SUPPORT GREAT STORYTELLING
We rely on your support to remain on air and online. Your contribution helps us bring you interviews with great American artists and the carefully curated music mix that you’ve enjoyed over the years.
Donate
AMERICAN ROUTES ON INSTAGRAM
BILLIE HOLIDAY: LADIES SING THE BLUES & BEYOND--WITH SINGERS CASSANDRA WILSON AND CATHERINE RUSSELL
For Billie Holiday’s centennial celebration, we follow her 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 Millstein
The Complete Billie Holiday on Verve, Polygram - 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 Billie 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 Bilie Holiday
Billie Holiday: Lady in Autumn -- The Best of the Verve Years, Verve - Good Morning Hearteache 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, Polygram - 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 on Verve, 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, Polygram
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
- Woman 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
