To tell you the truth, I simply own too many Billie Holiday albums. About once a year I make a vain attempt to sort through the hundred-some-odd titles, fully intending to unload the non-essentials...but with no luck.
Maybe that’s the thing about Lady Day—she remains so essential that even another collection of familiar material takes on a whole new meaning. That brings us to Love Songs, a collection released by Legacy and part of an ongoing series that includes Duke Ellington, Johnny Mathis, Dave Brubeck and others.
This set covers the years 1935 through 1942, offering a fine sampling of Holiday’s take on songs penned by Porter, Mercer, Kahn, the Gershwins and many more. As much as Billie is known for expressing loss of love, she could also invoke the joy of love, as she does here on the 1937 recording of “I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm,” featuring the talents of Teddy Wilson on piano, Ben Webster on tenor saxophone and John Kirby on bass.
Yet that’s just a start—as is often the case on Holiday’s recordings, one uncovers a virtual who’s who of jazz. This set is no exception. The chilling “Night and Day” from 1939 features one of six appearances by master tenor saxophonist Lester “Pres” Young, a frequent Holiday collaborator during this time. The recording is one of many examples of Lady Day’s impeccable lyrical phrasing and yearning for that ultimate love object.
Other highlights include the 1938 recording of “You Go To My Head”, “Until the Real Thing Comes Along” from 1942, and the stellar 1936 version of “The Way You Look Tonight” with Teddy Wilson and His Orchestra. All in all, this highly-recommended set of 16 gems from the deep vaults of Columbia is a perfect slice of Billie for both experts and amateurs.
If you are interested in a deeper study, lay out the bucks for Lady Day - The Complete Billie Holiday, also on Legacy—an unsurpassed completist’s collection. Looks like I’m gonna keep both.
Gotta have it? Buy it now!
