Billie Holiday - Vocals
Ben Webster - Tenor sax
(tracks I/1-17, II/1-11)
Harry "Sweets"
Edison - Trumpet (tracks I/1-17, II/1-11)
Jimmy Rowles - Piano
(tracks I/1-17, II/1-11)
Barney Kessel - Guitar
(tracks I/1-17, II/1-11)
Joe Mondragon - Bass
(tracks I/1-4)
Red Mitchell - Bass (tracks
I/5-17, II/1-11)
Alvin Stoller - Drums
(tracks I/1-17, II/1-7)
Larry Bunker - Drums
(tracks II/8-11)
Mal Waldron - Piano (tracks
II/13-20)
Joe Benjamin - Bass (tracks
II/13-20)
Jo Jones - Drums (tracks
II/13-20)
Here is yet another album which makes me wonder at
the brilliance of promoter/producer Norman Granz - and wonderment
that so few other people did what he did. His recipe was to assemble
jazz artists he admired and let them play more or less what they liked.
Certainly he told the musicians the sort of thing he wanted but he
trusted them to create exciting sessions, and he was seldom disappointed.
This was the method he used for his successful "Jazz at the Philharmonic"
concerts and it was also his frequent procedure in the studio. One
valuable outcome was that Granz has left us with a huge legacy of
recordings by superb jazz artists.
This double album contains the results of a series
of such sessions, when Granz put one of his favourite singers - Billie
Holiday - together with two of his favourite instrumentalists - tenor-saxist
Ben Webster and trumpeter Harry Edison, and let them get on with creating
musical magic. The recordings were made at seven separate sessions
- in August 1956 and January 1957 - and they are the last small-group
studio recordings that Billie made. The final nine tracks on the second
CD are a bonus: recorded at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1957, two
years before Billie died - aged only 44. In fact Billie sings on only
six of these tracks, as there is also an introduction from Johnny
Mercer and two short versions of Oh, Lady be Good as prelude
and postlude.
At this period, Billie's voice was undoubtedly showing
the strain of her troubled life, yet her singing still holds one's
attention almost hypnotically. Most of the songs she performs are
old favourites of hers, including compositions by the pantheon of
renowned American composers (Irving Berlin, the Gershwins, Cole Porter,
etc.). In fact, Billie was performing the Great American Songbook
before many of today's young hopeful vocalists were born. Some of
these aspiring singers could learn something from the way that Holiday
handled a song - for instance, the way she sometimes stays slightly
behind the beat to create the tension of syncopation. Or just hear
how she makes her voice swerve on the very last note of Body and
Soul. Incidentally, Holiday doesn't sing on Just Friends,
as she turned up late for the date, but the musicians nevertheless
have a ball.
Ben Webster, Harry Edison and Barney Kessel are ideal
accompanists for Billie: filling in thoughtfully behind her singing
and adding some great solos. There is no doubting the authority in
Ben Webster's mature style. Perhaps he was no longer the young lion
who so exhilarated us in Duke Ellington's Cottontail, but his
more relaxed, seemingly lazy playing matches Billie's vocals. Harry
Edison tends to be more extrovert than Ben, but the contrast between
the two men's styles adds to the intriguing ambience and helps to
stimulate Billie's vocalising. Jimmy Rowles was Billie's pianist for
many years, so he knows exactly what to put in and leave out.
The Newport Festival session is equally interesting,
with Billie performing to an enthusiastic audience. She is backed
by a trio which gives her plenty of space to show her paces. Despite
breathing problems limiting her range, Billie could still improvise
with convincing feeling. Even at this late stage in her career, she
was more adventurous than many other self-proclaimed jazz singers.
Her interpretation of My Man can still tug at the emotions,
especially (knowing Billie's difficult experiences with men) with
the line "He beats me too"
The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz calls Billie "the
greatest jazz singer there has ever been". I'm not sure that
I could be so definite, but she was definitely one of the greatest.
Tony Augarde
CD Reviews
