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AMERICAN ROUTES ON INSTAGRAM

BILLIE HOLIDAY: LADIES SING THE BLUES & BEYOND--WITH SINGERS CASSANDRA WILSON AND CATHERINE RUSSELL

We Billie Holiday from her beginnings through a complex life of troubles and musical triumphs, her compelling “autumn” voice and untimely passing at age 44. Biographers John Szwed and Robert O’Meally discuss Lady Day’s style and significance, while Cassandra Wilson describes and sings her approach to the Billie Holiday oeuvre. Singer Catherine Russell describes reaching back to recreate classic blues and jazz. From our archives we hear Nina Simone and Bonnie Raitt praising their blues heroines in story and song.

HOUR ONE

  • Open Bed: God Bless the Child Billie Holiday
    Billie HOliday: The Centennial Collection, Columbia
  • Open Bed: Travelin' All Alone Billie Holiday
    Lady Day: The Best of Billie Holiday, Columbia/Legacy
  • excerpt: I Can't Get Started Lester Young
    The Complete Lester Young Studio Sessions on Verve, Polygram
  • Reading from "Lady Sings the Blues" Gilbert Millsten
    The Complete Billie Holiday, Verve
  • I'll Get By (As Long as I Have You) Billie Holiday
    Billie Holiday: The Centennial Collection, Columbia
  • Billie's Blues Billie Holiday
    Billie Holiday: The Centennial Collection, Columbia
  • No Regrets Billie Holiday and her Orchestra
    Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia 1933-1944, Columbia
  • Instrumental: The Man I Love Lester Young
    The Complete Lester Young Studio Sessions on Verve, Polygram
  • The Man I Love Billie Holiday
    Lady Day: The Best of Billie Holiday, Columbia/Legacy
  • Me, Myself and I Billie Holiday (w/Lester Young)
    Lady Day: The Best of Billie Holiday, Columbia/ Legacy
  • Darn That Dream Billie Holiday
    The Complete Billie Holiday on Verve, Polygram
  • My Man Billie Holiday
    Billie Holiday: The Complete Decca Recordings, MCA
  • Travelin' Light Billie Holiday
    The Essential Villie Holiday: Songs of Lost Love, Verve
  • Instrumental: Good Morning Heartache Cassandra Wilson
    Forward By Day, Columbia
  • Everything Happens to Me Billie Holiday
    The Complete Billie Holiday on Verve, Polygram
  • Strange Fruit Billie Holiday
    Billie Holiday: The Complete Commodore Recordings, GRP Records
  • Body and Soul Billie Holiday
    The Essential Billie Holiday: Songs of Lost Love, Verve
  • Don't Explain Billie Holiday
    Billie Holiday: Lady in Autumn - The Best of the Verve Years, Verve
  • Good Morning Heartache Billie Holiday
    Billie Holiday: Lady in Autumn - The Best of the Verve Years, Verve
  • excerpt: Ill Wind Billie Holiday
    The Complete Billie Holiday on Verve, Verve
  • excerpt: Body and Soul Billie Holiday
    The Essential Billie Holiday: Songs of Lost Love, Verve
  • Gloomy Sunday Billie Holiday
    Billie Holiday: The Centennial Collection, Columbia
  • Lady Sings the Blues Billie Holiday
    Billie Holiday: Lady in Autumn - The Best of the Verve Years, Verve
  • excerpt: All or Nothing At All Billie Holiday
    The Complete Billie Holiday, Polygram
  • excerpt: Solitude Billie Holiday
    Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia 1933-1944, Columbia
  • God Bless the Child BIllie Holiday
    Billie Holiday: The Centennial Collection, Columbia
  • End Bed: Just Friends Billie Holiday
    The Complete Billie Holiday on Verve, Verve

HOUR two

  • Open Bed: Crazy He Calls Me Cassandra Wilson
    Coming Forth by Day, Sony
  • Open Bed: Everybody Loves My Baby Catherine Russell
    Strictly Romancin', World Village
  • Your Mother's Son-in-Law Billie Holiday with Benny Goodman & His Orchestra
    Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia 1933-1944, Columbia
  • Take me for a Buggy Ride Bessie Smith
    The Essential Bessie Smith, Columbia/Legacy
  • CLIP: Nina Simone
  • I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl Nina Simone
    Sugar in My Bowl: The Very Best of Nina Simone 1967-1972, RCA
  • Gimme a Pigfoot (and a Bottle of Beer) Billie Holiday
    The Complete Decca Recordings, MCA
  • Instrumental: Digging Dyke The International Sweethearts of Rhythm
    Women In Jazz - 40 Years, Jass
  • I'm a Mighty Tight Woman Sippie Wallace
    Sippie Wallace Vol. 2, 1925-1945, Document
  • I've Got a Right to Sing the Blues Billie Holiday
    The Complete Commodore Recordings, Commodore
  • CLIP: Bonnie Raitt
  • Women Be Wise Bonnie Raitt
    Bonnie Raitt, Warner Bros.
  • SEGMENT: Catherine Russell

    Listen
  • Instrumental: I'll Be Seeing You Cassandra WIlson
    Coming Forth by Day, Sony
  • Baby Get Lost Billie Holiday
    The Complete Decca Recordings, MCA
  • Billie's Blues Cassandra Wilson
    Coming Forth by Day, Sony
  • CLIP: Cassandra Wilson
  • Don't Explain Cassandra Wilson
    Coming Forth by Day, Sony
  • As Time Goes By Billie Holiday
    The Complete Commodore Recordings, Commodore
  • Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans Billie Holiday with Louis Armstrong and his Band
    New Orleans, The Soundtrack Factory
  • End Bed: It Ain't Necessarily So Mary Lou Williams
    Mary Lou Williams Presents Black Christ of the Andes, Smithsonian Folkways

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