Аукцион Bidspirit | HOLIDAY BILLIE: (1915-1959) ´.....I am

HOLIDAY BILLIE: (1915-1959) ´.....I am high and happy.....´ - HOLIDAY BILLIE: (1915-1959) American jazz singer. An extraordinary A.L.S., Billie , three pages (separate leaves), slim 4to, n.p. (New York), 20th January 1938, to Harry Ely ( ´Dear Hotch´ ). Holiday writes to her young fan, most likely a teenager at the time, and states that she had received his letter ´an it really sent me to know you like me so much and I want you to believe I like you too and I am also hip you are very young but you can still be young and have a lot of knowlege (sic) What I mean is be a sender and I´ve found you to be that but enough about you´ . The singer continues to candidly provide her own news, ´Last night it was very very cold here in fact brutal and of all people I met Mike Goldstein an he was with some other fellow everybody was beat so I brought them to my house and I had a darlor (sic) so I got fifty cents worth of wine an four sticks [i.e. marijuana cigarettes] so we got reaily (sic) knoked (sic) out I saw Milton Monday morning at smalls [i.e. Small´s Paradise, an after hours club in Harlem] I got two darlors (sic) worth of stuff from him but it wasn´t the mccoy an he gave me four for a darlor (sic)´. Holiday also writes of recent music events, ´ Well my dear the Battle was right up to the [n] eck sunday When Martin Block asked who was winning when they bood (sic) chick [Webb] but we didn´t get any credit for winning´ and concludes her letter by remarking ´We open tomorrow at loews state so I am frantic an beat don´t even know how I am going to get down town tomorrow but I am high and happy if (sic) fact so much I can´t write any more forgive all mistake [s] ´. A rare letter of exceptional content. Accompanied by an autograph envelope hand addressed by Holiday (and originally including another piece of slightly earlier correspondence) to Harry Ely at Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut, postally cancelled at New York, 10th January 1938. Some minor creasing and light age wear, and with a few small neat splits to the edges of folds, G, 2 In January 1938 Billie Holiday was at a pivotal turning point in her career, balancing high-profile live performances with the Count Basie Orchsetra and recording several of her most iconic ´gem´ tracks in New York City. On 16th January 1938 Holiday performed with the Count Basie Orchestra at Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom in a legendary ´Battle of the Bands´ in which ´Lady Day´ was pitched against Ella Fitzgerald and the Chick Webb Orchestra. While the audience narrowly voted for Fitzgerald, Metronome magazine declared Holiday and Basie the winners. Although Holiday was still officially the ´girl singer´ for Count Basie during January 1938, she was becoming increasingly disenchanted with the gruelling travel conditions and limited vocal solo time. By the end of this month, she was already moving toward leaving the group—a move she would finalise in March 1938 before joining Artie Shaw and becoming one of the first Black women to front an all-white orchestra.