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Great Commodore label material from pianist Eddie Heywood – and Billie Holiday sings on four of the album's twelve tracks!

An excellent collection of Billie's 30s work for Columbia Records – featuring 3LPs worth of material, represented with much better sound than the original 78 rpm release of the songs. Billie's in the company of a host of great jazzmen – including Count Basie, Lester Young, Teddy Wilson, Charlie Shavers, Artie Shaw, Cozy Cole, Roy Eldridge, Red Allen, and countless others. 48 tracks in all – with titles that include "Your Mother's Son In Law", "Riffin The Scotch", "Them There Eyes", "Without Your Love", "Swing Brother Swing", "Back In Your Own Back Yard", "You Go To My Head", "Long Gone Blues", "I Can't Get Started", "All Of Me", "God Bless The Child", and "Gloomy Sunday".

Titles include "My Man", "Lover Man", "I Cover The Waterfront", "Them There Eyes", and "The Same Old Story".

A well-done collection of Billie's early work – featuring sides from the late 30s recorded for Brunswick, Vocalion, and Columbia – all laid out in Chronological order, with full details on the sessions! Titles include "Without Your Love", "This Year's Kisses", "I Can't Give You Anything But Love", "Your Mother's Son In Law", "No Regrets", "Easy To Love", "A Fine Romance", and "Long Gone Blues".

Amazing stuff – a really incredible dip into the life, mind, and music of Billie Holiday – with some rare studio banter that's almost as compelling as her famous recordings for Verve! Amazing package, too – a real standard-setter for CDs when it came out!

A pretty cool relic of Billie's private life – rehearsal material that has her sounding a bit less in control than usual – even somewhat tipsy at times! Jimmy Rowles is on piano and Artie Shapiro is on bass.

A very unusual concert from Billie Holiday – one that features narration by Gilbert Millstein, telling the story of Billie's life! The format is quite unusual – almost a live documentary, with the subject of the documentary there in person herself! Millstein narrates from the start, and Billie emerges with songs throughout – using Millstein's narration to bracket portions of her career, then delivering the tunes associated with that portion. Backing is by an all-hip group that includes Coleman Hawkins, Kenny Burrell, Chico Hamilton, Roy Eldridge, and Buck Clayton – and titles include "I Cried For You", "My Man", "Don't Explain", "Lady Sings The Blues", "Body & Soul", "I Love My Man", and "Yesterdays".

Titles include "Miss Brown To You", "If You Were Mine", "What A Little Moonlight Can Do", "Billie's Blues", "I Cried For You", "I Must Have That Man", and "Easy Living".

A full LP issue of singles that Billie Holiday recorded for Decca during the mid and late 40s – all small group sessions, with occasional added instrumentation on small string sections, or vocals. The sides are a nice counterpoint to Billie's work for Verve and Columbia – as the players differ nicely on many of the numbers, and a few tracks even feature a backing vocal group! Titles include "Lover Man", "Old Devil Called Love", "Porgy", "Girls Were Meant To Take Care Of Boys", "This Is Heaven To Me", "There Is No Greater Love", and "Solitude".

Classic Verve material. Billie sings in a warm relaxed setting, with great small combo backing, and piano by Mal Waldron. The record is one of the best we could recommend on the label – and it includes lots of nice tracks like "Everything Happens To Me", "I Wished On The Moon", and "Say It Isn't So".

Seminal 50s recordings from Billie Holiday!

A nice collection that features one track by Billie Holiday with Paul Whiteman – plus work by Al Casey, Sid Catlett, Rex Stewart, and Sonny Greer.

About as classic as you can get for Billie Holiday on Verve – a wonderfully intimate small group session, recorded with top-shelf players and a smokey torchy mood! Billie's in her later years by the time of the set, but somehow singing with even more emotion and life – working with a group that includes Benny Carter, Jimmy Rowles, Harry Edison, Larry Bunker, and John Simmons – on tracks that include "It Had To Be You", "A Fine Romance", "Gone With The Wind", "Isn't It A Lovely Day", "Ghost Of A Chance", and "Come Rain Or Come Shine".

A great little record that really lives up to the Wonderland in the title – as it's a really rich place for vocalist Bajka to open up and do her thing – stretching out wonderfully here, after some key previous work on singles and remix projects! Bajka's got a voice that's instantly recognizable – almost a 21st Century Billie Holiday approach – with nice raspy edges, and a mix of sadness and warmth that really goes past other contemporary singers on records like this! Backings are great too – handled with plenty of righteous jazz touches at times, thanks to work from Jerker Kluge, who you'll know as the leader and bassist in Deep Jazz. Every bit as hip as we could have hoped for – and titles include "The Hunting", "The Barrister's Dream", "The Baker's Tale", "The Vanishing", and "The Landing".

A mixture of folksy and jazzy vocals from singer Susan Carter – part of the Laurel Canyon scene of the late 60s! Although Susan was one of the "Ladies Of The Canyon", she's got a sound here that's much more wider-ranging than that of Joni Mitchell – a unique mixture of jazz and rock influences that come across with a different sound on nearly every track on the set. The arranger for the album is Dick Halligan, who we've never heard of before – but who should get a lot of credit for the way that he mixes together odd phrasings and timings to match the shifting styles of Susan's vocals. Titles include "I'm So Tired", "I Need A Good Man Bad", "Medley For Billie Holiday", "Bluebird", and "Jam Session".

Enigmatic folk rock and soulful bluesy vocals from Karen Dalton – her legendary lost 1971 album that's credited with inspiring some the most idiosyncratic work by folk rock superstars and contemporary freak folk heroes alike! Karen was a fixture on the 60s NY folk scene – Dylan even gives her props in his Chronicles Vol 1 memoirs – but she rarely recorded. Her voice carries a huge Billie Holiday influence – but the delivery is wholly unique in her earthy folk phrasing, a real dip back into Harry Smith territory. Her guitar and banjo picking is strong, too! In My Own Time was recorded for Paramount at the end of 1970 and beginning of '71, with really rich and surprisingly soulful backing on an interesting selection of material written or popularized by Dylan & The Band, George Jones, Paul Butterfield, and even a folksy soul take on "When A Man Loves A Woman". Light In The Attic shines a huge light for this reverential reissue – pristinely remastered, with a thick booklet of liner notes by Lenny Kaye, Nick Cave and Devendra Banhart. Other tracks include "Something On Your Mind", "In My Own Dream", the traditional "Katie Cruel", "One Night Of Love" and "Are You Leaving For The Country".

Enigmatic folk rock and soulful bluesy vocals from Karen Dalton – her legendary lost 1971 album that's credited with inspiring some the most idiosyncratic work by folk rock superstars and contemporary freak folk heroes alike! Karen was a fixture on the 60s NY folk scene – Dylan even gives her props in his Chronicles Vol 1 memoirs – but she rarely recorded. Her voice carries a huge Billie Holiday influence – but the delivery is wholly unique in her earthy folk phrasing, a real dip back into Harry Smith territory. Her guitar and banjo picking is strong, too! In My Own Time was recorded for Paramount at the end of 1970 and beginning of '71, with really rich and surprisingly soulful backing on an interesting selection of material written or popularized by Dylan & The Band, George Jones, Paul Butterfield, and even a folksy soul take on "When A Man Loves A Woman". Light In The Attic shines a huge light for this reverential reissue – pristinely remastered with notes by Lenny Kaye, Nick Cave and Devendra Banhart. Other tracks include "Something On Your Mind", "In My Own Dream", the traditional "Katie Cruel", "One Night Of Love" and "Are You Leaving For The Country".

A weird batch of folksy rock tunes – composed and produced by Harley Hatcher for Sidewalk Enterprises, and sounding a lot more like a Sidewalk or Tower soundtrack than something on RCA. The groups are the usual obscurities that would show up on a Mike Curb soundtrack – pictured on the back cover, but still leaving us to wonder if they really existed at all. Tracks include "Holiday Rider" by The Saturday Revue, "Jailer Let Me Go Home" and "A Hurt In My Heart" by Don Epperson, "Playin Hard To Get" by Billie & Blue, and "Wine Women & Song" by Terry Stafford.

Great work from this solo member of the Paris Sisters – stepping out here in two obscure late 60s albums, plus some rare bonus tracks too! First up is the album Priscilla Sings Herself – tracks that show Priscilla as a surprisingly great songwriter on her own – working in music that goes way deeper than her pop of a few years before, with moody moments and deeper strains that echo some of the hipper singer/songwriter material at the time. Don Peake handles the arrangements, often with gentle orchestrations that work well with Paris' style of singing – on tracks that include "I'm Home", "Stone Is Very Very Cold", "He Owns The World", "My Window", and "Wandering". Next is the rare Priscilla Sings Billie – an unusual take on the music of Billie Holiday, done with a relatively sweet feel overall! Paris is definitely trying for Holiday's tone at times – but her sound is always a bit warmer and airier – almost as if Claudine Longet were doing a tribute to Billie, with a spacious late 60s feel that's almost A&M at times! Backings are by Sid Feller and Don Peake, and players on the date include Jimmy Rowles on piano, Jim Crutcher on bass, John Guerin on drums, and Peake on guitar – plus a bit of added strings. Titles include "In My Solitude", "Girls Were Made To Take Care Of Boys", "Just Friends", "I Love You Porgy", and "My Man". CD is completed by four rare bonus tracks – including "Some Little Lovin Lie", "Twelve Twenty Nine", and "By The Time I Get To Phoenix".

Includes tracks by James P Johnson, Herman Chittison, Joe Venuti & His Orchestra, Benny Carter & His Orchestra, Billy Kyle & His Swing Band, Coleman Hawkins Quartet, Sidney Bechet Quartet, the Gotham Stompers, Muggsy Spanier & His Ragtime Band, Ella Fitzgerald & Her Orchestra, Billie Holiday, and the Three Peppers.

Classic jazz at a great price – and the complete original tunes used in the 3rd volume of the Verve Remixed project! The package offers a whopping great batch of older vocal work from the Verve, Mercury, and Philips catalogs – all for a price that's hardly more than that of a fancy cup of coffee at the kind of places that like to play older vocal work a heck of a lot! Titles include "Speak Low" by Billie Holiday, "Peter Gunn" by Sarah Vaughan, "Come Dance With Me" by Shirley Horn, "Just One Of Those Things" by Blossom Dearie, "Gentle Rain" by Astrud Gilberto, "Stay Loose" by Jimmy Smith, "Baby Did You Hear" by Dinah Washington, "Lilac Wine" by Nina Simone, "The Boy's Doin It" by Hugh Masekela, and "Fever" by Sarah Vaughan.

Singer Cyrille Aimee gets help from some great "friends" here – a tight quintet with Roy Hargrove on trumpet, Joel Frahm on tenor, and Spike Wilner on piano – really helping set up her vocals with a solid instrumental footing! Aimee's got a slight Billie Holiday quality to her phrasing – at least in the way her tone comes across – but the set's a mix of numbers that move way past traditional jazz vocal numbers, thanks partly to the way the group is swinging the rhythms, and bringing in a more contemporary vibe overall. Titles include a nice Wilner original – "East Village Inamorata" – plus "Yesterdays", "Que Reste Il", "I Was Beginning To See The Light", "When I Was A Child", "I Mean You", and "Stand By Me".

A beautiful record from Japanese vocalist Kimiko Kasai – sung in English as a tribute to Billie Holiday, but in a style that's wonderfully all its own! Backing is by Holiday's old pianist Mal Waldron, and the quality of the set is exquisite – way more than the simple knock-off sound-a-like one you'd expect. Instead, Kasai and Waldron come up with a whole new reading of the songs, taking them generations past Holiday's original work, recorded very much in the mode of some of the best Japanese small combo sessions of the 70s. Recorded in Japan, and issued here in the US version, with the tracks "Don't Explain", "My Man", "Yesterdays", and "Left Alone".

Three hip European jazz talents from the 70s – all working here in rare performances from the Jazz Live Trio! The first half of the set features wonderful vocals from Karin Krog – very open and free, at a level that's right up there with her hippest studio sides of the 70s – although maybe not as totally abstract as some of the mellower ones – and instead very far-reaching and experimental, in ways that make this recording one of her most striking of the time! The group's driven by great piano from Klaus Koenig – and titles include "Fontana Barberini", "Sing Me Softly Of The Blues", "Nightmare", and "Lament". Next is a different set of vocals from Miriam Klein – an overlooked German singer from the time, and one with a voice that has a lot of Billie Holiday elements overall. The small group setting is perfect for the mood of the material – and for Klein's presentation – and titles include "Little Waltz", "Come Rain Come Shine", "I Love My Man", and "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen". And last, but not least, trumpeter Enrico Rava really takes off – blowing on a long "Improvised Sequence" with the trio – stretching out for 15 minutes, and hitting some of his best bold tones of the time!

A rare and exceptional vocal jazz LP – cut by the obscure Marilyn Moore, then the wife of Al Cohn – who's pictured in profile on the cover of the record! Marilyn's got a style that's somewhat raspy – clearly inspired by Billie Holiday at times, and not what you'd expect in comparison to some of the cooler, clearer female singers who worked on Bethlehem in the 50s. The backing is in a small group mode – with Cohn on tenor and bass clarinet, plus Don Abney on piano, Joe Wilder on trumpet, Barry Galbraith on guitar, Milt Hinton on bass, and Osie Johnson on drums – all in a nicely relaxed mode to fit the mellow, moody sound of the record. There's a nice sense of darkness throughout – a bit more edge than you might expect – and titles include "Trouble Is A Man", "Ill Wind", "Born To Blow The Blues", "Lover Come Back To Me", and "You're Driving Me Crazy".

Breathily beautiful work from singer Priscilla Paris – an unusual take on the music of Billie Holiday, done with a relatively sweet feel overall! Paris is definitely trying for Holiday's tone at times – but her sound is always a bit warmer and airier – almost as if Claudine Longet were doing a tribute to Billie, with a spacious late 60s feel that's almost A&M at times! Backings are by Sid Feller and Don Peake, and players on the date include Jimmy Rowles on piano, Jim Crutcher on bass, John Guerin on drums, and Peake on guitar – plus a bit of added strings. Titles include "In My Solitude", "Girls Were Made To Take Care Of Boys", "Just Friends", "I Love You Porgy", and "My Man".

Some of the most important recordings in the career of Sarah Vaughan – rich package of albums that really helped her refine her style strongly, and unlock an approach to jazz that nobody else could touch! Vaughan had always been a great singer, no matter what the setting – but here, she takes things a strong step forward – by mixing instrumental inspiration with careful lyrical delivery, all at a level that's quite different than Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, or any other contemporaries! Vaughan's got this mature approach that's never overdone, and never tries to call too much attention to itself – even though Sarah's singing in ways that are technically mindblowing, and set to the kinds of backings that never would have been so subtle a few years before. The beautiful package is a 7" square book – with heavy hardcovers, and lots of color images on the many pages inside – plus four CDs nestled alongside the words – containing the full albums Images, In The Land Of Hi Fi, Sarah Vaughan, At Mister Kelly's, After Hours At The London House, and No Count Sarah – plus 11 bonus tracks added to the Mister Kelly's album, and 5 more bonus tracks from the Swingin Easy record as well. 72 tracks in all – in a really lovely package!

A beautiful album by Mal Waldron – recorded in 1960, after the passing of Billie Holiday, and a very loving tribute by Waldron, who was her accompanist for a number of years. The set moves way past the usual "Holiday songbook" mode, and features instead a dark batch of tracks, two written by Waldron – "Minor Pulsation" and "Cat Walk" – a third written by him and Holiday, the famous tune "Left Alone". Jackie McLean plays some fantastic alto sax on the album's version of "Left Alone", and the rest of the tracks are trio tracks played by Waldron, Julian Euell, and Al Dreares. The set also features one very strange track – "Mal Waldron: The Way He Remembers Billie Holiday" – which is an interview with Waldron about Billie! And sure, there were many cash-in records after Billie Holiday died, but this is one of the best, and it comes from a very legitimate source! CD features 6 bonus tracks – the full stereo mix of the album!

A mixture of folksy and jazzy vocals from singer Susan Carter – part of the Laurel Canyon scene of the late 60s! Although Susan was one of the "Ladies Of The Canyon", she's got a sound here that's much more wider-ranging than that of Joni Mitchell – a unique mixture of jazz and rock influences that come across with a different sound on nearly every track on the set. The arranger for the album is Dick Halligan, who we've never heard of before – but who should get a lot of credit for the way that he mixes together odd phrasings and timings to match the shifting styles of Susan's vocals. Titles include "I'm So Tired", "I Need A Good Man Bad", "Medley For Billie Holiday", "Bluebird", and "Jam Session".

Quite an obscure little record by singer Julie Wilson – the kind of a vocalist you'd expect to come off sounding all cool and icy, but who really puts an unexpected Billie Holiday sort of spin on things – this raspy sort of soul that's way different than some of the cheesecake singers of the time! Backings are by the Ellis Larkins trio, and the format is spare and simple – with Julie singing in a sad and bluesy mode – moving in a mostly mellow mode on most numbers, yet in a style that also really helps her inflect each individual note with a hell of a lot of personality! The album's a real overlooked treasure – and titles include "Fly Me To The Moon", "Love Look Away", "You're The Greatest", "Easy Come Easy Go", "Misty", and "The Party's Over".

The only album we've ever heard from singer Martha Hayes – and a beautiful vocal jazz treasure all the way through! Martha's got this raspy style that's quite unique – neither the icy approach of other females of the modern 50s years, nor the bluesy inflections of the Billie Holiday/Dinah Washington camp, either – and instead, this way of sounding very personal right from the start – even on the album's familiar tunes, which shouldn't come across this well! The backings are part of the album's strength – some really moody, mellow, small combo sounds from a group that features pianist Steve Foster, bassist Don Russon, drummer Ray Alexander – and alto saxophonist Lou Fratturo, who doesn't play often, but really brings some light into a few tunes when he gets a chance. But clearly, it's Hayes who's the real star here – a wonderful singer that we'd love to hear more from, although we're happy to have discovered here! Titles include "Yesterdays", "Little Girl Blue", "Black Coffee", "Get Out Of Town", "By Myself", and "Good Morning Heartache".