In a 1954 review, Down Beat magazine praises the album, saying, “The set is an experience in mounting pleasure that can do anything but increase still further no matter how often the LP is replayed. As for comparing it with earlier Teddy Wilson-Billie sessions, what’s the point? Count your blessings in having both. Speaking of time, Billie’s beat and variations …

This session comes from close to the end of the line (1959) in the erstwhile swinging company of Barney Kessel on guitar, Ben Webster on tenor, and naysayers will be quick to point out that Lady Day wasn’t in peak form here. But Billie Holiday with some of the platinum chipped off the pipes is still way better than a …

In 1956 Decca released “The Lady Sings” (DL 8215), a compilation of classic Billie Holiday records, originally issued on 78rpm discs from 1945 to 1950. The album contains two songs co-written by Irene Higginbotham, one of the only African-American women working in Tin Pan Alley at that time. No one really knows how many songs Irene may have written as …

This two-disc set features some of Billie Holiday’s top Verve performances from the mid-’50s. Over the course of 28 cuts, she runs the emotional gamut from summery optimism (“Love Is Here to Stay”) to pathos-rich musings (“Ill Wind”). Befitting her perennial after-hours mood while at the label, the majority of songs here feature Holiday in a low-down mood of the …

After an impasse in which she mostly recorded with tightly arranged groups (for Commodore) and big bands with strings (for Decca), Billie signed her last long-term contract with Norman Granz. He had showcased her as a star with his Jazz at the Philharmonic tours in the mid- and late forties, and when he signed her as a recording artist in …

Billie Holiday Sings is Lady’s first full-length album, released in the United States by Clef Records in 1952 in the 10-inch format. It was reissued in 1956 with four extra tracks recorded at the same sessions at the famed Radio Recorders in Hollywood, CA, where artists as diverse as Charlie Parker, Jimmie Rodgers, Louis Armstrong, Mario Lanza, Elvis Presley, Jimi …

Long out-of-print, Billie Holiday’s brilliant 1956 LP, Velvet Mood, released on Clef (soon-to-be Verve) Records, captures the 41-year-old Holiday backed by a sextet that featured Benny Carter on alto sax and Harry “Sweets” Edison on trumpet. Although hard living had already begun to take its toll on Holiday (who died just three years later), she was still a huge international …

Songs for Distingué Lovers forms part of the last series of extensive small-group recordings that Lady Day would make in the studio. Although her voice was largely shot at this point, she puts so much feeling into the lyrics that it’s easy to overlook her dark sound. The band is a major asset, and made up of all-stars: trumpeter Harry …

“Lady In Satin” (1958) is Billie’s penultimate album completed in her lifetime. Produced by Irving Townsend, and engineered by Fred Plaut, its sound is sensuous, rich and swelling with emotion – though much criticized by Lady’s fans who had grown to enjoy her recordings with deft jazz combos earlier in the decade. The song material for “Lady in Satin” derived …

Lady Sings the Blues was Billie Holiday’s last album for producer Norman Granz’ Clef Records & Verve Records. The sessions were recorded during 1954 and 1956, and released late in 1956 in conjunction with her autobiography of the same name. Holiday is in top form, backed by many jazz greats including tenor saxophonists Budd Johnson and Paul Quinichette, trumpeters Charlie …