That Sound Holiday

'Too Hot For Words' blends the tight-knit swing of the Metropolitan Jazz Octet with the unerring musicianship of Dee Alexander to mark the 60th anniversary of Billie Holiday's departure from the planet, mixing Holiday classics with some of Lady Day's lesser- known repertoire. The arrangements sparkle, and Alexander shines as bright as ever. But at no point does she attempt to mimic Holiday. (What would be the point of that)? And the arrangements don't try to imitate the little 'orchestras' that accompanied Holiday's greatest recordings. (No point in that either.) These new settings respect the songs, but reframe them for our era. The album becomes a sort of telescoping time capsule: sterling musicians of the 21st century, building upon an octet sound crafted 50 years earlier, revitalizing songs that Holiday began recording in the 1930s.

It is undeniable that Billie Holiday's singing changed in her later years. Her voice darkened an shifted to a lower range. Her economy of means distilled her sound to its expressive essence – a kind of heightened speech. The classic LP Songs For Distingué Lovers, has also deepened and become burnished with time. Maybe it's that still-arresting word distingué; maybe it's that iconic, tinted image of Lady Day on the cover. This legendary recording features the singer's best studio work of the Fifties.

This session comes from close to the end of the line (1959) in the erstwhile swinging company of Barney Kessel on guitar, Ben Webster on tenor, and naysayers will be quick to point out that Lady Day wasn't in peak form here…