Description

Whatever other record companies involved in actually recording Billie Holiday may claim, there is a general consensus that her years at the various Columbia-owned companies were her greatest. Thus The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia 1933-1944 has to be a major reissue event. Columbia has at last done Holiday justice by including all extant known sides and alternative takes, plus a few radio broadcast gems, all remastered to a standard rarely heard from that company before but recently becoming something of an accepted fact. Holiday came to the studio microphone through the hard-sell tacticsmore… of John Hammond, finishing up a Benny Goodman session primarily dedicated to backing Ethel Waters and bowling over all present. Her singing then made no secret of her emulation of Louis Armstrong: she even affects a rasp to her voice in an effort to more closely approximate her model. This early influence took a considerable time to be fully assimilated, and it is not until the summer of 1936 that Holiday's mature approach is properly established, while her full blossoming has to wait until the arrival of Lester Young in the same studio, in January 1937. Through all of this she is regularly produced and arranged by the leader of most of the early sessions, pianist Teddy Wilson. (In the early years the band is named as hers when Wilson is absent.). Wilson's musical acumen constantly brings forth the best from an endless line of top-class 1930s jazz musicians passing through these sessions (usually reliant on whose band was in town at the time). This fascinating collection shows Holiday growing from featured singer into equal participant and, finally, the main show--her voice and expression deepening as the 1940s begin and her life begins its long unravelling. Don't miss it. By the way, there is an excellent two-CD Columbia selection of highlights from this complete set being issued simultaneously. --Keith Shadwick

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Info:

Category:

Music > Albums

Case Type:

CD

Release Type:

Retail

Comments:

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Cover Info:

Title:

Billie Holiday - Lady Day - the Complete Billie Holiday (2001) Retail CD

Part:

CD

Dimensions:

1429 x 1419 px

Size:

331 KB

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169 (0 today)

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Report a Problem Wrong Cover Duplicate Image Bad Quality Wrong Info

02/12/08 by pontiacc

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