Jerry Dantzic: Billie Holiday at Sugar Hill: With a Reflection by Zadie Smith (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780500544655)

In 1957, New York photojournalist Jerry Dantzic spent time with the iconic singer Billie Holiday during a week-long run of performances at the Newark, New Jersey, nightclub Sugar Hill. The resulting images offer a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse of Billie with her family, friends, and her pet chihuahua, Pepi; playing with her godchild (son of her autobiography's coauthor, William Dufty); washing dishes at the Duftys' home; walking the streets of Newark; in her hotel room; waiting backstage or having a drink in front of the stage; and performing. The years and the struggles seem to vanish when she sings; her face lights up. Later that same year, Dantzic photographed her in color at the second New York Jazz Festival at Randall's Island. Only a handful of the photographs in the book have ever been published. In her text, Zadie Smith evokes Lady Day herself and shows us what she sees as she inhabits these images and reveals what she is thinking.

Author: Jerry Dantzic
ISBN-10: 0500544654
ISBN-13: 9780500544655
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Language: English
Published: 04/18/2017
Pages: 144
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 2.90lbs
Size: 12.10h x 9.30w x 0.80d

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 04/03/2017
Booklist 05/01/2017 pg. 48
Library Journal 06/01/2017