Billie Holiday Decca Singles

Billie Holiday - You Go To My Head [Recorded 1938-1949] (2002)  Music

Posted by gribovar at Sept. 2, 2022
Billie Holiday - You Go To My Head [Recorded 1938-1949] (2002)

Billie Holiday - You Go To My Head [Recorded 1938-1949] (2002)
EAC Rip | WavPack (image+.cue+log) - 314 MB | MP3 CBR 320 kbps (LAME 3.93) - 150 MB | Covers - 144 MB
Genre: Vocal Jazz | RAR 3% Rec. | Label: Dreyfus Jazz (FDM 36742-2)

Nowadays, the majority of those with two ears and a heart recognise her magnitude, whatever their usual musical preferences may be. This unanimity undoubtedly stems from the fact that Billie's voice reaches our greatest depths. Nobody has been troubled by her range, or by limited technical means the singer was offered, although she never needed anything other than her voice to shake the entire planet. Perhaps because Billie sang simply of love and love's desillusions, and the listeners are moved even without particularly grasping the textes. However, what we may hear is the result of a double paradow: vocal mastery, the placing of each syllabe, the perfect expression of each word confirms a tremendous virtuosity, the fruit of long experience; the emphasis put on the songs' lyrics, not often despairing all considered, come more from the despair of the interpreter than their actual contents…
Billie Holiday - At Carnegie Hall: The Billie Holiday Story Volume 6 [Recorded 1956] (1995) (Re-up)

Billie Holiday - At Carnegie Hall: The Billie Holiday Story Volume 6 [Recorded 1956] (1995)
EAC Rip | WavPack (image+.cue+log) - 153 MB | MP3 CBR 320 kbps (LAME 3.93) - 105 MB | Covers - 129 MB
Genre: Vocal Jazz | RAR 3% Rec. | Label: Verve (314 527 777-2)

Like a modern day rock star, Holiday's troubles with drugs, the law, and abusive men were almost considered part of what made her art work so well. It's an insulting idea, of course - and one that puts the audience in the position of voyeurs, or worse. The inclusion of Holiday's own tunes like "Don't Explain" and signature pieces like "Ain't Nobody's Business," combined with readings from her recent autobiography during the course of this concert, play to the more maudlin aspects of the singer's life. Holiday is painted as a woman who put up with hard times and abuse for sake of the shreds of love her men would hand her. Yet her exuberance on the uptempo, swinging material is full of attitude and charm. The life and vitality she brings to those tunes is just as real as her much remarked-upon gloomy side. Ultimately, it's up to the listener to decide what to hear as journalism and what to take as artistic interpretation.

Billie Holiday And Her Orchestra - 1939-1940 (1991) (Re-up)  Music

Posted by gribovar at Aug. 11, 2022
Billie Holiday And Her Orchestra - 1939-1940 (1991) (Re-up)

Billie Holiday And Her Orchestra - 1939-1940 (1991)
EAC Rip | FLAC (tracks+.cue+log) - 286 MB | MP3 CBR 320 kbps (LAME 3.93) - 156 MB | Covers - 7 MB
Genre: Vocal Jazz, Swing | RAR 3% Rec. | Label: Classics Records (CLASSICS 601)

This volume of the Classics Chronological series places Billie Holiday's music in historical context to an unusual degree, as her recordings for the Columbia and Commodore labels have until now been reissued separately because of copyright and catalog ownership. The songs parceled together here were recorded at a crossroads in Holiday's career. The setting for the first - in what would constitute great changes in her life and music - was Barney Josephson's Café Society Downtown. Located at 2 Sheridan Square, this was Manhattan's first fully integrated nightclub. Its clientele included a number of politically progressive intellectuals and social activists. When she first appeared at the club on December 30, 1938, Billie Holiday was known as a spunky vocalist who presented lively renditions of pop and jazz standards in what was considered an unusual yet accessible style…
Billie Holiday - Lady In Satin (1958) [Sony Mastersound, 24 KT Gold CD, 1995] (Re-up)

Billie Holiday - Lady In Satin (1958) [Sony Mastersound, 24 KT Gold CD, 1995]
EAC Rip | FLAC (image+.cue+log) - 244 MB | MP3 CBR 320 kbps (LAME 3.93) - 106 MB | Covers - 188 MB
Genre: Vocal Jazz | RAR 3% Rec. | Label: Columbia (CK 53814)

This was Billie Holiday's penultimate album, recorded when her body was telling her enough was enough. During the sessions with arranger Ray Ellis she was drinking vodka neat, as if it were tap water. Despite her ravaged voice (the sweetness had long gone), she was still an incredible singer. The feeling and tension she manages to put into almost every track set this album as one of her finest achievements. "You've Changed" and "I Get Along Without You Very Well" are high art performances from the singer who saw life from the bottom up.
Billie Holiday - Lady Sings the Blues: Billie Holiday Story Volume 4 [Recorded 1955-1956] (1995) (Re-up)

Billie Holiday - Lady Sings the Blues: Billie Holiday Story Volume 4 [Recorded 1955-1956] (1995)
EAC Rip | FLAC (tracks+.cue+log) - 287 MB | MP3 CBR 320 kbps (LAME 3.93) - 182 MB | Covers - 34 MB
Genre: Vocal Jazz | RAR 3% Rec. | Label: Verve (314 521 429-2)

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.
Billie Holiday - Recital By Billie Holiday: Billie Holiday Story Volume 3 [Recorded 1952-1954] (1994) (Re-up)

Billie Holiday - Recital By Billie Holiday: Billie Holiday Story Volume 3 [Recorded 1952-1954] (1994)
EAC Rip | WavPack (image+.cue+log) - 167 MB | MP3 CBR 320 kbps (LAME 3.93) - 116 MB | Covers - 86 MB
Genre: Vocal Jazz | RAR 3% Rec. | Label: Verve (521 868-2)

This compilation, gathered from recordings of her New York sessions in 1954, is an excellent sampler of the skills and charms of Lady Day. While the disc may appear to be just another throw-together of Holiday hits, with nothing in particular to distinguish it from the others, the arrangements, the performances and the recordings themselves are all wonderful. Backed by tight, laid-back session musicians (Oscar Peterson plays piano on many of the tracks–check out his solo on "Lover, Come Back to Me"), Holiday here enjoys the last full flush of her talents before health and substance abuse problems claimed her voice in the late '50s. In tracks like "He's Funny That Way" and "Softly," her raspy voice plays over melodies, caressing them, trailing off the end of phrases for emotional punctuation. Her tone is at once rich and wispy, managing simultaneously to convey vulnerability, despair, strength and sexuality…
Billie Holiday - Music For Torching: The Billie Holiday Story Volume 5 [Recorded 1955] (1995) (Re-up)

Billie Holiday - Music For Torching: The Billie Holiday Story Volume 5 [Recorded 1955] (1995)
EAC Rip | WavPack (image+.cue+log) - 320 MB | MP3 CBR 320 kbps (LAME 3.93) - 181 MB | Covers - 122 MB
Genre: Vocal Jazz | RAR 3% Rec. | Label: Verve (527 455-2)

The overall feeling on this 1955 recording, which was originally titled Velvet Mood, is strictly after-hours: the party is long over but a few close friends remain for nightcaps and, is that the sun peeking through the windowà? With slow tempo songs outnumbering not-so-slow songs fourteen to four, producer Norman Granz may or may not have had concept album on his mind. Whatever the case, he brought together a brilliant cross-section of cats who evidently put Billie entirely at ease and in the mood - no small feat when one considers her spotty later recordings.
Lady Day's renderings here of "It Had to Be You" and "Isn't This a Lovely Day?" are timeless gems…

Billie Holiday - Stay With Me (1958) [Reissue 1991] (Re-up)  Music

Posted by gribovar at June 26, 2022
Billie Holiday - Stay With Me (1958) [Reissue 1991] (Re-up)

Billie Holiday - Stay With Me (1958) [Reissue 1991]
EAC Rip | FLAC (image+.cue+log) - 177 MB | MP3 CBR 320 kbps (LAME 3.93) - 100 MB | Covers - 13 MB
Genre: Vocal Jazz | RAR 3% Rec. | Label: Verve (511 523-2)

Featuring recordings from February 1955 and released in 1958, Stay with Me is a late entry in Billie Holiday's career. She was fading, but hadn't lost the dramatic quality in her delivery, nor her ability to project and tell a shattering story. She's backed by trumpeter Charlie Shavers, pianist Oscar Peterson, guitarist Herb Ellis, bassist Ray Brown, and drummer Ed Shaughnessy.

Billie Holiday - Solitude (1952) [Reissue 1993] (Re-up)  Music

Posted by gribovar at June 23, 2022
Billie Holiday - Solitude (1952) [Reissue 1993] (Re-up)

Billie Holiday - Solitude (1952) [Reissue 1993]
EAC Rip | WavPack (image+.cue+log) - 183 MB | MP3 CBR 320 kbps (LAME 3.93) - 122 MB | Covers - 60 MB
Genre: Vocal Jazz | RAR 3% Rec. | Label: Verve (519 810-2)

Billie Holiday's first recordings for Norman Granz' Clef Records present a vocalist truly at the top of her craft, although she would begin a rapid decline soon thereafter. This 1952 recording (originally issued as a 10" LP, Billie Holiday Sings) places Holiday in front of small piano and tenor saxophone-led groups including jazz luminaries such as Oscar Peterson and Charlie Shavers, where her gentle phrasing sets the tone for the sessions, evoking lazy evenings and dreamy afternoons. The alcoholism and heroin use that would be her downfall by the end of this decade seems to be almost unfathomable during these recordings since Holiday is in as fine a voice as her work in the '30s, and the musical environment seems ideal for these slow torch songs…
Teddy Wilson & His Orchestra with Billie Holiday - Too Hot for Words [Recorded 1935] (1989) (Re-up)

Teddy Wilson & His Orchestra with Billie Holiday - Too Hot for Words [Recorded 1935] (1989)
EAC Rip | FLAC (tracks+.cue+log) - 182 MB | MP3 CBR 320 kbps (LAME 3.93) - 143 MB | Covers - 3 MB
Genre: Jazz, Swing, Vocal Jazz | RAR 3% Rec. | Label: Hep Records (HEP CD 1012)

The Hep series of Teddy Wilson recordings has been largely superseded by the more complete Classics program. This release has 16 titles from Wilson's first four recording sessions as a leader of all-star bands (skipping his solo piano records). Since Billie Holiday has vocals on 14 of the 16 songs (every one except "Sweet Lorraine" and "Sugar Plum"); this material has been reissued numerous times, but the performances do contain their fair share of classics.