I grew up around some of the jazz greats, notably, Harry "The Hipster" Gibson. Harry spent a long time as Billie's piano player. He was awesome, and he had nothing but love and praise for the time he spent with Billie. When "Lady Sings the Blues" came out Harry was scandalized, he said, "Having Diana Ross play Billie is like having Olivia Newton John play Janis Joplin." He wasn't all that complimentary about the casting of Richard Pryor as her piano man, but that was because as Harry said "I'm way prettier than him."
My favorite Billie story from Harry is about a time when things were very good for Lady Day. She was banking cash, playing all the top drawer joints, and was giving an interview to one or another of the major magazines of the times.
At one point in the interview the reporter asked Billie if she ever missed the early days when she was driving all night from juke joint to juke joint on "The Chitlin' Circuit." Maybe he was expecting her to wax all nostalgic about the excitement of those time.
Billie pinned him into his chair like a specimen bug on cardboard with one of her legendary ice cold glares and said:
"Honey, I been rich, and I been poor. Rich. Is. Better."
Here's a clip of Harry. . .
