Billie Holiday
Also Known As: not available
Biography: Billie Holiday, born Eleanora Fagan, was an American jazz singer with a career spanning nearly thirty years. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz music and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. She was known for her vocal delivery and improvisational skills. Billie Holiday appeared in four feature films and many television shows.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Birthday: April 07, 1915
Deathday: July 17, 1959
Adult: No
Gender: Female
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Known For:
Emperor Jones
Overview: Unscrupulously ambitious, Brutus Jones escapes from jail after killing a guard and, through bluff and bravado, finds himself the emperor of a Caribbean island.
Genres: Drama Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1933-09-29
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Sarah Vaughan & Other Jazz Divas
Overview: Here's a perfect chance to compare and contrast a clutch of the greatest jazz divas in the history of the genre. "Sassy" Sarah Vaughan appears along with her fellow pop-jazz queens, sultry Lena Horne, Ella "The First Lady of Song" Fitzgerald, gorgeous Dorothy Dandridge and Billie "Lady Day" Holiday. Rarely has there been more outstanding vocal talent compiled on a single disc.
Genres: Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2005-01-01
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The Long Night of Lady Day
Overview: This acclaimed documentary depicts the sad life of the greatest of all jazz singers, Billie Holiday, a life engraved with personal tragedy and ultimately shortened by drug abuse and alcoholism. Her story and career are portrayed through rare archival film and television appearances, memorable renditions of her greatest songs, and interviews with friends and colleagues.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1984-01-25
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Billie on Billie
Overview: This film about the life of Billie Holiday is as mesmerising and exquisite as her legendary singing voice, featuring interviews with the legendary jazz singer reveal the story behind her songs.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2002-01-20
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Jazz Voice - The Ladies sing Jazz Vol.1
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Genres: Music
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 2006-12-04
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'Sugar Chile' Robinson, Billie Holiday, Count Basie and His Sextet
Overview: Short film featuring performances by Frank "Sugar Chile" Robinson, Billie Holiday and Count Basie and his sextet. From the Cinema Apart Collection.
Genres: Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1951-01-03
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Strange Fruit
Overview: In 1937, after seeing a photo depicting the lynching of a black man in the south, Bronx-born high school teacher Abel Meeropol wrote a poem entitled "Strange Fruit" that begins with the words: "Southern trees bear a strange fruit / Blood on the leaves and blood at the root." He set the poem to music and a few years later convinced Billy holiday to record it in a legendary heartbreaking performance. Intertwining jazz genealogy, biography, performance footage, and the history of lynching, director Joel Katz fashions a fascinating discovery of the lost story behind a true American classic. Written by Excerpted from Coolidge Corner Theatre Program Update
Genres: Music Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2002-05-20
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Billie Holiday: The Ultimate Collection
Overview: This remarkable DVD includes rare TV and film performances, an especially rare radio interview with Mike Wallace, an audio-only rehearsal session with pianist Jimmy Rowles, audio interviews with friends and fellow musicians, an interactive timeline and an evocative photo-document gallery featuring hundreds of dates and images, from rare photos to personal letters, plus Lady Day's complete recording history for major record companies. Performance highlights include three from 1956's 'Stars Of Jazz' TV that are seen here for the first time since their original broadcast, Holiday's first appearance on film, Duke Ellington's "Saddest Tale," and the classic "Fine And Mellow" with Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, and other jazz greats.
Genres: Music Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2005-10-25
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Billie Holiday: Strange Fruit
Overview: Performance footage of Billie Holiday may admittedly be scant, but this issue compiles into a single release, song cuts from some of Holiday's live filmed performances that are still existent. Rare performances from the legendary jazz vocalist filmed throughout the 1950's. Features Billie backed by other Jazz luminaries like Count Basie, Ben Webster, Gerry Mulligan, Doc Cheatham, Mal Waldron and others.
Genres: Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2007-11-05
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Lady Day: The Many Faces of Billie Holiday
Overview: Lady Day: The Many Faces of Billie Holiday integrates film and video performances, recordings, words from her controversial autobiography (read by actress Ruby Dee) and interviews with artists who played with her (pianist Mal Waldron, trumpeter Buck Clayton and Harry "Sweets" Edison), Milt Gabler (owner of Commodore and a producer at Decca), author Albert Murray and vocalists Carmen McRae and Annie Ross.
Genres: Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1990-03-01
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New Orleans
Overview: A gambling hall owner relocates from New Orleans to Chicago and entertains his patrons with hot jazz by Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Woody Herman, and others.
Genres: Drama Music Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1947-04-18
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Billie Holiday: A Sensation
Overview: A documentary about the legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday (1915-1959). There exist many myths and legends about the Jazz Singer Billie Holiday — one of the greatest voices of the last century. Most of them tell the story of the tragic victim of drugs, alcohol, men, color, or the circumstances of her upbringing. To some extent she contributed herself to these legends, especially in her autobiography "Lady Sings the Blues". In recent years, more and more records and reports have shown a different picture of her. These statements of confidants, colleagues and friends clean up with many of the legends and show a strong personality who has been anything but a pitiable victim. Billie Holiday was a strong-willed and determined person and a very complex personality who did not correspond to the classic victim type.
Genres: Documentary Music TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2015-04-07
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Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
Overview: Period music, film clips and newsreel footage combined into a visual exploration of the American entertainment industry during the Great Depression.
Genres: Documentary History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1975-08-06
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Symphony in Black: A Rhapsody of Negro Life
Overview: A rising nineteen-year-old singer by the name of Billie Holiday made her screen debut in this musical landmark, which features Duke Ellington and his orchestra performing his symphonic jazz piece “A Rhapsody of Negro Life” set to scenes of everyday African American life.
Genres: Music Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-09-12
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It's Black Entertainment
Overview: A star-studded tribute (from the creators of That's Entertainment) to the contributions of Afro-Americans in film over the last century. Vanessa Williams traces the struggles and triumphs of the superstars of music and film. Among the many artists featured are: Whitney Houston, Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jr., Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Cab Calloway, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Ella Fitzgerald, and Little Richard, Also included are today's contemporary superstars: Snoop Dogg, Ice T, Quincy Jones, Spike Lee, Russell Simmons, and many, more! 80 minutes plus DVD bonus features.
Genres: Documentary Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2002-02-08
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The Apollo
Overview: The history of New York City's Apollo Theater in Harlem is given the full treatment.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2019-04-24
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Queens of Jazz: The Joy and Pain of the Jazz Divas
Overview: The documentary tracks the diva's difficult progress as she emerges from the tough, testosterone-fuelled world of the big bands of the 30s and 40s, to fill nightclubs and saloons across the US in the 50s and early 60s as a force in her own right. Looking at the lives and careers of six individual singers (Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughan, Nina Simone and Annie Ross), the film not only talks to those who knew and worked with these queens of jazz, but also to contemporary singers who sit on the shoulders of these trailblazing talents without having to endure the pain and hardship it took for them to make their highly individual voices heard above the prejudice of mid-century America.
Genres: Documentary Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2013-05-10
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Billie
Overview: ‘Lady Day’ was one of the greatest jazz vocalists the world ever heard. In 1971, journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl set out to write the definitive biography of Billie Holiday. Before her mysterious death in 1978, Lipnack Kuehl had taped over 200 hours of interviews. The tapes have never been heard. Now they form the basis of an atmospheric, multi-layered documentary that captures the many complex facets of a proud black woman, violent drug addict, loyal friend, vindictive lover and unforgettable singer of ‘God Bless The Child’, ‘Saddest Tale’ and the haunting ‘Strange Fruit’.
Genres: Documentary Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2020-09-30
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