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A review by joehartman
Billie Holiday: The Musician and the Myth by John Szwed
3.0
The concept of "The Musician and the Myth" was very intriguing, as most bios take a rather conventional approach. In the average book focusing on a performer you get a chronological look at their private lives with a a dutiful glance at his or her career, and almost always they use the career as a way to further understand the print self. But what about the public self? What about the persona she created, her unique approach to music? That was something I wanted to read. Unfortunately, some of the challenges inherent to this approach stunted my full appreciation of the concept, and I finished it thinking I would have enjoyed it much more if I was not the mere "appreciator" of Holiday's work that I was, but more of a true fan who already knew the basics of her life and had a comprehensive knowledge of her recording career.
Granted, it is very difficult to communicate fully the impact a singer can have on an audience, and the "how" of their achieving that. It almost demands a poetic, emotional approach, the style of a fiction writer. Szwed's writing, while objective and honest, is overtly scholastic and dispassionate at times. When you are trying to communicate the feel of a song without actually being able to play it for someone, you've got to pull out all the stops. You have to bring the senses into it as if you were tempting someone with a meal they'd never see, let alone taste. Barring that, a guide for the reader on where to access the available recordings of the performances being covered, would have been a great addition.
Also, the structure of the book doesn't allow for a strong sense of a narrative arc. Perhaps if Szwed had bookended the career focused parts with small sections on the beginning and end of her life it might have had a stronger sense of story, which even non-fiction needs to contain. The time-line does get very confusing, and it was difficult for this reader to understand exactly where I was in the story, and in Holiday's career at times.
The introduction, and the chapters on the myth of Billie Holiday, which explore the writing of her memoir, are where this book excels. And it's very illuminating to read later about the world of female singers, black and white, before Holiday arrived on the scene. It allowed me to understand how she was influenced, how she differed from those before her, and how she altered forever, the expectations and understanding of, not just female performers, but of jazz itself.
Granted, it is very difficult to communicate fully the impact a singer can have on an audience, and the "how" of their achieving that. It almost demands a poetic, emotional approach, the style of a fiction writer. Szwed's writing, while objective and honest, is overtly scholastic and dispassionate at times. When you are trying to communicate the feel of a song without actually being able to play it for someone, you've got to pull out all the stops. You have to bring the senses into it as if you were tempting someone with a meal they'd never see, let alone taste. Barring that, a guide for the reader on where to access the available recordings of the performances being covered, would have been a great addition.
Also, the structure of the book doesn't allow for a strong sense of a narrative arc. Perhaps if Szwed had bookended the career focused parts with small sections on the beginning and end of her life it might have had a stronger sense of story, which even non-fiction needs to contain. The time-line does get very confusing, and it was difficult for this reader to understand exactly where I was in the story, and in Holiday's career at times.
The introduction, and the chapters on the myth of Billie Holiday, which explore the writing of her memoir, are where this book excels. And it's very illuminating to read later about the world of female singers, black and white, before Holiday arrived on the scene. It allowed me to understand how she was influenced, how she differed from those before her, and how she altered forever, the expectations and understanding of, not just female performers, but of jazz itself.