Billie Holiday Commodore Master Takes CD

Personnel: Billie Holiday (vocals); Tab Smith, Lem Davis (alto saxophone); Kenneth Hollon, Stan Payne (tenor saxophone); Frankie Newton, Doc Cheatham (trumpet); Vic Dickenson (trombone); Sonny White, Eddie Haywood (piano); Jimmy McLin, Teddy Walters (guitar); John Williams, John Simmons (bass); Eddie Dougherty, Sid Catlett (drums).
Producer: Milt Gabler.
Compilation producer: Orrin Keepnews.
Recorded at Brunswick World Broadcasting Studio, New York, New York on April 20, 1939; WOR Recording Studios, New York, New York on March 25 and April 1 & 8, 1944. Includes liner notes by Orrin Keepnews.
Digitally remastered by Erick Labson (1999, MCA Music Media Studios) and Jeff Willens (Universal Music Studios-East).
Personnel: Billie Holiday (vocals); Teddy Walters, Jimmy McLin (guitar); Lem Davis, Tab Smith (alto saxophone); Kenneth Hollon (tenor saxophone); Doc Cheatham, Frankie Newton (trumpet); Vic Dickenson (trombone); Eddie Heywood, Sonny White (piano); Eddie Dougherty, Big Sid Catlett (drums).
Liner Note Author: Orrin Keepnews.
Recording information: Brunswick World Broadcasting Studio, New York Ciity, NY (04/20/1939-04/08/1944); WOR Recording Studios (04/20/1939-04/08/1944).
Photographer: Charles Peterson .
Arranger: Eddie Heywood.
Most albums containing "Strange Fruit," the anti-lynching protest song Billie Holiday recorded in 1939, also contain some of her other recordings for Commodore Records, since her waxing of the song marked a break with her former label, Brunswick/Vocalion, which balked at having her do it. But this British compilation ends with "Strange Fruit," instead of starting with it. The other 19 tracks on the set date from Holiday's recordings for Brunswick and Vocalion (now controlled in the U.S. by Sony Music) between 1935 and 1938, twelve of them credited to Teddy Wilson & His Orchestra in their initial releases on 78s, and one, the Gershwins' "They Can't Take That Away from Me," featuring the Count Basie Orchestra. On the Wilson cuts, Holiday provides a vocal chorus on what are actually band arrangements that feature a who's who of jazz musicians -- Roy Eldridge, Benny Goodman, Ben Webster, Cozy Cole, Chu Berry, Dave Barbour, Johnny Hodges, Harry Carney, Bunny Berigan, Artie Shaw, Joe Bushkin, Milt Hinton, Gene Krupa, Cootie Williams, Buck Clayton, Lester Young, Walter Page, Jo Jones, and others. They perform classic pop standards like "Summertime," "I Can't Give You Anything But Love," "Pennies from Heaven," and "Moanin' Low." It's great stuff, of course, but makes the appearance of the stark and striking title song at the end of the disc more jarring than usual. (It doesn't help that the sound quality takes a dip at that point, either.) ~ William Ruhlmann
If you're a completist who insists on having everything that Billie Holiday recorded, The Complete Commodore Recordings is required listening. But for the more casual listener, it's best to pass on that two-CD set and stick with The Commodore Master Takes. While The Complete Commodore Recordings contains all of the alternate takes that Holiday recorded for Commodore in 1939 and 1944, this collection only concerns itself with the master takes (which total 16). Holiday never singed an exclusive contract with Commodore -- she only freelanced for the label, and the ultra-influential jazz singer spent a lot more time recording for Columbia in the 1930s and early 1940s, and for Decca from 1944-1950. But her Commodore output was first-rate, and Lady Day excels whether she's joined by trumpeter Frankie Newton's octet at a 1939 session or by pianist Eddie Heywood's orchestra at three sessions in 1944. The CD gets off to an impressive start with the controversial "Strange Fruit," a bone-chilling account of lynching in the Deep South that ended up being released on Commodore because Columbia was afraid to touch it. Holiday is also quite expressive on performances that range from "Fine and Mellow," "I Got a Right to Sing the Blues" a