Billie Holiday Songs For Distingue Lovers CD

Personnel: Billie Holiday (vocals); Ben Webster (tenor saxophone); Harry "Sweets" Edison (trumpet); Jimmie Rowles (piano); Barney Kessel (guitar); Red Mitchell (bass); Larry Bunker, Alvin Stoller (drums).
Producer: Norman Granz.
Reissue producer: Michael Lang.
Recorded at Capitol Studios, Hollywood, California between January 3 & 9, 1957. Includes liner notes by James Patrick.
All tracks have been digitally remastered.
This is part of the Verve Master Edition series.
Personnel includes: Billie Holiday, Ben Webster, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Jimmy Rowles, Barney Kessel, Red Mitchell, Jimmy Cleveland, Al Cohn, Hank Jones, Kenny Burrell, Milt Hinton, Osie Johnson.
Recorded in 1957 and 1959.
Personnel: Billie Holiday (vocals); Barney Kessel (guitar); Ben Webster (tenor saxophone); Harry "Sweets" Edison (trumpet); Jimmy Rowles (piano); Larry Bunker, Alvin Stoller (drums).
Liner Note Author: Norman Granz.
Recording information: 01/1957.
During the six days and four sessions covered by this 1997 CD (which in its original form consisted of six songs), Billie Holiday recorded 18 titles; a dozen of the best are here, although "Comes Love" is unaccountably missing. This were the last series of extensive small-group recordings that Lady Day would make in the studios. Although her voice was largely shot at this point, she puts so much feeling into some of the lyrics that one can often overlook her dark sound. The all-star band (trumpeter Harry "Sweets" Edison, tenor saxophonist Ben Webster, pianist Jimmie Rowles, guitarist Barney Kessel, bassist Red Mitchell, and Alvin Stoller or Larry Bunker on drums) is a major asset, and there are plenty of short solos for Edison, Webster and Kessel. Holiday does her best on such numbers as "A Foggy Day," "One for My Baby," "Just One of Those Things" and "I Wished on the Moon," and there are plenty of haunting moments, even if one could tell (even at the time) that the end was probably drawing near for the singer. The music is still well worth having, although completists will prefer a collection with all 18 songs, while beginners should sample Holiday's Columbia and Decca output first. ~ Scott Yanow
Comprised of the last five studio dates Holiday did for Verve, SONGS FOR DISTINGUE LOVERS finds Lady Day operating within her ideal environment; that of a small jazz combo. Accompanied by a legendary line-up including Sweets Edison, Ben Webster and Barney Kessel, Holiday sang with the clear enunciation and easy swing that had become her trademark. Wrapping her phrasing around standards by Rodgers & Hart, The Gershwins and Cole Porter, Billie Holiday demonstrated how years of singing with various jazz bands sharpened her ability to turn a song on its head through slight fluctuations in pitch and tone color.