Billie Holiday: Fine and Mellow

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BBC Radio 4 Extra - Billie Holiday: Fine and Mellow

An exploration of the dramatic life and jazz legacy of singer Billie Holiday

4 Extra Debut. Saxophonist Andy Sheppard explores the dramatic life and jazz legacy of singer Billie Holliday. With Cleo Laine. From 2015.

A great singer and a great song. 

Four living jazz musicians and her biographer celebrate Billie Holliday's extraordinary and dramatic life, along with her legacy and achievements, through the prism of one historic 12-bar blues.

The song Fine and Mellow, which Billie wrote herself, was recorded in 1957 with an all-star backing band including her friends Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Vic Dickenson, Roy Eldridge and Gerry Mulligan.

Introduced by saxophonist Andy Sheppard, with expert commentaries from band leader Guy Barker, singers Cleo Laine and Jacqui Dankworth, and Julia Blackburn, author of With Billie.

Born on 7th  April 1915, this programme was made to mark Billie's centenary.   

Producer: Tony Staveacre

An Above The Title production for BBC Radio, first broadcast in April 2015.

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