TV REVIEW : ‘AMERICAN MASTERS’ GIVES LADY DAY HER DUE

The most scintillating aspect of the documentary about Billie Holiday that airs on public television’s “American Masters” series tonight is the subtle way it demonstrates how her music reflected her life. If anyone had reason to sing the blues, it was she.

A troubled childhood, drug addiction, a prison term, a succession of destructive love affairs, the inability to have or to adopt a child, the indignity of racism and the trials of the Depression: Her sad story is laid out in “Billie Holiday: The Long Night of Lady Day,” screening at 8 p.m. on Channel 50, at 9 p.m. on Channels 28 and 15 and at 10 p.m. on Channel 24.

Though on its surface the 90-minute program takes the form of a biography, recounting the legendary singer’s life through the reminiscences of former friends, colleagues and others who came into contact with her, the underlying theme is the connection between the artist’s personal life and work.

“There’s two kinds of blues,” we hear Holiday say at one point. “There’s happy blues and there’s sad blues--sort of a mixed-up thing. You just have to feel it.”

Mostly we hear her sing, though--her recordings and TV performances punctuating the recollections of Holiday, who died in 1959 at the age of 44. Included are an uncredited TV clip of an absolutely bone-chilling rendition of “Strange Fruit,” about a lynching, and, from a 1956 CBS broadcast, a riveting performance of “Fine and Mellow” with an all-star group of jazz musicians behind her.

Because the film does not use narration, it occasionally is unclear about dates and sequences of events. But it’s ultimately the events that matter, as Holiday’s entrancing, evocative vocal style comes to be seen, paradoxically, as a beautiful distillation of the beastly life she led.

Originally made for British television in 1984, and later shown in an edited, hourlong version on the Bravo cable channel here, “The Long Night of Lady Day” was produced by Alan Yentob and directed by John Jeremy for executive producer Angus Trowbridge.