LOCKDOWN THEATER NIGHT 42

I'd seen clips from this before not realizing they were all from a one hour TV special that aired on American television in 1957. The one clip I always went back to was Billie Holiday and Lester Young. I didn't know that it was the last time they saw each other. I also didn't realize that Gerry Mulligan and Jimmy Giuffre were in it, unusual because thy were in a later crowd and at the time, I think, they were primarily West coasters. Coleman Hawkins is in there too, and Thelonious Monk and Count Basie.

I came across this because there was a thing on TV (60 Minutes?) about a new film (or was it a streaming series?) about the FBI tracking Billie Holiday and trying to silence her because she refused to drop "Strange Fruit", a song about a lynching, from her set. Something like that. In the segment they showed a clip from this 1957 TV special and, yeah, I was off to dig. I just wanted to post this now before I forget to mention it.

There's a great write up at NPR about Holiday's performance on the show, the significance of some of things that might go unnoticed.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Watch:
The Sound of Jazz CBS 1957 at YouTube
Listen:
Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit mp3 at Internet Archive 1947, sourced from 78
Visit:
Fine And Mellow - All Things Considered at NPR Podcast link is dead, scroll down to read.
The Sound of Jazz (program entry) at Wikipedia