At some point, you might come across a review of Billie Holiday's later work that criticizes her diminished skills, lack of fire, and inconsistency. You'd be wise to disregard it.
While the above assessment may have some merit, her wrenching delivery, emotional realism, raw tone, and wonderfully personal phrasing more than atone for other perceived weaknesses. Years of drug addiction, alcohol abuse, and general misery had indeed taken their toll on her voice, but her performances from her last decade drip with pathos, her voice quivering, her phrases taking on new meaning, and her songs steeped with sadness and despair.
The set opens with four cuts from a 1946 Jazz at the Philharmonic concert from Los Angeles' Embassy Theater. Her pained readings of "Strange Fruit" and "Travelin' Light" show enormous sensitivity while her swaggering "All of Me" reveals a certain indifference to her relationship's outcome. Two cuts from the following year find her voice a bit worn, but her performances that much more impassioned, especially on "I Cover the Waterfront."
We then jump to studio sessions of 1952 with Oscar Peterson's group in support. Four of these numbers include the steady hand of Count Basie's rhythm guitarist Freddie Green. The intervening five years seem more like 50 years in terms of the rasp in her voice. Still, nobody ever delivered songs of loss and betrayal with as much honesty. "Tenderly" receives especially sensitive embellishments from Charlie Shavers and Flip Phillips while Lady Day poignantly reflects on past love. Even as her voice slips out of key on "Autumn in New York," the result is riveting. On the session with Green (billed as Her Lads of Joy), her voice sounds a bit rejuvenated. She's defiant on "My Man" and almost perky on "Yesterdays," with Peterson switching to organ on the latter.
Three cuts from 1954 appear next, with Holiday recapturing the old magic on "What a Little Moonlight Can Do," with Shavers spurring her on, and "I Cried For You." By August of 1955, her voice had lost considerable range although her incomparable vibrato proves an able substitute. Five songs are included from this period, with "Sweets" Edison, Benny Carter, Jimmy Rowles, and Barney Kessel on board. "Nice Work If You Can Get It" features a wonderful trumpet break from Edison and some nifty phrasing from Holiday. "God Bless the Child," her trademark composition, comes from a 1956 date with Tony Scott's orchestra and includes an interesting "cowboy" introduction.
Tenor saxist (and former Holiday companion) Ben Webster joins Edison, Rowles, and Kessel on six tunes culled from August 1956 and January 1957. Webster's deliciously warm and understated lines enhance the melancholy mood. Kessel's blues-drenched guitar and Webster's ethereal solo boost "Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You" as Holiday proves she's still capable of convincing vocal performances, using dramatic slurs and low growls to her benefit.
The eerie finale "Don't Worry About Me" was recorded a mere three months before her death. The innocence of the harp and strings plays ironically against Holiday's fragile, wavering delivery.
Chilling, anguished performances from start to finish.
If you like Billie Holiday, check out:
Sarah Vaughan With Clifford Brown
Mildred Bailey Harlem Lullaby
Billie Holiday Fine and Mellow
Macy Gray On How Life Is
-- Marc Greilsamer
