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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: BeverlyD on 10/07/2007 3:31PM
Lady Day. 'Nuff said. "Strange Fruit" is my favorite tune. I hope it is a part of this compilation. Everyone should hear that melodious imagery of a time that has come back to haunt. There is one singer of today that reminds me of her - Erykah Badu.
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By: msbee on 10/07/2007 4:52PM
yes billie holiday was one of a kind....has anyone
here ever listened to chrisette michele?.....she has
an uncanny sound reminiscent to billie holiday....if
there was anyone who could do a soundtrack of a
holiday movie...or remake some of ms. holiday's songs
chrisette michele is the one.
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By: martinblack on 10/07/2007 10:09PM
strange fruit is still going on 2day.
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By: badgirl on 10/08/2007 12:27AM
Strangefruit is one of my favorites too. I first heard it in lady sings the blues. If you saw the movie you can see where her mindset was for this song.And you are right Martin it's still going on today as we speak.Look at Jena 6.I'm sure this collection is going to be the bomb.I think Jill Scott could do well with this music also.
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