Billie Holiday - Paul Hoeffler II

Scanning Jazz with Paul

Paul Hoeffler and I were in my basement. It was not with jazz playing gently in the background, but rather the annoying sound of my scanner. We were working our way through stacks of photographs, many of Billie Holiday.

Paul Hoeffler: Billie Holiday, close-up

Bowmore 12-year-old was the libation of choice. A single malt, which was my favourite at the time. The stories flowed, as the height of the stack of photographs got smaller. We were scanning photographs and contact sheets, which in due course were sent to Ken Burns. Ken Burns at the time was working on what became one of his key multi-part documentaries. Simply called: Jazz. There are 10 fabulous episodes of jazz history. I can highly recommend it. The series premiered on PBS in 2001. Paul provided a lot of the still images for the series. I have no idea how much he was paid, per image, or lump sum, but we scanned, scanned, and scanned some more.

If you do a search for ‘Jazz’ and ‘Ken Burns’ online, this image comes up. The photograph of Billie Holiday is by Paul.

Paul Hoeffler: Billie Holiday, Richcrest Inn, Rochester, NY

We scanned many photographs of the legendary singer, one better than the next, but what I find most interesting in hindsight was maybe the contact sheets. Here is one:

Paul Hoeffler, the student, is photographing one of the greatest jazz singers of all time. She is a Jazz Superstar, with a capital ‘S’, yet she is no more than a few feet from Paul’s lens, and as he told me many times, he was the only one there with a camera.

Here is what Paul had to say about her:

“ ‘Lady Day’ as she was known, died the summer of 1959. She was in a NYC hospital – arrested for drug possession – two detectives stationed at the door. Billie Holiday was 44 years old. She has been described as a ‘simple woman with a gift’.

These photographs were taken during her week-long engagement at the Ridge Crest Inn, Rochester, New York. I was in Rochester studying at R.I.T., and covering the music and musicians. These images represent a fraction of those taken; the contact sheets show a radiant Billie, then the next frame displays a troubled and confused singer having forgotten the words.

Twice, or three times, I drove Billie, her husband, and Alice Vrbsky back to their hotel. Alice was Billie’s close friend, seen here putting on her coat and wearing glasses. Alice tried to keep Billie in a responsible state. Peppi, Billies little white dog, was always along. Peppi was the substitute for the child she never had.

Paul Hoeffler: Billie Holiday with Peppi

What I saw was a very troubled woman, angry at social injustice, burdened by alcohol and drugs, and not able to steer clear of the bad actors – the men, the lovers.

Billie Holiday had a strong presence. She was vulgar, basic, with a natural ability to make music, which touched many, many people. It still continues to reach out today.”

Paul always talked about; the good old days before the muscle - security guards - the publicists, the official photographers, and the hoards of long-lens paparazzi made photographing this way impossible. From these few photographs, you can see why. In Paul’s words: “At many of these events, I was one of the few, maybe the only white person there. There was no hostility, and many people were interested in what I was photographing. This is a time that no longer exists. Like Atget’s images of Paris at the turn of the century, these images are a time capsule, a record of a period in our history and in our culture, which we cannot return to.”

I have goose bumps when I look through these photographs and can say that I knew the man who made them. I am only one degree of separation from Billie Holiday!

Finally, something for all those out there who photograph in colour. Paul made only a few photographs with colour film. He didn’t like it, but from time to time he did run a roll through his camera:

Paul Hoeffler - Billie Holiday at the Richcrest Inn (colour)

I think I have enough material for one more Paul Hoeffler segment. Stay tuned.

Please enjoy and thank you for reading!