Jerry Dantzic: Billie Holiday at Sugar Hill

For several nights in April 1957, photographer Jerry Dantzic (1925–2006), on assignment for Decca Records, photographed Billie Holiday at Newark’s Sugar Hill jazz club. This coffee table book features 100 of those photos and beautifully captures Holiday on a cigarette-hazed bandstand, wearing a bare-shouldered, sequined dress, performing songs such as “Fine and Mellow,” “Don’t Explain,” and “Strange Fruit.” Taken one year after the publication of her autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues, and two years before her untimely death at age 44, the photos reveal a deeply personal and vibrant side of Holiday. There are images of Louis McKay, Holiday’s husband, zipping up her dress in their hotel; the singer’s loving play with her infant godson, Bevan; and her tender embrace of her pet Chihuahua, Pepi, backstage. Also included are color photos of Holiday performing at the second annual New York Jazz Festival that same year, images of Newark in late 1950s, and extensive technical photography notes by Jerry Dantzic’s son, Grayson, who is a photo archivist. A moving essay by novelist Smith sums up Holiday’s eternal beauty: “Whenever a lady shows up on stage she’s always right on time.” (May)