One of Billie Holiday’s last great recordings is now reissued on vinyl.
Billie Holiday – Songs for Distingue Lovers (Verve, 2023)
Billie Holiday was never a virtuous singer like Ella Fitzgerald, but she had the ability to make listeners feel what she sang with her phrasing and tone.
This album from 1958, released a year before she died aged 44 years , is a case in point. Her voice sounds like she has lived hard, sometimes it sounds like it barely holds, but you would not trade her for any singer in the world since she projects so much feeling.
Part of the success has to do with the great band. Pianist Jimmy Rowles sounds very sympathetic to Holiday, always supporting her with small phrases which reacts to what she is singing without getting in her way. Guitarist Barney Kessel is even more discreet playing mostly rhythm guitar along with the two revolving rhythm sections which are hard to separate.
Ben Webster is the saxophonist playing beautiful, especially on the ballads. Trumpeter Harry Edison who has a bit livelier style is featured on the up-tempo songs. You get the impression that everyone listens closely to each other. One solo sound like it starts where the previous ends and all of them are telling a story together.
A great album
None of the songs are particularly associated with Billie Holiday. “One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)” is more associated with Frank Sinatra, but the artistry of Holiday is such that she makes them her own.
It is hard to mention any particular favorite track since they are all so well executed, but “Stars Fell on Alabama” has Holiday sound like her old more assured self when her phrasing starts driving the whole band. The same goes for “Day In, Day Out” where her modulation between different keys is simply perfect.
The album is not among Holiday’s most well-known recordings, and does not show her at her strongest, but it is great anyhow and could work as an introduction for those who have not heard her before.
Jazz Desk 