BILLY HOLIDAY - 1937-1939 {CC, 592} (1991) FLAC (tracks), lossless

While this Classics disc of Billie Holiday's 1937-1939 sides beats out Columbia's Quintessential titles for sound quality, it does pale a bit as far as top-notch material goes. That said, the 24 tracks here still boast fine performances, like "Trav'lin' All Alone," "You Go to My Head," and "I Can't Get Started." And the likes of Teddy Wilson, Lester Young, Buck Clayton, and Dicky Wells provide stellar backing. So, with the knowledge that this is part of a chronological run through Holiday's catalog -- bad songs and all -- one can still enjoy the disc with its more than merely adequate store of memorable cuts. by Stephen Cook
Tracklist:
1 Trav'lin' All Alone 2:12
J.C. Johnson
2 He's Funny That Way 2:38
Neil Moret (Chas. N. Daniels) / Richard A. Whiting
3 Now They Call It Swing 2:59
N. Cloutier / Vaughn DeLeath / Lou Handman / Walter Hirsch
4 On the Sentimental Side 3:03
Johnny Burke / James V. Monaco
5 Back in Your Own Backyard 2:40
Dave Dreyer / Al Jolson / Billy Rose
6 When a Woman Loves a Man 2:24
Bernie Hanighen / Gordon Jenkins / Johnny Mercer
7 You Go to My Head 2:52
J. Fred Coots / Haven Gillespie
8 The Moon Looks Down and Laughs 2:53
Bert Kalmar / Harry Ruby / Sid Silvers
9 If I Were You 2:33
Buddy Bernier / Bob Emmerich
10 Forget If You Can 2:49
Leonard Joy / Jack Manus / Ken Upham
11 Havin' Myself a Time 2:29
Ralph Rainger / Leo Robin
12 Says My Heart 2:50
Burton Lane / Frank Loesser
13 I Wish I Had You 2:47
Bud Green / Al Stillman / Claude Thornhill
14 I'm Gonna Lock My Heart (And Throw Away the Key) 2:07
Jim Eaton / Terry Shand
15 Any Old Time 3:11
Artie Shaw
16 The Very Thought of You 2:44
Ray Noble
17 I Can't Get Started 2:46
Vernon Duke / Ira Gershwin
18 I've Got a Date With a Dream 2:42
Mack Gordon / Harry Revel
19 You Can't Be Mine (And Someone Else's Too) 2:20
J.C. Johnson / Chick Webb
20 That's All I Ask of You 2:55
Odean Pope
21 Dream of Life 2:43
Luther Henderson / Carmen McRae
22 You're Too Lovely to Last 2:47
Teddy McRae
23 Under a Blue Jungle Moon 2:55
Billie Holiday
24 Everything Happens for the Best 2:47
Billie Holiday / Tab Smith
 

BILLY HOLIDAY - 1939-1940 {CC, 601} (1991) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

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 Café 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 Café 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 Café 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. by arwulf arwulf  
Tracklist:
1 Why Did I Always Depend on You? 2:35
Paul Greenwood / Teddy McRae / R. Smith
2 Long Gone Blues 3:09
Billie Holiday feat: Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra
3 Strange Fruit 3:09
Lewis Allan
4 Yesterdays 3:21
Otto Harbach / Jerome Kern
5 Fine and Mellow 3:13
Billie Holiday feat: Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra
6 I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues 2:50
Harold Arlen / Ted Koehler
7 Some Other Spring 3:04
Arthur Herzog, Jr. / Irene Kitchings
8 Our Love Is Different 3:17
Billie Holiday / S. White
9 Them There Eyes 2:53
Maceo Pinkard / Doris Tauber / William Tracey
10 Swing, Brother, Swing 2:59
Lewis Raymond / Walter Bishop, Sr. / Clarence Williams
11 Night and Day 3:01
Cole Porter
12 The Man I Love 3:08
George Gershwin / Ira Gershwin
13 You're Just a No Account 3:01
Sammy Cahn / Saul Chaplin
14 You're a Lucky Guy 2:48
Sammy Cahn / Saul Chaplin
15 Ghost of Yesterday 2:41
Arthur Herzog, Jr. / Irene Kitchings / Wesley Wilson
16 Body and Soul 3:02
Frank Eyton / Johnny Green / Edward Heyman / Robert Sour
17 What Is This Going to Get Us? 2:43
Arthur Herzog, Jr. / Irene Kitchings
18 Falling in Love Again 2:53
Frederick Hollander / Sammy Lerner
19 I'm Pulling Through 3:13
Arthur Herzog, Jr. / Irene Kitchings / Irene Wilson
20 Tell Me More 3:11
Billie Holiday feat: Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra
21 Laughing at Life 2:57
Charles F. Kenny / Nick A. Kenny / Bob Todd / Cornell Todd
22 Time on My Hands 3:04
Harold Adamson / Mack Gordon / Vincent Youmans
 

BILLY HOLIDAY - 1940-1942 {CC, 680} (1993) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Tracklist:
1. I'm All For You (3:13)
2. I Hear Music (2:43)
3. It's The Same Old Story (3:13)
4. Practice Makes Perfect (2:38)
5. St. Louis Blues (2:55)
6. Loveless Love (3:17)
7. Let's Do It (2:59)
8. Georgia On My Mind (3:21)
9. Romance In The Dark (2:17)
10. All Of Me (3:03)
11. I'm In A Low-Down Groove (3:10)
12. God Bless The Child (2:58)
13. Am I Blue? (2:51)
14. Solitude (3:16)
15. Jim (3:11)
16. I Cover The Waterfront (2:59)
17. Love Me Or Leave Me (3:22)
18. Gloomy Sunday (3:14)
19. Wherever You Are (3:02)
20. Mandy Is Two (3:01)
21. It's A Sin To Tell A Lie (3:05)
22. Until The Real Thing Comes Along (3:11)
23. Trav'lin' Light (3:14)

BILLIE HOLIDAY - 1944 {CC, 806} (1995) FLAC (tracks), lossless

Tracklist:

1 Billie's Blues 4:14

Billie Holiday feat: Leonard Feather All Stars

2 Do Nothin' Till You Hear from Me 2:50

Duke Ellington / Bob Russell

3 I'll Get By (As Long as I Have You) 1:48

Fred E. Ahlert / Roy Turk

4 How Am I to Know? 2:40

Jack King / Dorothy Parker

5 My Old Flame 2:57

Sam Coslow / Arthur Johnston

6 I'll Get By (As Long as I Have You) 2:54

Fred E. Ahlert / Roy Turk

7 I Cover the Waterfront 3:25

Johnny Green / Edward Heyman

8 I'll Be Seeing You 3:28

Sammy Fain / Irving Kahal

9 I'm Yours 3:13

Johnny Green / E.Y. "Yip" Harburg 

10 Embraceable You 3:13

George Gershwin / Ira Gershwin

11 As Time Goes By 3:07

Herman Hupfeld

12 He's Funny That Way 3:00

Neil Moret (Chas. N. Daniels) / Richard A. Whiting

13 He's Funny That Way 3:12

Neil Moret (Chas. N. Daniels) / Richard A. Whiting

14 Lover, Come Back to Me 3:13

Oscar Hammerstein II / Sigmund Romberg

15 Lover, Come Back to Me 3:16

Oscar Hammerstein II / Sigmund Romberg

16 Billie's Blues 3:04

Billie Holiday feat: Eddie Heywood's Sextet / Eddie Heywood's Trio

17 On the Sunny Side of the Street 3:00

Dorothy Fields / Jimmy McHugh

18 Lover Man 3:15

Jimmy Davis / Roger "Ram" Ramirez / Jimmy Sherman

19 No More 2:45

Tutti Camarata / Bob Russell

20 That Ole Devil Called Love 2:51

Doris Fisher / Allan Roberts

21 Don't Explain 2:53 

Billie Holiday / Arthur Herzog, Jr.

22 Big Stuff  2:26

Leonard Bernstein
 

BILLIE HOLIDAY - 1945-1948 {CC, 1040} (1999) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Trading in the loose combo swing of her Columbia recordings for some sophisticated charts by Sy Oliver and Gordon Jenkins, Billie Holiday cut some of her best sides while at Decca during the latter half of the '40s. And even though Decca's own two-disc Complete Recordings set is highly recommended, this single volume still offers a fine overview for those not quite ready to fully commit. The absence of "God Bless the Child" notwithstanding, the mix covers most of Lady Day's Decca highlights, including "Deep Song," "Big Stuff," "Porgy," and her own "Don't Explain." There's also some quality duet work with Louis Armstrong and fine contributions from clarinetist Edmond Hall, trumpeter Billy Butterfield, and guitarist Mundell Lowe. A fine and generous sampling of Holiday at her peak. by Stephen Cook
Tracklist:
1 Don't Explain 3:20
Billie Holiday / Arthur Herzog, Jr.
2 Big Stuff 2:55
Leonard Bernstein
3 You Better Go Now 2:32
Robert Graham / Bickley S. Reichmer
4 What Is This Thing Called Love? 3:03
Cole Porter
5 Good Morning Heartache 3:04
Ervin Drake / Dan Fisher / Irene Higginbotham
6 No Good Man 6:06
Dan Fisher / Sammy Gallop / Irene Higginbotham
7 Big Stuff 2:28
Leonard Bernstein
8 Baby, I Don't Cry Over You 3:07
Morton Krouse
9 I'll Look Around 3:11
George Cory / Douglass Cross
10 The Blues Are Brewin' 2:58
Louis Alter / Eddie DeLange
11 Guilty 3:09
Harry Akst / Gus Kahn / Richard A. Whiting
12 Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans? 6:29
Louis Alter / Eddie DeLange
13 Don't Explain 2:37
Billie Holiday / Arthur Herzog, Jr.
14 Deep Song 3:08
George Cory / Douglass Cross
15 here Is No Greater Love 2:55
Isham Jones / Marty Symes
16 Easy Living 3:09
Ralph Rainger / Leo Robin
17 Solitude 3:07
Eddie DeLange / Duke Ellington / Irving Mills
18 Weep No More 3:18
Tom Adair / Gordon Jenkins
19 Girls Were Made to Take Care of Boys 3:10
Ralph Blane
20 Porgy 2:53
George Gershwin / Ira Gershwin / DuBose Heyward
21 My Man 2:54
Jacques Charles / Channing Pollack / Albert Willemetz / Maurice Yvain
 

BILLIE HOLIDAY - 1949-1951 {CC, 1220} (2002) FLAC (tracks), lossless

Lady Day's Decca recordings of 1949 and 1950 find her working in front of loud, rather pushy big bands under the direction of Buster Harding and Sy Oliver, and ultimately performing in weird collusion with white-bread pop entity Gordon Jenkins. Porter Grainger's "'Tain't Nobody's Bizness if I Do" has been closely associated with Fats Waller since he recorded it in 1940. Lady Day sings it sweet and spicy, with showy brass accenting her every phrase. Everyone who has ever sung this number puts a personal spin on the lyrics. Tellingly, Billie Holiday insists that even if she finds herself being battered by her male companion, she will never seek help from the police and that's a personal matter of her own. This has a grim aftertaste if you reflect upon her story up close, but Billie was not alone in taking this sort of a stand -- Victoria Spivey's "Let Him Beat Me" comes to mind, and there's nothing for the listener to do but reflect upon human nature, which is what music -- especially blues and jazz -- is all about. The folks at Decca seem to have had in mind an entire Holiday album of songs associated with Bessie Smith, but unfortunately only three such numbers made it to completion. Just think how nice it would be to have on hand Billie's renditions of "Me and My Gin," "You've Got to Give Me Some," "Backwater Blues," "Wasted Life Blues," "Put It Right Here," and "Send Me to the 'Lectric Chair"! Thank goodness she completed the three Bessie Smith covers heard here. Lady Day's handling of "Keeps On A-Rainin'" is exquisite. "Do Your Duty" seems almost like a burlesque because of the brassy arrangement, and this singer substitutes "buck" for Smith's copulative term used on the original recording. Billie sounds delighted to be singing "Gimme a Pigfoot" even if the prevailing social atmosphere did not permit her to echo Bessie's inclusion of the word "reefer," however accurate that might have been coming from the marijuana-reliant Holiday. The players in the bands backing her in August and September of 1949 form a strong contingent from the swing scene of the previous decade, with a couple of Young Lions -- George Duvivier and Shadow Wilson -- thrown in for good measure. On September 30th of that year Billie Holiday recorded two duets with her idol, Louis Armstrong, their two voices mingling more on "My Sweet Hunk o' Trash" than on the flip side. In a way these performances resemble Armstrong's humorous collaborations with Jack Teagarden. Four selections from October 1949 find our Lady backed with a small band augmented with strings under the direction of Gordon Jenkins. While some may regard these sides as too schmaltzy, anyone truly in love with this singer's voice will be able to relax and enjoy the ride. The Gordon Jenkins Singers, on the other hand, are so square-sounding that most jazz fans will struggle with the incongruity of it all. Billie herself manages to sound wonderful even under these circumstances. Finally, four titles recorded in April of 1951 for the Aladdin label provide a much-needed antidote after all that fluff. Here the singer is backed by the Tiny Grimes Sextette, the only identified members being gutsy saxophonist Haywood Henry, pianist Bobby Tucker, and Grimes himself. Two tasty blues are followed by a magnificent version of Fats Waller's "Blue Turning Grey Over You" and the wistful "Detour Ahead." by arwulf arwulf   
Tracklist:
1 'Tain't Nobody's Bizness if I Do 3:22
Porter Grainger / Robert Prince / Clarence Williams
2 Baby Get Lost 3:16
Leonard Feather / Billy Moore Jr.
3 Keeps On A-Rainin' 3:17
Max Kortlander / Spencer Williams
4 Them There Eyes 2:51
Maceo Pinkard / Doris Tauber / William Tracey
5 Do Your Duty 3:17
Wesley Wilson
6 Gimme a Pigfoot (And a Bottle of Beer) 2:46
Wesley Wilson
7 You Can't Lose a Broken Heart 3:16
James P. Johnson / F.E. Miller
Billie Holiday feat: Louis Armstrong
8 My Sweet Hunk o' Trash 3:21
James P. Johnson / F.E. Miller
Billie Holiday feat: Louis Armstrong
9 Now or Never 3:18
Peter DeRose / Billie Holiday / Curtis Lewis
10 You're My Thrill 3:26
Sidney Clare / Jay Gorney
11 Crazy He Calls Me 3:06
Bob Russell / Carl Sigman
12 Please Tell Me Now 3:15
Arnold Clawson / Toussaint Pope
13 Somebody's On My Mind 2:58
Billie Holiday / Arthur Herzog, Jr.
14 God Bless the Child 3:11
Billie Holiday / Arthur Herzog, Jr.
15 This Is Heaven to Me 2:53
Frank Reardon / Ernest Schweikert
16 Be Fair to Me 2:43
Larry Darnell / Ravon Darnell / Johnny Mercer / David Messner
Billie Holiday feat: Tiny Grimes Sextette
17 Rocky Mountain Blues 3:11
Frank Haywood / M. Tucker
Billie Holiday feat: Tiny Grimes Sextette
18 Blue Turning Grey Over You 2:06
Andy Razaf / Fats Waller
Billie Holiday feat: Tiny Grimes Sextette
19 Detour Ahead 3:06
Lou Carter / Ron Carter / Herb Ellis / Rev. Walter Ellis / John Freigo / Johnny Frigo
Billie Holiday feat: Tiny Grimes Sextette
 

BILLIE HOLIDAY - 1952 {CC, 1285} (2003) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Billie Holiday's recording career can be viewed in three distinct phases. The singer's evolution begins with the Vocalion/OKeh/Columbia years, steadily maturing throughout the Commodore, Decca, and latter-day Columbia sessions, then ripening into music of incredible poignancy as she recorded almost exclusively with Norman Granz for his Clef and Verve labels during the 1950s. The material reissued on this disc, recorded during the spring and summer of 1952, presents Lady Day in full bloom. There is within each of these songs a powerful elegance that is both meditative and intoxicating. Here are the slow love songs, more relaxed than ever before, with magical turns of phrasing that rise above the band like smoke in the air. When the tempo picks up, as in the old Busby Berkeley number "I Only Have Eyes for You," Billie's trustworthy trumpeting pal Charlie Shavers injects a bit of mustard into the mix. But most of the material here is languid and the overall effect is that of a jazz lieder recital where songs are savored rather than being spooled out in haste. While most of the recordings conform to the three or three-and-a-half-minute range that had been dictated for years by the 10" 78-rpm record, "Everything I Have Is Yours" and "Autumn in New York" approach the four-minute mark, anticipating the emergence of the LP, a development that would allow jazz musicians to stretch out like never before. And "stretching out" is exactly what these people are doing as they carefully render these 21 songs of love and heartbreak. by arwulf arwulf
Tracklist:
1 East of the Sun (And West of the Moon) 2:57
Brooks Bowman
2 Blue Moon 3:32
Lorenz Hart / Richard Rodgers
3 You Go to My Head 2:58
J. Fred Coots / Haven Gillespie
4 You Turned the Tables On Me 3:29
Louis Alter / Sidney Mitchell
5 Easy to Love 3:02
Cole Porter
6 These Foolish Things 3:35
Harry Link / Holt Marvell / Jack Strachey
7 I Only Have Eyes for You 2:54
Al Dubin / Harry Warren 
8 Solitude 3:32
Eddie DeLange / Duke Ellington / Irving Mills
9 Everything I Have Is Yours 3:46
Harold Adamson / Burton Lane
10 Love for Sale 2:58
Cole Porter
11 Moonglow 3:01
Eddie DeLange / Will Hudson / Irving Mills
12 Tenderly 3:25
Walter Gross / Jack Lawrence
13 If the Moon Turns Green 2:47
Paul Coates / Bernie Hanighen
14 Remember 2:37
Irving Berlin
15 Autumn in New York 3:53
Vernon Duke
16 My Man 2:39
Jacques Charles / Channing Pollack / Albert Willemetz / Maurice Yvain
17 Lover, Come Back to Me 3:37
Oscar Hammerstein II / Sigmund Romberg
18 Stormy Weather 3:43
Harold Arlen / Ted Koehler
19 Yesterdays 2:50
Otto Harbach / Jerome Kern
20 He's Funny That Way 3:13 
Neil Moret (Chas. N. Daniels) / Richard A. Whiting
21 I Can't Face the Music 3:13
Rube Bloom / Ted Koehler

BILLIE HOLIDAY - Stay with Me (1958-1991) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Featuring recordings from February 1955 and released in 1958, Stay with Me is a late entry in Billie Holiday's career. She was fading, but hadn't lost the dramatic quality in her delivery, nor her ability to project and tell a shattering story. She's backed by trumpeter Charlie Shavers, pianist Oscar Peterson, guitarist Herb Ellis, bassist Ray Brown, and drummer Ed Shaughnessy. [Some reissues add three bonus cuts.] by Ron Wynn
Tracklist:
1 I Wished on the Moon (Stay With Me) 6:50
Dorothy Parker / Ralph Rainger
2 Ain't Misbehavin' (I'm Savin' My Love for You) 4:40
Harry Brooks / Andy Razaf / Fats Waller
3 Everything Happens to Me 6:22
Tom Adair / Matt Dennis
4 Say It Isn't So (Stay With Me) 3:04
Irving Berlin
5 I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm 3:59
Irving Berlin
6 Always 3:59
Irving Berlin
7 Do Nothin' Till You Hear From Me (Stay With Me) 4:59
Duke Ellington / Bob Russell
- Bonus Tracks -
8 How Deep Is The Ocean * 2:56
9 What A Little Moonlight Can Do * 3:09
10 I Cried For You * 2:26
Créditos
Bass – Leonard Gaskin (tracks: 1-7), Ray Brown (tracks: 8-10)

Clarinet – Tony Scott (tracks: 1-7)
Drums – Cozy Cole (tracks: 1-7), Ed Shaughnessy (tracks: 8-10)
Guitar – Billy Bauer (tracks: 1-7), Herb Ellis (tracks: 8-10)
Piano – Billy Taylor (tracks: 1-7), Oscar Peterson (tracks: 8-10)
Tenor Saxophone – Budd Johnson (tracks: 1-7)
Trumpet – Charlie Shavers (tracks: all)
Vocals – Billie Holiday
Notas
Tracks 1-7 recorded Feb.14, 1955 in New York.
Tracks 8-10 recorded Apr.14, 1954 in New York.
*Additional tracks not on original LP.