A tragic figure with an unhappy life, Billie Holiday had a rare ability to
translate her pain and heartache into music to touch audiences in a uniquely
emotional fashion. Her absentee father Clarence Holiday was a jazz musician, but
she had a troubled upbringing, involving petty crime and spells at reform
school, was reputedly raped at 11 and lived in a brothel with her mother, a
Harlem prostitute. Inspired by Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith, Holiday teamed
up with a sax player, changed her name from Eleanora to Billie - after actress
Billie Dove - and sang in local clubs, where...