Billie Joel

Billie Holiday - The Complete Commodore Recordings, 1939-1944 (1997) {2CD Set GRP Records CMD 24012}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 353 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 290 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 86 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1939-44, 1997 Commodore / GRP Records | CMD 24012
Jazz / Vocal Jazz / Swing / Classic Female Blues / Traditional Pop

Throughout these sessions, a window into Billie Holiday's creative process is provided by the inclusion of alternate takes. Many of them are rare, although all have previously been issued on one or another of the labels that have interacted with Commodore over the years. As alternates for records on other labels also reveal, once Billie conceptualized her approach to a song, she seldom varied the basic template. She seemed to decide the best way to organize the expressive gifts at her disposal and "photograph" in her mind a musical image of how she would do the number. Once that image was in place, subsequent versions for the most part differed only in matters of nuance or animation.

Billie Holiday - The Complete Billie Holiday On Verve 1945-1959 (1992) {10CD Set Verve–PolyGram 517 658-2}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 2.63 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 1.66 Gb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 288 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1945-59, 1992 Verve / PolyGram | 517 658-2
Jazz / Vocal Jazz / Swing / Classic Female Blues / Traditional Pop

This is a rather incredible collection: ten CDs enclosed in a tight black box that includes every one of the recordings Verve owns of Billie Holiday, not only the many studio recordings of 1952-57 (which feature Lady Day joined by such jazz all-stars as trumpeters Charlie Shavers and Harry "Sweets" Edison, altoist Benny Carter, and the tenors of Flip Phillips, Paul Quinichette and Ben Webster). Also included are prime performances at Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts in 1945-1947, an enjoyable European gig from 1954, her "comeback" Carnegie Hall concert of 1956, Holiday's rather sad final studio album from 1959, and even lengthy tapes from two informal rehearsals. It's a perfect purchase for the true Billie Holiday fanatic.

The only recording Ella Fitzgerald made as a duo with a pianist is re-created with this new and exciting duo. Very intimate, moving, grooving, a feast of the senses, this tribute CD to Ella Fitzgerald will make you remember the Great American Songbook!

Marty Elkins was born in Jersey City, New Jersey. As a child she listened mostly to the soul stations in New York, and the late night R&B shows like Jocko’s Rocket Ship. She left there for college in Boston, and while in college was given a copy of Ella Fitzgerald and Ellis Larkins. She was also exposed to Charlie Parker, Al Cohn and Zoot Sims, and Louis Jordan, but the life changing day was when she found a copy of Billie Holiday’s “Lady in Satin” in a local Woolworth bin in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Literally holing up in her room with this recording, and a Bessie Smith record she acquired, she became devoted to jazz and began listening to it exclusively. She had the good fortune to meet musicians in that area who played jazz such as Herb Pomeroy, Ray Santisi, Jimmy Mosher, and Dave McKenna among others. Dave McKenna had a steady gig at the Copley Plaza…