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NO
REGRETS

The Music & Spirit of Billie Holiday

No Regrets is a 13-episode audio streaming series that explores Holiday's musical genius and legacy exploring her early life, the evolution of her singing style, how her haunting rendition of "Strange Fruit" played a vital role in the birth of the Civil Rights movement and other topics related to her astonishing career.

The focus throughout, is Holiday's singular musical artistry, her independent spirit, how her unique approach to her music became one of the strongest influences in the evolution of jazz, and how she continues to influence performers today. The series includes interviews with: Angela Davis, Karrin Allyson, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Lara Downes, Dr. Farah Jasmine Griffin, Corky Hale, Alan Harris, Rene Marie, Professor Robert O'Meally, Dan Morgenstern, Fred Plotkin, Adam Clayton Powell III, Beth Roars, Dianne Reeves, Phil Schaap, Andromeda Turre and Casandra Wilson. The program also includes archived interviews collected by Linda Kuehl including Count Basie, Teddy Wilson, Silvia Syms, Jo Jones, Milt Gabler, John Hammond, Billie Taylor, Mal Waldron, Bobby Tucker and others. Narrated by veteran Jazz host, Rhonda Hamilton.

EPISODE 1

Overview of the Series

EPISODE 2

The Early Years

EPISODE 3

Strange Fruit

EPISODE 4

Billie and the Big Bands

EPISODE 5

Three Major Themes in Billie's Song Repertoire

EPISODE 6

The Evolution of Lady Day's Voice

EPISODE 7

Billie Compared to Billie

EPISODE 8

Billie's Compositions

EPISODE 9

Billie and the Cats

EPISODE 10

Billie's Troubles

EPISODE 11

Billie's Admirers

EPISODE 12

Billie's Final Years

EPISODE 13

Tributes to Billie

MEET THE TEAM

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WILLARD JENKINS

WRITER

2024 NEA Jazz Master Willard Jenkins is a journalist, broadcaster, festivals & concerts artistic director, author and originator of Jazzology, the bi-weekly jazz quiz show produced by Savage Content.  He is a contributor to several books, including the highly acclaimed book DC Jazz (Georgetown University Press), and David Baker: A Legacy in Music (Indiana University Press).  He collaborated with NEA Jazz Master Randy Weston on his as-told-to autobiography African Rhythms (Duke University Press).  He is editor of Ain't But a Few of Us (Duke University Press), a print compilation of candid interviews of Black jazz critics and journalists.  As an artistic-director/curator he has produced concerts and festivals, including currently for the DC Jazz Festival, and Tribeca Performing Arts Center, and formerly Tri-C JazzFest Cleveland, among others.  Willard Jenkins is the writer for the multi-part audio documentary series No Regrets.  His weekly radio show Ancient/Future Radio can be heard over WPFW in Washington, DC.

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STEVE ROBINSON

PRODUCER

Steve began his 50-year career in public radio at WBUR, the Boston University radio station,  where he hosted a daily classical music program, was the station’s first fundraising director and created a  Saturday morning live call-in program about audio components called Shoptalk which became the model for Cartalk.    After WBUR, Steve helped start Vermont Public Radio and WBGO, New York’s Jazz station. In 1990 he became the first manager of the newly formed statewide Nebraska Public Radio Network.   In 2000, Steve became the manager of WFMT in Chicago. Among many other programs, he created the daily program, Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin; Introductions, a weekly program highlighting pre-college musicians; produced and anchored a live broadcast from Durban, South Africa of the world premiere of Princess Magogo, the first South African indigenous opera and the first opera with a libretto in Zulu; and produced a live broadcast from Salzburg on the occasion of Mozart’s 250th birthday.  In 2015, Steve produced the first-ever cross cultural classical music radio exchange between China and the West.   In 2016, Steve formed a production company that is producing classical music audio and video programs. His company recently completed the 13-hour documentary, No Regrets: The Music and Spirit of Billie Holiday.

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RHONDA HAMILTON

NARRATOR

Rhonda Hamilton has decades of extensive experience producing and hosting jazz programs and is an internationally known radio broadcaster. Born and raised in New York, one of Ms. Hamilton’s cherished childhood memories is waking up on Saturday mornings to the sounds of Duke Ellington, Dinah Washington, Nat King Cole and other jazz greats as her father played his favorite records. By the time she was a teenager, she began amassing her own collection. While attending Boston University’s College of Communication Ms. Hamilton began her career in jazz radio as an announcer/producer at WBUR-FM, Boston eventually becoming the station’s music director. Returning to the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area, Ms. Hamilton came to WBGO-FM, Newark at its inception and played a key role in establishing WBGO. She began her association with NPR in 1980 hosting numerous nationally syndicated programs including NPR’s annual New Year’s Eve broadcast “Toast of the Nation-Coast to Coast,” “Big Apple Jazz,” “American Women in Jazz,” and “The Voices of Jazz” which she also co-produced. During her years at WBGO Ms. Hamilton conducted hundreds of interviews with world class jazz artists and celebrities, produced and voiced documentaries and hosted numerous events at premier venues throughout New York and New Jersey. She also hosted and led station sponsored trips to international destinations including Brazil, Cuba, Montreal and South Africa. In 2001 Ms. Hamilton helped to inaugurate the jazz programming on Sirius Satellite Radio as the host of a daily show. After the merger with XM Satellite Radio her affiliation continued until 2009 and began again in 2016. Between 2005 and 2010 Ms. Hamilton engaged jazz fans in Japan as the host of a program called “Nissan Murano Crossover Style” which aired on Inter-FM, Tokyo. She has also been the producer and host of inflight jazz radio programs. Ms. Hamilton’s dedication as a jazz broadcaster has earned her many honors including the Jazz Journalists Association Willis Conover-Marian McPartland Excellence in Broadcasting Award, the Ladies in Jazz Award from the Mayor of NYC and the Harlem Chamber of Commerce, The Amazing Women in Jazz Award from International Women in Jazz and two consecutive New York Jazz Awards for Best Jazz DJ “in appreciation of a major contribution to the cultural life of our region.” Other honors include recognition from the New Jersey Jazz Society, the Spelman College Alumni Association and Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity. Hamilton is currently (since October 2021) hosting a show on KKJZ 88.1 FM in Los Angeles, Monday through Friday, 11 AM PST to 3 PM PST.

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