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Billie Holiday - Complete Decca Recordings 1944-50

"Real" jazz fans often prefer these 1944-50 recordings over Holiday's earlier, big band-flavored recordings. Certainly she was at her stateliest and perhaps most subtle on these sensuous, restrained ballads... 

This was also the period in her life when her private life, and her drug problems in particular, became painfully public. At the start of this collection, in 1944, Holiday was at the peak of her professional career, gaining awards as the best jazz singer in America. By the end of the decade, the hounds were on her trail. 

None of this seems to have effected these Decca sessions much, though -- all these songs are quite sublime. Even with the often-questionable jazzophile inclusion of alternate takes of the same song set side-by-side, these two CDs flow well and present a lovely picture of Holiday at the height of her powers. The music is less jazz-oriented in its backing than were the earlier Columbia and Commodore or later Verve recordings, but these are superb vocal performances, including matchless renderings of "Lover Man," "Don't Explain," and "Solitude."

 Holiday achieved the highest level that torch singing has ever known, creating consummately expressive, almost etched renditions that are richly nuanced, often enhanced by tasteful string arrangements. Holiday's deepest musical sources are strongly evident in songs associated with Bessie Smith, including the earthy "Gimme a Pigfoot (and a Bottle of Beer)," and two spirited duets with Louis Armstrong.

This double CD includes the careful orchestrations of Sy Oliver and Gordon Jenkins, among others. Arguably the most important recordings of Billie Holiday to own.