Lady Sings The Blues: Billie Holiday Story Vol. 4 CD

Personnel: Billie Holiday (vocals); Budd Johnson, Paul Quinichette (tenor saxophone); Charlie Shavers (trumpet); Tony Scott (clarinet, piano); Wynton Kelly, Billy Taylor (piano); Billy Bauer, Kenny Burrell (guitar); Aaron Bell, Leonard Gaskin (bass); Cozy Cole, Lennie McBrowne (drums).
Producers: Leroy Lovett, Tony Scott.
Compilation producer: Michael Lang.
Recorded at Fine Sound and William And Maely Dufty's Home, New York, New York between February 1955 and June 1956. Includes liner notes by John Chilton.
Digitally remastered by Suha Gur (Polygram Studios).
Contains 20 tracks.
All tracks have been digitally remastered.
Personnel: Billie Holiday (vocals); Kenny Burrell, Billy Bauer (guitar); Tony Scott (clarinet, piano); Paul Quinichette, Budd Johnson (tenor saxophone); Charlie Shavers (trumpet); Wynton Kelly, Billy Taylor (piano); Cozy Cole, Lenny McBrowne (drums).
Liner Note Author: John Chilton.
Recording information: Fine Sound, New York, NY (1954-1956).
Directors: Leroy Lovett; Tony Scott .
Photographer: Herman Leonard.
Unknown Contributor Role: Charlie Shavers.
Taken from a pair of sessions taped during 1955-1956, Lady Sings the Blues finds Holiday in top form and backed by the sympathetic likes of tenor saxophonist Paul Quinichette, trumpeters Charlie Shavers and Harry Edison, pianist Wynton Kelly, and guitarists Kenny Burrell and Barney Kessel. And while these autumnal sides bear some of the frayed vocal moments often heard on Holiday's '50s Verve sides, the majority here still ranks with her best material. This is especially true of the cuts from the June 1956 date, which produced unparalleled versions of "No Good Man," "Some Other Spring," and "Lady Sings the Blues." See why many fans prefer the "worn out" Holiday heard here to the more chipper singer featured on those classic Columbia records from the '30s. ~ Stephen Cook
Taken from a couple of sessions taped during 1955-1956, Lady Sings the Blues, Vol. 4 finds Holiday in top form and backed by the sympathetic likes of tenor saxophonists Budd Johnson and Paul Quinichette, trumpeter Charlie Shavers, pianist Wynton Kelly, and guitarist Billy Bauer. And while these autumnal sides bear some of the frayed vocal moments often heard on Holiday's '50s Verve sides, the majority here still ranks with her best material. This is especially true of the cuts from a June 1956 date, which produced unparalleled versions of "No Good Man," "Some Other Spring," and "Lady Sings the Blues." See why many fans prefer the "worn out" Holiday heard here to the more chipper singer featured on those classic Columbia records from the '30s. ~ Stephen Cook
Some Holiday fans embrace the very weariness and faults of her late recordings that others find heartbreaking and disappointing. These sessions from 1955 and 1956 clearly show the results of a life marked by alcohol and drug abuse, horrific love affairs and racism. On such cuts as "Too Marvelous For Words" the contrast between the lyrics and Holiday's heavy-heartedness is disconcerting.
But the juxtaposition works on "I Must Have That Man," where Holiday's interpretations seem to be saying that even good love is tragic. The lynching depicted in "Strange Fruit" is certainly made even more powerful and harrowing by Holiday's slow, wrenching delivery. In 1959, Holiday would die with 70 cents in her bank account. LADY SINGS THE BLUES is the soundtrack for those final, troubled years.
Volume Four of Verve's complete Billy Holiday Story, this disc includes recordings from two sessions, some of which were issued on the album STAY WITH ME and others from the original release of the LADY SINGS THE BLUES. Lady Day's voice, by 1956, was beginning to thicken and transform, but her stylings and embellishments are still superb, and the delicious timbre of her voice is still the quintessense of blues. From her treatment of Irving Berlin ("Say It Isn't So," and "Always"), to her own fine compositions, like the