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The Complete Billie Holiday w/The Ellingtonians 1935-37




Each of Duke Ellington's musicians was himself a star and, whenever the occasions arose to play with complete freedom, that is to say, away from Duke's strict rules and regulations, wonderful and amazing things ocurred. 

The most surprising was that, when the very same musicians (who were responsible for the unique Ellington sound) met together, away from their normal ducal environment, the result was a music totally unrelated to it and a new indefinable unified style (a sort of cohesiveness) emerged. 

Each personality interlaced and fitted together without any prevaling or interfering attempt so that the most stimulating jazz always and irrepressibly sprang forth. 

Then, if besides all that, a temperament such as that of Teddy Wilson's joined them, that cohesiveness touched new heights bringing into life on every ocassion, unforgettable artistic events so ecclectic (though so orthodox) was his perfect harmonic support.

 Consequently, we didn't miss the opportunity to put together a few of those events, the bonus being Miss Billie Holiday. Billie, in those days, had reached the summit of her expressive powers, and her fusion with the Ellingtonians simply gave even more prominence to the events we have just referred to. 

Everything in this compilation emphasizes a universal feeling of timelessness in which sadness, hapiness and all the perceptible shades and nuances of the human condition are there to be seen and felt as a kind of accusatory lesson which everyone, everywhere should experience absolutely. All musicians were speaking, although with their own individual accents a common language which unquestionably was that of Louis Armstrong. 

This is why we deflected from the chronology to insert "Sun Showers" and "Yours And Mine" by Louis himself (just after Billie's version) which supports this statement. - From liner notes by Alesandro Protti & Roberto Capasso


01 Big City Blues (D. Ellington) 2:26
02 These 'n' That 'n' Those (Fairchild, Pascal) 3:14
03 You Let Me Down (Dubin, Warren) 2:54
04 Spreadin' Rythm Around (Koehler, McHugh) 2:56
05 It's Like Reaching For The Moon (Lewis, Marqusee, Sherman) 3:22
06 These Foolish Things (Marvell, Strachey, Walker) 3:19
07 I Cried For You (Arnheim, Freed, Lyman) 3:13
08 Guess Who? (Freed, Lane) 3:11
09 Easy To Love (Porter) 3:13
10 With Thee I Swing (Adlam, Hyde, Stillman) 3:18
11 The Way You Look Tonight (Fields, Kern) 3:02
12 Who Loves You? Coots, Davis) 3:16
13 Pennies From Heaven (Burke, Johnson) 3:17
14 That's Life I Guess (DeRose, Lewis) 3:10
15 I Can't Give You Anything But Love (Fields, McHugh) 3:28
16 Carelessly (Ellis, Kenny, Kenny) 3:08
17 How Could You? (Dubin, Warren) 2:31
18 Moanin' Low (Deitz, Rainger) 3:02
19 Sun Showers (Brown, Freed) 3:08
20 Sun Showers (Brown, Freed) 2:40
21 Yours And Mine (Brown, Freed) 3:17
22 Yours And Mine (Brown, Freed) 2:40
23 I'll Get By (Ahlert, Turk) 3:09
24 Mean To Me (Ahlert, Turk) 3:08