucky star that this album came along.
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