Billie Holiday : NPR

The Politics And Passions Of Roger Waters

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All Songs Considered

The Politics And Passions Of Roger Waters

August 14, 2017 • The bassist, singer and songwriter behind some of the 20th century's most iconic music goes deep into race, civil rights, prison reform, the troubled music industry and more.

Guest DJ Roger Waters

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Getting Personal With Alt.Latino Guest DJ Natalia Clavier

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/Courtesy of the artist

Alt.Latino

Getting Personal With Alt.Latino Guest DJ Natalia Clavier

January 21, 2016 • The Argentine singer makes her own music when she's not working with the band Thievery Corporation.

Getting Personal With Alt.Latino Guest DJ Natalia Clavier

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Billie Holiday: A Singer Beyond Our Understanding

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William Gottlieb/Getty Images

Jazz Night In America

Billie Holiday: A Singer Beyond Our Understanding

April 7, 2015 • Most artists belong to their times. But Holiday, born 100 years ago Tuesday, fits in the present.

Billie Holiday: A Singer Beyond Our Understanding

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NPR's 'Jazz Profiles'

Billie Holiday: 'Lady Sings the Blues'

October 3, 2007 • Few voices in recorded music are as immediately distinctive and arresting as that of "Lady Day."

Billie Holiday: 'Lady Sings the Blues'

53:44

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Cassandra Wilson 'Couldn't Wait' To Reinvent The Billie Holiday Songbook

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Mark Seliger/Courtesy of the artist

Music Interviews

Cassandra Wilson 'Couldn't Wait' To Reinvent The Billie Holiday Songbook

April 5, 2015 • On Coming Forth By Day, one of today's premier jazz singers pays an imaginative tribute to one of her idols, born 100 years ago. As Wilson says, a simple imitation "would be almost insulting."

Cassandra Wilson 'Couldn't Wait' To Reinvent The Billie Holiday Songbook

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Opera Star Jessye Norman Picks Her Favorite Jazz Singers

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Carol Friedman/Courtesy of the artist

A Blog Supreme

Opera Star Jessye Norman Picks Her Favorite Jazz Singers

WBGO

September 20, 2013 • As a fledgling classical soprano in New York, Norman went to hear singers like Mabel Mercer perform. She tells WBGO's Rhonda Hamilton that her study of jazz vocalists influenced the way she interprets songs — including operatic arias.

Songs Of Love And Loathing

Forget Jewelry: Give Your Love Music

90.5 WESA

February 13, 2008 • Every year, Valentine's Day brings the same old sappy cards, chocolates, and heart-shaped jewelry — stuff that's nowhere near as special as retailers would have you believe. Why not impress your sweetheart with some music inspired by love instead?

New Music

Song of the Week: 'Don't Explain'

April 4, 2007 • Each week, the News & Notes staff recommends a song. Host Farai Chideya starts off with Billie Holiday's "Don't Explain." She discusses the song with Farah Jasmine Griffin, author of If You Can't Be Free Be a Mystery: In Search of Billie Holiday.

Song of the Week: 'Don't Explain'

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Valentine's Day

Listeners Pick Love Songs for Valentine's Day

February 6, 2007 • When words alone fail to illuminate the confounding mysteries of the heart, music lends a hand. Whether it's unrequited love, a fleeting affair or love that lasts a lifetime, there's a song for it. NPR listeners share "their" songs — along with the stories of bliss, bitterness and bygone times that make the music meaningful.

Music Interviews

'With Billie': A Jazz Great, As Others Saw Her

September 6, 2005 • Countless books have been published on the life of Billie Holliday. British writer Julia Blackburn tries a different tack — in her book With Billie, she collects a series of interviews of some of those who knew the great jazz singer personally.

'With Billie': A Jazz Great, As Others Saw Her

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Music Interviews

New CD Set Celebrates Billie Holiday

May 31, 2005 • Music journalist Ashley Kahn talks about the life and musical legacy of jazz singer Billie Holiday, who would have turned 90 this year. To mark the occasion, Universal Music has released Billie Holiday: The Ultimate Collection, a boxed set of Holiday's music for which Kahn wrote the liner notes.

New CD Set Celebrates Billie Holiday

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Review

Music Reviews

Rare Billie Holiday Music and Footage

Fresh Air

May 19, 2005 • Billie Holiday: The Ultimate Collection, is a two CD/one DVD collection of Holiday performances. Included along with many of the singer's classic songs are some rarely seen appearances of Holiday on 1950s television.

Rare Billie Holiday Music and Footage

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Music Interviews

Billy Crystal: My Uncle Milt

April 15, 2005 • Milt Gabler influenced Billy Crystal's entry into show business. The comedian's uncle also brought America a generation of legendary jazz music. A new CD compiled by Crystal celebrates Gabler's musical legacy.

Billy Crystal: My Uncle Milt

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Music Interviews

Strange Fruit

April 10, 2002 • Tavis Smiley talks to regular commentator Dr. Cornel West about the link between Billie Holiday's music and recent world events.

Strange Fruit

Only Available in Archive Formats.

Real Media

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Music Reviews

Music Review: 'The Complete Billie Holiday On Columbia (1933-1944)'

Fresh Air

November 1, 2001 • Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews The Complete Billie Holiday On Columbia (1933-1944).

Music Review: 'The Complete Billie Holiday On Columbia (1933-1944)'

Only Available in Archive Formats.

Real Media

The Strange Story Of The Man Behind 'Strange Fruit'

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Courtesy of Robert and Michael Meeropol

Music News

The Strange Story Of The Man Behind 'Strange Fruit'

September 5, 2012 • One of Billie Holiday's most iconic songs is "Strange Fruit," a haunting protest against the inhumanity of racism. Many people know that the man who wrote the song was inspired by a photograph of a lynching. But they might not realize that he's also tied to an iconic event in America's history.

The Strange Story Of The Man Behind 'Strange Fruit'

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Looking For Lady Day's Resting Place? Detour Ahead

Queen Esther stands in front of Billie Holiday's gravesite in New York City. Mito Habe-Evans/NPR hide caption

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Mito Habe-Evans/NPR

Dead Stop

Looking For Lady Day's Resting Place? Detour Ahead

July 17, 2012 • When Billie Holiday died on July 17, 1959, thousands of mourners attended her funeral at St. Paul the Apostle Roman Catholic Church in New York City. But Holiday isn't buried in New York's Woodlawn Cemetery, near Duke Ellington and Miles Davis. Instead, she's "way, way, way out" in the Bronx.

Looking For Lady Day's Resting Place? Detour Ahead

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Our Search For The Albums Everyone Loves

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All Songs Considered

Our Search For The Albums Everyone Loves

May 16, 2012 • On this week's show hosts Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton begin their summer-long quest to pin down the most universally loved albums.

Can't We All Just Get Along? Our Search For The Albums Everyone Loves

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Review

Basic Jazz Record Library

Billie Holiday: 'Love Songs'

August 1, 2001 • Billie Holiday, also known as "Lady Day," began her career singing in Harlem nightclubs. She recorded the album Love Songs in the 1930s, when jazz commentator A.B. Spellman says she was "at her best."

Billie Holiday: 'Love Songs'

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Basic Jazz Record Library

Billie Holiday: 'Lady in Satin'

August 1, 2001 • One year before her death, Billie Holiday recorded her last studio album, Lady in Satin. The album includes classic songs such as "You've Changed," "End of a Love Affair," and "Glad to be Unhappy."

Billie Holiday: 'Lady in Satin'

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American blues singer Billie Holiday singing with an orchid in her hair. Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption

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Hulton Archive/Getty Images

The NPR 100

'Fine And Mellow'

April 10, 2000 • Commentator Nat Hentoff looks back at Billie Holiday's 1957 performance of "Fine and Mellow."

'Fine And Mellow'

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William P. Gottlieb/Library of Congress via Flickr

Take Five: A Jazz Sampler

Billie Holiday: A Lady Day Primer

90.5 WESA

April 11, 2008 • Holiday's voice was unlike that of any other singer in her time, and remains unmatched in style. She never simply sang a melody, but made every song her own by changing phrasing, sharpening or dragging out diction, or adding a little drama to a not-too-dramatic tune.