Is there much, or any? I know on the Verve CARNEGIE HALL cd it's somebody else reading from LADY SINGS THE BLUES... there's that 4-CD BILLIE HOLIDAY STORY, which contains a 2-CD "audio biography," but I don't know if it contains any interview segments with her or not.

There are some interviews with her on ESP broadcast cds. I'm not srue that I'd call them autobiographical.

The Verve box 'The Complete Billie Holiday' has on disc 4 a long conversation between Billie and Jimmy Rowles during an August 1955 rehearsal at bass player Artie Shapiro's home. 45 minutes of the tape was originally issued on a Paramount Records LP.
That Disc 4 has much more of this. It lasts nearly 80 minutes.

It's very loose and quite interesting as I remember it. She talks about the music being rehearsed and reminisces about various periods of her life.

I interviewed her in 1959, during a gig at Pep's in Philly. I have been meaning to dig the tape out from my Fibber McGee closet. That is quite a task, so I procrastinate.

In the interview, she--knowing that I was a local DJ--urged me to play records by Annie Ross. I was quite impressed by that, coming from another female singer. During the interview, the door burst open and her disgusting husband, Louis McKay, announced that Billie had been booked for a rather nice European tour. She took off one of her shoes and threw it at him, shouting, "Get out of here, mother fucker, I'm talking to Chris!" He put himself in reverse and slammed the door shut.

I recall hearing another interview from the late 1950s. A colleague, Bob Laurence conducted it and played it for me. I think Bob is long gone, but I hope that tape still exists. As far as I remember, my friend, Linda Kuehl, who did a lot of research on Billie for a book, never came across an interview, but she did find a remarkable recording. It was one of those small plastic discs that one could record in coin-operated machines on 42nd Street. It is Billie, rather inebriated, singing a Christmas carol ("Come All Ye Faithful," I think) and wishing everybody a merry Christmas. Very sad, very moving.

That's an amazing story, Chris! I'd love to hear that coin-machine recording... wow.

It would be great to hear that interview, Chris. I really like the one you did the year before with Pres (included, of course, in the Verve box set).

A bit off topic, but I often bump into my LP of "Hip Vibrations", and I like your liner notes for that, too. That's an album that's way overdue for reissue.

Great stories, Chris!


I'll have to use that line sometime on Monte in the Jazz Corner political threads. As Billie Holiday once said, "get out of here, motherfucker, I'm talking to Chris!"

Great story, Chris! Thanks a lot for sharing!

There's a CD with the 1957 Stratford set and several bonus tracks, that has some snippets of Billie talking. I don't know what the source of these snippets is, though.

ubu

I have a CD-R of her that a friend burned from a reel-to-reel. She's loaded, slurring words, spittin' and cussin' and talkin' smack. I have no idea what the origins of this thing are. I haven't listened to it in awhile, but it's in the studio- lots of false starts (with a band) dissolve into drunken ramblings. Strange but nifty...

lp said: sounds like the interview that albertson is sitting on will be lost just like the christmas carol and the Bob Laurence interview.

Let's hope not. I know that my tape is in the closet, Someone bought all of Linda's research material after she committed suicide. I feel certain that the disc is in one of those boxes. This guy is charging exorbitant fees for access to Linda's work, so I don't think it is being used constructively.

Bob Laurence's tape is probably lost, but one never knows.

Has the radio interview that she did with Mike Wallace in 1956 ever come out on LP or CD? I'll look into those ESP CDs...
BTW, working on this program has given me reason to re-visit Donald Clarke's WISHING ON THE MOON. It's a top-notch bio of Billie; Clarke was able to get access to Linda Kuehl's archive, although he encountered problems that certainly confirm Chris' post. I highly recommend WISHING, if you want to read only one Billie bio (Stuart Nicholson's book is also worthy too, if you're a real fanatic).

Nice to see mention of Donald Clarke's work. Donald has been a great friend since 1970 and I urge the reading of ALL his books.