Bitter crop : the heartache and triumph of Billie Holiday's last year

Alexander, Paul, 1955-2024

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Summary

'Bitter Crop' is an unconventional portrait of arguably America's most eminent jazz singer. Acclaimed biographer Paul Alexander shrewdly focuses on the last year of Billie Holiday's life - with relevant flashbacks to provide context - to evoke and examine the persistent magnificence of her artistry when it was supposed to have declined, in the wake of her drug abuse, relationships with violent men, and run-ins with the law. During her lifetime and after her death, Billie Holiday was often depicted as a down-on-her-luck junkie severely lacking in self-esteem. Relying on interviews with people who knew her and new material unearthed in private collections and institutional archives, 'Bitter Crop' limns Holiday as a powerful, ambitious woman who overcame her flaws to triumph as a vital figure of American popular music.