Billie Holiday boasted “my mother, she gave me something- it's going to carry me through this world” on “Billie’s Blues,” one of the iconic artist’s signature songs. The powerful attribute radiates from the 56 images in Billie Holiday at Sugar Hill: Photographs by Jerry Dantzic at the American Jazz Museum. The museum hosts the traveling exhibit curated by the Smithsonian Institution through August 1.
The proceedings of a reception in the museum’s atrium celebrating the May 8 opening of the exhibit- the fourth of the show’s six tour stops- effectively affirmed Holiday’s ongoing relevance in popular culture. Backed by the James Ward Band, Rashida Phillips, Executive Director of the museum, Piaget Long and Love, Mae C, (Instagram clip) performed winning renditions of songs associated with Holiday.
Dr. Dina Bennett, Director of Collections & Curatorial Affairs, mentioned Kanye West’s sample of Nina Simone’s version of “Strange Fruit” on his divisive 2013 album Yeezus. Phillips referenced the new Andra Day vehicle The United States vs. Billie Holiday. Dantzic’s output while on the payroll of Decca Records in 1957 possesses a similarly timeless quality. Holiday is seen in strikingly intimate photos at home, in paparazzi-style street shots and in instructive images at the New Jersey nightclub Sugar Hill.
All of the portraits can be easily located online, but seeing the handsomely framed photographs hanging on the walls of the museum’s Changing Gallery offers a vastly superior experience. Holiday claimed “I ain’t good looking” in “Billie’s Blues.” It’s not true. Dantzic’s photos depict a woman who was beautiful inside and out.