'Finally the piano player took pity on me. All of this is told in Holiday’s tart, streetwise style and hip patois that makes it read as if it were written yesterday. We are with her during the mesmerizing debut of “Strange Fruit” with her as she rubs shoulders with the biggest movie stars and musicians of the day (Bob Hope, Lana Turner, Clark Gable, Benny Goodman, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, and more) and with her through the scrapes with Jim Crow, spats with Sarah Vaughan, ignominious jailings, and tragic decline. Taking the reader on a fast-moving journey from Holiday’s rough-and-tumble Baltimore childhood (where she ran errands at a whorehouse in exchange for the chance to listen to Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith albums), to her emergence on Harlem’s club scene, to sold-out performances with the Count Basie Orchestra and with Artie Shaw and his band, this revelatory memoir is notable for its trenchant observations on the racism that darkened Billie’s life and the heroin addiction that ended it too soon. Please note our canvases can take up to 7 working days to be delivered or to be collected in store.Lady Sings the Blues is the fiercely honest, no-holds-barred autobiography of Billie Holiday, the legendary jazz, swing, and standards singing sensation. Our McKee images are printed onto the canvases with high-definition printers to produce sharp, high-quality images. Our canvases are hand-stretched onto chunky pine frames with hand-folded corners. Please note that framed prints take 7-10 working days to be made up and an extra 2-3 working days for delivery. Mounted and framed in a bespoke, glass, black angled frame. Unframed prints are available the same day from the McKee gallery for collection only. Please note that unframed prints take 1-2 working days to be printed and an extra 1-2 working days for delivery. *Dimensions include a white border that surrounds the image and measures approximately 5cm. This image is available as an art print, produced on high-quality paper and available unframed or framed. Originally created for the 2021 Great Moments in Popular Music exhibition. I wanted to literally reference ‘the blues’ with a colour that fills the entire venue, reaching every nook and cranny like the music would have done.”

An obvious colour choice for this painting’s colour palette was a deep blue. When painting this piece I yearned to travel back to a smoky basement bar when bebop was at its height and all the men wore the chicest of Italian-cut suits. My favourite singers are Billy Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald, who have blessed the world with their incredible and distinctive voices. “I’m a massive jazz fan and wanted to paint an image which gives a nod to the amazing jazz scene, specifically in the 1950s.

Lady sings the blues by billie holiday