More than four decades after her death, Billie Holiday remains one of the most gifted artists of our time–and also one of the most elusive. Because of who she was and how she chose to live her life, Lady Day has been ...

Buy Now From Amazon

More than four decades after her death, Billie Holiday remains one of the most gifted artists of our time–and also one of the most elusive. Because of who she was and how she chose to live her life, Lady Day has been the subject of both intense adoration and wildly distorted legends. Now at last, Farah Jasmine Griffin, a writer of intellectual authority and superb literary gifts, liberates Billie Holiday from the mythology that has obscured both her life and her art.

An intimate meditation on Holiday’s place in American culture and history, If You Can’t Be Free, Be A Mystery reveals Lady Day in all her complexity, humor and pain–a true jazz virtuoso whose passion and originality made every song she sang hers forever. Celebrated by poets, revered by recording artists from Frank Sinatra to Macy Gray, Billie Holiday is more popular and influential today than ever before. Now, thanks to this marvelous book, Holiday’s many fans can finally understand the singer and the woman they love.

Similar Products

Do Not Sell At Any Price: The Wild, Obsessive Hunt for the World's Rarest 78rpm RecordsReady for a Brand New Beat: How Dancing in the Street Became the Anthem for a Changing AmericaBlues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie HolidayJazz 101: A Complete Guide to Learning and Loving JazzMuslim Cool: Race, Religion, and Hip Hop in the United StatesLady Sings the Blues: The 50th-Anniversay Edition with a Revised Discography (Harlem Moon Classics)Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age