In 1959, Billie Holiday was approaching her mid-40s at half her weight in her prime, 100 pounds; dying from cirrhosis of the liver from constant alcohol abuse; plagued by an intermittent heroin habit; ...

On July 17, 1958, exactly one year before she died, Billie Holiday performed on the television show “Art Ford’s Jazz Party.” Ford, like most jazz lovers, was a Holiday devotee, and he almost sounds ...

We speak with Paul Alexander about his book Bitter Crop: The Heartache and Triumph of Billie Holiday’s Last Year. In the first biography of Billie Holiday in more than two decades, Paul Alexander ...

In this fine, clear-eyed biography, Paul Alexander documents Holiday’s propensity for feeding the media inaccuracies and tall tales, her enthusiastic embrace of “the adage that said the truth should ...

I'm Farai Chideya and this is NEWS & NOTES. (Soundbite of "Swing, Brother, Swing") CHIDEYA: Here's Billie Holiday from 1933. The song: "Swing, Brother, Swing." (Soundbite of "Swing, Brother, Swing") ...

Many of the myths imposed upon her during her lifetime persist, particularly those that linger around her early death. It’s worth ticking a few off here, for the record. Holiday was not a tragic ...