Billie Holiday - The Billie Holiday Songbook (CD) NEW

Digitally remastered by Dennis Drake (Polygram Studios).

This compilation includes some of the best-known songs from Billie Holiday's repertoire, originals and standards recorded during the final decade of her career. This terribly painful and difficult period of Holiday's personal life yielded some of the most poignant and soulful jazz recordings ever. A number of them, rendered in the frayed and weary voice of the mature chanteuse, are included on the SONGBOOK.

While up-tempo songs like "What a Little Moonlight Can Do" suffer from Holiday's lack of energy (contrasted by Oscar Peterson's vivid piano work), "Don't Explain," arguably her best original, is darkly brooding, rich and compelling. Holiday's voice in this late period has lost its shine and the sense of hope that infused its early incarnation. But her incomparable sense of time and phrasing is intact and alive, and the all-star ensembles gracefully shadow Holiday's dreamy singing.