Billie holiday cd in Jazz Vocal Music

"The Best of Billie Holiday [Compendia]" (07/26/2005) Pop Vocal Holiday, Billie, IntersoundPersonnel includes: Billie Holiday (vocals); Teddy Wilson Orchestra; Artie Shaw Orchestra; Eddie Heywood Orchestra; Count Basie Orchestra; Frankie Newton Orchestra. Recorded between 1935 and 1944. Includes liner notes by David Lennick. Liner Note Author: David Lennick. Pulled from old 78s, this isn't the place to start your Billie Holiday collection by a long shot. But this two-disc set is a pretty great overview of Lady Day's rise to greatness, featuring her own early sessions as well as her guest spots on a number of small- and big-band sides. Disc one finds her working with Teddy Wilson, Count Basie, Artie Shaw, and Eddie Heywood, while the second disc continues the thread with more sides with Wilson and Heywood, plus stray tracks with Paul Whiteman, Frankie Newton, and on her own. A nice chunk of early Lady Day. ~ Cub Koda

"1939-1940" (11/19/1996) Pop Vocal Holiday, Billie, Classics Jazz (France)This volume of the Classics Chronological series places Billie Holiday's music in historical context to an unusual degree, as her recordings for the Columbia and Commodore labels have until now been reissued separately because of copyright and catalog ownership. The songs parceled together here were recorded at a crossroads in Holiday's career. The setting for the first -- in what would constitute great changes in her life and music -- was Barney Josephson's Caf? Society Downtown. Located at 2 Sheridan Square, this was Manhattan's first fully integrated nightclub. Its clientele included a number of politically progressive intellectuals and social activists. When she first appeared at the club on December 30, 1938, Billie Holiday was known as a spunky vocalist who presented lively renditions of pop and jazz standards in what was considered an unusual yet accessible style. It was in the year 1939 that Lady Day gradually began to create a subtler if at times more provocative persona. Part of this equation was profoundly political, and the singer's activism is most stunningly present in "Strange Fruit," a powerfully disturbing setting of a poem by Lewis Allen describing in careful detail the appearance of a lynching victim. The specter of a black body hanging from a poplar tree was and still is a powerful image that can and should haunt the listener long after the song has ended. The fact that Holiday chose to incorporate this piece into her live performances puts her in a much different category from her preexisting cabaret image of a cheerful young jazz vocalist. It is a fact that after she began presenting "Strange Fruit" to the public -- and singing at benefits for politically progressive causes -- Billie Holiday became an object of FBI surveillance. John Hammond, generally regarded as the man who discovered Holiday and helped develop her career, is known to have disliked "Strange Fruit" and was behind Columbia's refusal to record this controversial song. Fortunately for posterity, Billie, backed by an ensemble drawn from the house band at Caf? Society, was able to wax four of her all-time best records -- including "Strange Fruit" -- on April 20, 1939, for Milt Gabler's innovative Commodore label. On the other hand, even when heard without the benefit of these historical insights, the music included in this part of the chronology is simply some of the best jazz of its day, rendered by some of the greatest players on the scene. An overview of the trumpeters, for example, includes Frankie Newton, Hot Lips Page, Charlie Shavers, Buck Clayton, Roy Eldridge, and Harry "Sweets" Edison. Billie's first collaborations with a tenor sax player were with Kenneth Hollon during the early '30s. Hollon was on hand at Caf? Society and can be heard on the first three sessions presented here. Tab Smith sounds particularly fine on soprano sax during "Long Gone Blues." The band backing Billie on December 13, 1939, was essentially Count Basie's Orchestra with Joe Sullivan sitting in at the piano. And the most precious element of all is the presence of Lester Young. The combined personalities of Pres and Lady Day transformed every song into a collective ritual filled with magic and poetic grace. ~ arwulf arwulf

"Billy Remembers Billie" (01/11/2005) Pop Vocal Holiday, Billie, Verve (USA)Personnel: Billie Holiday (vocals); Bob Bain, Jimmy McLin (guitar); David Friscina, Joseph Quadri (violin); Maurice Perlmutter (viola); Kurt Reher (cello); Dick Eckles (flute); Lem Davis, Bill Stegmeyer (alto saxophone); Kenneth Hollon, Armand Camgras, Hank Ross (tenor saxophone); Stan Webb (baritone saxophone); Doc Cheatham, Joe Guy (trumpet); Vic Dickenson (trombone); Eddie Heywood, Sonny White, Charles La Vere (piano); John Simmons , Lou Butterman (bass instrument); Eddie Dougherty, Nick Fatool, Big Sid Catlett (drums); Gordon Jenkins Singers (background vocals). Liner Note Authors: Ashley Kahn; Billy Crystal. Arrangers: Eddie Heywood; Gordon Jenkins. This Verve sampler has actor/comedian Billy Crystal selecting his favorite tracks by the great Billie Holiday, an unlikely association if ever there was one. However, the connection is not merely arbitrary. Milt Gabler, a producer who helped craft some of Lady Day's most memorable releases in the 1940s, was Crystal's uncle. Consequently, Crystal's first-hand familiarity with Holiday's Gabler-produced recordings inform this fine compilation. (Only one of the 15 tracks here, "God Bless the Child," was not produced by Gabler). Strange degrees of separation aside, BILLY REMEMBERS BILLIE is an outstanding compilation that brings together some of the finest performances Holiday ever put to tape. Included here are definitive versions of "Embraceable You," "Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?)," and the monumental "Strange Fruit," a highly controversial song exposing racist crimes (Gabler bravely recorded it when no one else would). The mid-'40s were arguably Holiday's peak; her voice had deepened and grown more textured than in her brighter early work, but was not yet as worn as it would become on later releases. In fact, these intimate sessions, in which Holiday's sweet, aching voice is urged on by a small combo, are essentially perfect.