CD1
1. I Wished on the Moon
2. What a Little Moonlight
Can Do
3. If You Were Mine
4. These Foolish Things
5. I Cried for You
6. Did I Remember
7. No Regrets
8. Summertime
9. A Fine Romance
10. The Way You look
Tonight
11. Who Loves You?
12. Pennies from Heaven
13. I Can’t Give you
Anything but Love
14. I’ve Got my Love
to Keep Me Warm
15. This Year’s Kisses
16. I Must Have a Man
17. The Mood That I’m
In
18. My Last Affair
19. Carelessly
20. Moanin’ Low
21. I’ll Get By
22. Mean to Me
23. Easy Living
24. I’ll Never Be the
Same
25. A Sailboat in the
Moonlight
CD2
1. Swing, Brother, Swing
2. They Can’t Take That
away from Me
3. Nice Work if you Can
Get It
4. My Man
5. Back in Your Own Back
Yard
6. You Go to My Head
7. I’m Gonna Lock My
Heart
8. I Can’t Get Started
9. Long Gone Blues
10. Fine and Mellow
11. Some Other Spring
12. Them There Eyes
13. Night and Day
14. The Man I Love
15. Body and Soul
16. All of Me
17. God Bless the Child
18. I Cover the Waterfront
19. Billie’s Blues
20. He’s Funny That Way
21. Lover Come Back to
Me
22. Lover Man
23. That Old Devil Called
Love
24. Don’t Explain
25. Good Morning, Heartache
26. Strange Fruit
These two records contain the largest collection of
Billie Holiday recordings I have come across, so it has to be a must
for the many fans of Lady Day. Considering that she died 50 years
ago, she is well liked by many who were not around at the time of
her demise. She was not a jazz singer in the sense of Ella Fitzgerald
or Sarah Vaughan, but she had a unique style that is immediately recognisable.
On many of these tracks she performs the role of "with
vocal refrain". During the 1930s, the bands were more important
than the singer and so he or she was allocated just one chorus, usually
the middle one. How things have changed!
Most of the songs are well known; I found the personnel
of the backing groups very interesting. On the first two tracks alone,
the backing band includes such illustrious names as Benny Goodman,
Roy Eldridge and Ben Webster. The star names continue with Jonah Jones,
Chu Berry, Johnny Hodges and Harry Carney involved in just the first
five tracks.
It is noticeable that Billie sounds at her very best
when Teddy Wilson is at the keyboard and her soul mate Lester Young
is involved. It was Billie who called him "Prez", the president
of the tenor sax! In return it was Lester who named her "Lady
Day".
Her life was, apart from her singing, a total disaster;
she got involved with both drugs and alcohol, to say nothing of a
very turbulent personal life in which she seemed to find all the most
unsuitable partners.
Lester Young plays the first chorus on This Year’s
Kisses; it became a favourite tune of Lester’s, which he often
played on personal appearances. Buck Clayton sounds less convincing
in his chorus on the same tune.
Disc two begins with Billie singing with the Basie
Band, with whom she worked for about a year. Lester was in the
band at that time as was his tenor partner Herschel Evans. The remaining
tracks on the second disc continue to have the presence of many famous
musicians. Buck Clayton, Vido Musso, Charlie Shavers, Buster Bailey,
Dicky Wells, Hot Lips Page, Harry Edison, Emmett Berry, Jimmy Hamilton
and many more make contributions to various tracks.
Disc two finishes with Strange Fruit. Billie
always wanted to sing this song last; she said she was overwhelmed
by the words of Lewis Allan. She was not a leader of racial unrest,
however, just someone who wanted to enjoy singing with the best musicians
available. It seems she was most successful in this dimension of her
life, as her work is still greatly appreciated
The album contains excellent discographical information
as well as sleeve-notes.
Don Mather
CD Reviews
Retrospective
RTS 4142
