BILLIE HOLIDAY

HOLIDAY, Billie (1915-1959).

Part-printed document signed in blue ballpoint pen by Billie Holiday, 12 December 1948, an ‘Associated Musicians of Greater New York Local 802’ employment contract engaging pianist Bobby Tucker as accompanist/musical director for a three-week residency at Billy Berg’s, Los Angeles, 15 December 1948 – 11 January 1949, specifying the wages ‘$150.00 weekly’, working hours ‘10:00 PM – 2:00 AM’, and other terms and conditions of employment.

Bobby Tucker worked with Billie Holiday as her accompanist from the time of their successful engagement at the Down Beat in 1946 until the conclusion of this residency at Billy Berg’s in January 1949. Tucker quit Holiday’s employ following a stabbing incident at the club on New Year’s Eve, involving her lover and personal manager John Levy. Billie and Levy were arrested for opium possession a month later in San Francisco.

One page, printed both sides, 279 x 217 mm, signed by both Holiday and Tucker at lower right, additionally initialled by Holiday verso, the remainder of the document filled out in another hand. Provenance: The Collection of Norman R. Saks.

[With:] three concert programmes: the first for ‘Fred Robbins’ One-Nite Stand: A Midnight Variety Concert starring… [Billie Holiday]’, presented by Ernest Anderson, New York, 1948, the light card bifolia with portraits of Holiday to front and back cover, noting that ‘Miss Holiday’s program will be impromptu’, and listing the accompanying musicians, to include pianist Bobby Tucker, 245 x 159 mm; the second for ‘Holiday on Broadway’ at the Mansfield Theatre, New York, June 1948, starring Billie Holiday with the Bobby Tucker Quintet, 227 x 164 mm; the third for Billie Holiday at Carnegie Hall, New York, 1948, annotated on the penultimate page in an unknown hand with Holiday’s Mansfield Theatre set list, 271 x 213 mm.