Con Billie Holiday Una biografía coral

En lugar de relatar, como dicta el canon, el ascenso y declive del objeto de esta reconstrucción arqueológica -con tintes de investigación detectivesca-, Blackbum nos propone otra aproximación: permite que sean las voces de los personajes que trataron y conocieron a Billie Holiday quienes tomen la palabra. Invocación que ha sido posible gracias a un inesperado hallazgo: las más de 150 entrevistas realizadas por Linda Kuehl en los años setenta a acólitos, vagos y maleantes. El desafío era liberar a la artista no solo de las ensoñaciones que recitó a William Dufty en Lady Sings The Blues, sino también del reduccionista estereotipo que se nos ha servido hasta la saciedad. Y eso, precisamente, es lo que con gran tino consigue Blackburn, invitando al lector a que extraiga sus propias conclusiones.

Instead of recounting the rise and fall of the object of this archaeological reconstruction, Blackbum proposes another approach: she allows the voices of the characters who dealt with and met Billie Holiday take the floor. Invocation made possible by an unexpected discovery: more than 150 interviews conducted by Linda Kuehl in the 1970s. The challenge was to free the artist from the reductionist stereotype that has been served to us ad nauseam. And that, precisely, is what Blackburn wisely achieves, inviting the reader to draw their own conclusions.

Julia Blackbum is the author of several essays and two works of fiction, The Book of Color and The Leper's Companions, both nominated for the Orange Prize. Her most recent work, Old Man Goya, was also nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her memoir, The Three of Us, was published in 2008.