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.
Reviews
Billie Holiday at Sugar Hill adds a quiet new dimension to the story we thought we knew about Holiday. With Jerry Dantzic, she revealed homier sides of her life which needed no explanations and invited no judgments: at home with her husband or her dog, or visiting her co-author and her godchild. In these images and in Mr. Dantzic's performance shots, she is not the tragic torch singer of myth but a middle-aged woman finding simple comforts from the maelstrom, no longer as sharp in her voice but undiminished in her ability to command a stage.
— New York Times' Lens
Recommended for photography enthusiasts, fans of Holiday, and jazz history buffs. Dantzic's intimate portraits honor this period in Holiday' life, just two years before her untimely death at age 44. Often shooting indoors and with a slow shutter, he captures a good deal of motion blur that give the images a gritty look and feel. When Holiday is performing, Dantzic frequently shoots from a low vantage point to emphasize her larger-than-life stature. Dantzic also provides a rare view into the everyday life of this mythic performer, which includes playing with her Chihuahua Pepi, walking in New York City, interacting with friends, and cooking in her West 68th Street apartment.
— Library Journal
[A] remarkable set of images of one of America's greatest artists. If you're a Holiday fan, it will be hard to resist seeking out this book that so candidly captures her late in her life and career. The images are intimate but not prurient. Too often fans want to see the flaws, the scars and wear-and-tear of a well-documented difficult life, as if those struggles alone defined Holiday. The book shows us much more. Likely influenced by Dantzic's relationship with William Dufty (her friend and the co-author of her autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues), Holiday gave the photographer nearly unprecedented access.
— Jazz Times
Contributors
Jerry Dantzic
Author
Jerry Dantzic was a photojournalist whose photographs have appeared in such publications as the New York Times, Life, Look, Vanity Fair, and American Photo. His work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney, and the Museum of Modern Art.
Grayson Dantzic
Text By
Grayson Dantzic, the son of Jerry Dantzic, is a photographer and photo archivist. He edited and wrote the introduction for Jerry Dantzic’s New York: The Fifties in Focus.
Zadie Smith
Introduction By
Zadie Smith is an English novelist, essayist, and short story writer.
