A great album – if not just for the Billie Holiday work, then for the titles by Ralph Burns! Side one features 7 classic Holiday tunes – including "Strange Fruit", "The Man I Love", and "All Of Me" – all done in straight Verve mode, which is nice enough. But the real treat is on side two, which features The Free Forms of Ralph Burns, with main soloist Lee Konitz – the modern altoist at the height of his early powers! The set's got 8 original tunes by Burns, which provide a perfect foil for Konitz's icy tone – and the record's a key bit of modernism, in the spirit of Verve's best jazz-with-backing mode. Titles include "Terresita", "Spring Is", "Tantallion", "Places Please", and "Someday, Somewhere". CD