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Billie Holiday

I don't profess to be a Jazz music expert. I have maybe a dozen albums by various Jazz artists in a range of styles. Even a fool with half an ear can tell that Billie Holiday is a great Jazz singer, though! There is more to the story that just the voice, however. Such was her reputation that the best jazz musicians all wanted to play on her sessions. Her choice of material was instinctive but always choosing songs that resonate. She made them her own, of course. This compilation covers the years 45-57, waning years as far as her voice was concerned. The range of her vocals dropped into a lower register and displayed less of the stretching of her early famous recordings. Especially on the later material her voice is almost audibly cracking up under the strain of her lifestyle. Too much alcohol and cigarettes! But! She invested everything she sang with so much emotion that many rate these later cuts higher than her youthful early sides. We open with half a dozen favourites recorded live. Glasses are heard tapped in the background and laughter and cheering, of course. And, that voice! Perfectly professional and utterly appropriate musical backing. 'Body And Soul' is sensual, of course. 'Strange Fruit' one of her most famous songs. Very chilling subject matter in the lyrics. 'Trav'lin Light' makes me swoon, such depths her voice reaches. Moving on chronologically through the years we have the likes of 'Autumn In New York', 'Prelude To A Kiss', 'Come Rain Or Shine'. Each one of these individually is proof enough of that vocal talent.

The second disc features one amazing song and performance in particular and one of her most famous songs. The writing credits name one Billie Holiday. 'God Bless The Child' is so her, typically stunning vocals and a damn good tune too. Talent bursting out all over. Not just a singer. Not just Billie Holiday. I don't know what I’m saying! You know, it's hard to describe the feeling of just listening to her sing. A chill goes up the spine, your body and heart physically shakes and your eyes just open up with joy, elation and the feeling of sadness and love coming through. Some of the very last songs are not so obviously thrilling, somehow everyone seemed to be going through the motions. Her voice, dropping down, still had quality enough though. 'Stars Fell On Alabama' is still superlative in particular. You can hardly go wrong with this! A compilation covering the best of around half of her recording career. She did release albums in the late fifties. All are worthy of investigation. The albums market wasn't really established though, and through her early career, non existent. So, a good idea to get this then? Yeah! It's virtually faultless in it's selection of songs and almost beyond criticism, such is the stature of the legend that was Billie Holiday.

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Readers Comments Shelia Brown SBrown@fegs.org Lady In Autumn...or ANY album for that matter....ABSOLUTELY GRIPS YOUR SOUL. Sure, she was 'at the end' of the line, but what an exit....sad, of course, but I've yet to hear a singer SO EXPOSED, SO GUT-WRENCHING HONEST. Susanelle Susanelle@juno.com I think this article is terriffic. I think that Billie Holiday has guidance over me as I sing what people refer to as Jazzy Blues, living a sense of life, without having experienced true, real, love as I do mostly improvisation that says it all . . . the audience feels it, my poetry in blues. Maybe you could write me back. Susanelle ANISH MORAES moraesab@yahoo.co.uk If you can get your hands on The Commodore Master Takes which has Billie's first recording of Strange Fruit, spine tingling, and The Complete Decca Recordings which contains her recordings before she joined Verve. The latter has a wonderful duet with Louis Armstrong on My Sweet Hunk of Trash. These two sets of recordings have Billie in stronger voice, not yet ravaged by the drugs and hard living. Sublime!

A small group ensemble was used to back Billie on these recordings. Producer Norman Granz recognized the fact that Billie worked best in intimate surroundings - not always, but also. These sessions were recorded just two years before her death. Her voice does show signs of wear and tear but her intonation and phrases remains the splendour of yore that established her legend. Some fans prefer the earlier recordings, some these very later recordings due to the sheer emotional quality present in a voice that's clearly lived and experienced. There is emotion all over this album and Billie's actual performances are simply great. The range of her vocals may well have diminished but really, she remained as wonderful a Jazz vocalist as she ever was, possibly even greater. And, anyway. How could anyone who loved her famous early recordings fail to be thrilled and lifted by opening 'Day In Day Out'. All the vocal inflextions are present and correct. The small jazz ensemble swing and do their job behind her. Frank Sinatra was a fan. Her voice just comes at you, heads for the heart. The music is joyous and its a happy song to open. 'A Foggy Day' was famously performed by Frank Sinatra. Billie's version sounds like Billie. It sounds nothing like his version! She made everything her own, her personality is present. A sense and longing for love and also a sense of a life lived without true, real love. You can feel it in the grooves. Well, CD's don't have grooves but, damn it, you can hear it anyway!

I won't go through all the songs but to suffice to say none fail to offer at least something to the listener. We have a range of styles, tempos and moods. A very pleasing selection of intelligent material. We have the sheer lovely 'Stars Fell On Alabama' which I could imagine falling in love with someone to. 'I Wished On The Moon', the evergreen 'Body And Soul'. She tackles each and every one and makes them all her own. Her voice is pushed forward, the group don't try to outshine her and manage to support her very well. A good showcase for her talents, this, at a time they were supposedly declining. Its a tremendously atmospheric album that reaches to your body and soul if you are of a mind to allow it to.

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Coated in strings, somewhat controversially. Billie was now 43, would die a year later and her voice was not what it once was. She actually sounded older than the forty three years she'd graced this earth. The opening track however is spine chilling. It really is something emotional as the strings soar, her voice sounds up close and almost audibly cracks in places. It's a triumph of human spirit over frailty. She still soars and gets the phrasing and the emotion. Its hard to listen to in a sense, the life she'd led is actually audible through the recordings. But, its so close, so honest. The strings were there of course to sugar coat everything somewhat given the state of her voice but the strings are fine, actually. The state of her voice? Well, 'For Heavens Sake' and the surpreme moment that is 'I Get Along Very Well Without You' both still display enough signs of glory and damn it if the croaky quality in there doesn't just render that chill up and down your spine ever present throughout the record as a whole. Even though some of the material and performances are lack-lustre - there is just something about this. The bonus of 'The End Of A Love Affair' is everything that's gone before. Surpreme vocal moments mixed in with a struggle even simply to sing. It features one telling line, 'so i smoke, a little too much....'. An emotional song and an emotional album overall that's worth listening to.

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Readers Comments tigercubmc@aol.com i think that cd was a 10 b/c it showed the true artistry of billie holiday i realized with listening to it that i love her, not just b/c of her voice but b/c of her phrasing and her timing and her style no one has a style quite like billie no one has a way quite like her and i sing and i try to put myself inside the music like she does, but it's impossible i can't sing like billie did until i live through the songs im singing thats what made her so good, she was true and she was pure and she sang from the heart she could turn the most risque tune into something that drove men to drink or to sobriety such as in the tune too hot for words when she says "if you want to make love, ok" no one else had the power billie had and that's why she's the best if you listen closely to track 15 on lady in satin when billie sings in total acapella the purity of her voice its shocking but its so beautiful i think i perfer the later billie to the earlier one and the part of track 15 where she sings "can we start over from the top as loud as you can with as much support as you can cause I don't know the tune" billie is wonderful in later as well as earlier and this cd is a 10 gazza garyhess44@hotmail.com great to see this undervalued recording reviewed fairly . Its true billies voice had deteriorated badly by this stage but the sheer emotion she puts across is outstanding. Apparently it was her favourite recording of her own . Certainly not to be listened to if one is feeling emotionally fragile , much more than a joy division cd for instance . But god listen to youve changed ,i get along without you and glad to be unhappy and bemoan the lack of real emotional singers in todays music . Billie was something special , one of THE great interpreters of song along with sinatra,fitzgerald,cash,john lee hooker - heres the proof .