Vinylogy label presents the new 5CD box set including 5 original albums of the great artists. All the recordings are digitally remastered in superb high quality sound by 32bit/44,1kHz sampling rate. Each of the discs are packed in a beautiful miniature LP paper sleeve. The best choice for music fans and collectors. Album list: Disc 1.Billie Holiday At Jazz At The Philharmonic / Disc 2. Music for Torching / Disc 3. Lady sings the Blues / Disc 4. Velvet Mood / Disc 5. Rare West Coast Recordings.
While it can't hope to compete with the impressive box sets of her work or even more specialized single-disc collections, 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Billie Holiday still manages to present a fair amount of her most definitive work from the '40s, even though it's only 12 tracks long. "Strange Fruit," "Lover Man," "Lady Sings the Blues," and "My Man" are all here, along with "Fine and Mellow," "'Tain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do," and "I Loves You Porgy." Not surprisingly since its track listing is so small, this collection is somewhat unfocused and definitely incomplete, but it offers a tantalizing taste of Billie Holiday's most musically fruitful period.
Arguably the most iconic and lastingly influential jazz singer of all time, Billie Holiday expressed an incredible depth of emotion that spoke of hard times and injustice as well as triumph. With accompaniment by some of the finest bands of the era, these classic tracks were recorded during her creative heyday when her voice was at its potent best.
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…
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.