NINA Kristofferson takes a musical journey through the highs and lows of Billie Holiday’s plagued career, punctuating each story with a haunting song, at the Grand Opera House, York, on April 17.

"Billie’s unusual timbre tells a story like no other jazz singer," says Nina, who will be performing the likes of God Bless The Child, Good Morning Heartache, Strange Fruit and Don’t Explain at 7.30pm.

"I was attracted to her music and story by her beautiful tone," says Nina. "Her voice got me at first. I was curious about why she was so loved and when I listened to her voice it was so rich and warm and yet so sad, it really moves you.

"So I started investigating her music and her life and started singing along to more of her songs, and the more I listened, the more I loved singing along. After the jazz and blues concerts I'd done in the United States, I realised I could sing her songs and I wanted to learn more about her."

She was drawn to Nine Simone's music and life story too.

"I wanted to nurture and bring forth someone who was iconic and who had a great story to tell. At first it was a toss-up between Billie and Nina; I think Nina is someone whose story I’ll tell in the near future," she says.

Billie comes first, however.

"Reading about Billie Holiday’s life, realising what she went through and what she achieved with her music, it’s totally inspiring and if I could have an inch of her career I’d be laughing," says Nina.

She researched for her Nine Kristofferson's Billie Holiday Story show by "reading and listening to anything I could get my hands".

"I had some of her music, I did loads of internet searching, and I’ve now got lots of books about her," she says. "One that’s really popular is Julia Blackburn's With Billie; she did a lot of research and knew a lot about Billie’s background and I found the book very useful.

"I got hold of all Billie’s CDs, so I gradually immersed myself in her story and her music and started to get to know her as a person. The more you read, the more layers are revealed and within the layers, the more you have to go into it to understand why things happened."

Nina decided the show would not be complete without filling in the gaps in Holiday's story as a social phenomenon of the 1950s.

"People only know segments," she says. "But you want to take the audience on a journey so they get to know her and her music, and the true essence of who she was, through the music and through her great sense of humour and her character and all the things – many terrible things - that happened to her."

Tickets for Nina Kristofferson's Billie Holiday Story cost £24 to £37 on 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york

 

• Courtesy of the Grand Opera House, York, What's On has three Nina Kristofferson prizes to be won.

Two winners will each receive a pair of tickets for the April 17 show; a third will receive a Nina Kristofferson's Billie Holiday Story CD.

Question: Who wrote the biography With Billie?

Send your answer with your name, address and prize preference, on a postcard to Charles Hutchinson, Billie Competition, The Press, 76-86 Walmgate, York, YO1 9YN, or by email to charles.hutchinson@nqyne.co.uk by next Friday. Usual rules apply.