By Karu F. Daniels, AOL Black Voices
The musical legacy of late, great jazz icon Billie Holiday continues to live on with recent releases of new projects from her vast catalogue of recordings.
Last week, Columbia/Legacy released the four-CD opus 'Lady Day: The Master Takes And Singles,' a culmination of eighty commercially recorded songs that were issued during Holiday's heyday.
'What A Little Moonlight Can Do,' 'Miss Brown To You,' 'These Foolish Things,' 'Summertime,' 'Billie's Blues,' 'A Fine Romance,' 'The Way You Look Tonight,' 'Pennies From Heaven,' 'Night And Day,' 'The Man I Love,' ' "Georgia On My Mind,' and her signature song 'God Bless The Child,' were originally released as 78 rpm A-sides and/or B-sides on the Brunswick, Vocalion, Columbia, OKeh, and Harmony labels.
Holiday recorded the music during her most formative years, represent 35 recording sessions, from 1935 to 1942 when she was in her early 20s.
The master takes were drawn from Grammy Award-winning 10-CD box set of 2001 and also includes a 4,000 critical biographical liner notes essay by Grammy winner Gary Giddins.
And for more avant-garde jazz fans – or ones seeking more of a contemporary twist – he 14-track anthology 'Billie Holiday: Remixed & Reimagined' was also released, featuring some of the most sought after producers/remixers reinterpretations of Holiday's classic recordings.
Comments: (14)
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By: speechless on 10/07/2007 9:04PM
I LOVE BILLIE HOLIDAY. I HAVE READ A COUPLE OF BIOS ON HER AND HER MUSIC---WONDERFUL...SHE HAS A VOICE THAT CANNOT BE COPIED BY ANYONE, EVEN THOUGH PEOPLE HAVE TRIED...PEOPLE, READ A BOOK ON HER LIFE...SHE HAD A HARD TIME..I PLAN TO GET HER CD.
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By: jazztheologian on 10/04/2007 3:43PM
I'd stand in line all night to get my hands on a set of these recordings...she was the best.
jt
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By: Swingin' At The Savoy on 10/04/2007 4:52PM
Now this, is music!
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By: JOE CAPRIO/CITYLIFEPRODUCTIONS on 10/04/2007 9:11PM
HER VOICE WAS THEN AND WOULD BE NOW SECOND TO NONE I REPEAT NONE.
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By: Anthony O. Vann on 10/07/2007 8:57AM
A true Legend!
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By: Nat on 10/07/2007 9:34AM
Billy is and always will be, simply the best.
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By: TAMRA on 10/07/2007 11:42AM
this weekend i heard a song of hers on a cnn special the song was strange fruit...............i think that people everywhere should take the time to listen to the song download it(leagally) and listen to the lyrics............... and then tell me what you think of her........i think she is absolutley amazing..her music trascends time...and this song is so relevant for today especially with the whole noose foolishness........
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By: liz on 10/07/2007 12:44PM
Billie was the greatest singer in America,but was badly treated by the Police.
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By: SayWhat on 10/08/2007 2:04PM
Even when I was a little girl, I have loved Billie Holiday, but I feel that the movie that stared Diana Ross should be revamped with another actress. She didn't loook like Billie Holiday, she sure didn't sound like Billie Holiday. I will forever feel this way because I think that an actress doing a biography should be so be so uncanny that you think it's the actal person you are looking at on the screen. Someone please do the movie over.
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By: Sarah on 10/07/2007 2:27PM
there is no other voice as great as Billie's she was one of the best I grew up listening to her songs and believe me at that time that was the only music you heard was jazz. I am glad to hear this I will be one of the first to collect on these great songs from the best. Billie Holiday. I am truly glad.
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