This is a welcome reissue (supplemented by “bonuses”) of live recordings made by Billie on her Jazz Club U.S.A. European tour, organized by Leonard Feather in 1954. The first eight tracks – all familiar Holiday favourites – have her accompanied by pianist Carl Drinkard, bassist Red Mitchell and drummer Elaine Leighton.
She’s in surprisingly good voice, given the strains of travel and personal problems including drug and alcohol dependency. Her diction is clear and she receives sympathetic and propulsive support from her trio. Her rendition of I Cover The Waterfront – in response to an audience request – is equal to any of her previously recorded versions.
The longest performance (Billie’s Blues) from the Basel concert benefits from good acoustics and the contributions of Red Norvo, Jimmy Raney, Buddy DeFranco and Red Mitchell. It received a rapturous audience response. Whitney Balliett said “We hear the Billie Holiday of 1939. Her voice is smooth and her pitch perfect. Her phrasing has that languorous quality she gave the blues, and her feelings are unavoidably clear, just below the skin of the melody. It was an astonishing rejuvenation.”
Lover Come Back To Me is almost as good. Drinkard’s and DeFranco’s solos are especially effective. Three “bonus” tracks involve Haywood Henry (ts, bar), Bobby Tucker (p) and Tiny Grimes (g) with unknown bass and drums in New York, 29 April 1951. The next track has Billie (curiously) in the company of Paul Whiteman and his large orchestra complete with strings, and a 1942 studio recording of Trav’lin’ Light. Not an essential item in her discography.
The remaining eight tracks are taken from a concert recorded in Brussels on 24 January 1954. Billie is again accompanied by Drinkard, Mitchell and Leighton. She delivers short but sprightly versions of Them There Eyes, What A Little Moonlight Can Do and her own haunting composition Fine And Mellow.
Striking photographs, informative notes by Charles Boldt, John S. Wilson and Leonard Feather, reflections by Roy Eldridge and Miles Davis and the original liner notes by African-American poet and playwright LeRoi Jones (“Sometimes you are afraid to listen to this lady”) make this a collection to treasure.
Discography
(1) Announcement by Leonard Feather; Blue Moon; All Of Me; My Man; Them There Eyes; I Cried For You; What A Little Moonlight Can Do; I Cover The Waterfront; (2) Billie’s Blues; Lover Come Back To Me (3) Blue Turning Gray Over You; Be Fair To Me Baby (aka Be Fair To Me); (3) Rocky Mountain Blues; Detour Ahead; (4) Trav’lin’ Light; (5) He’s Funny That Way; All Of Me; My Man; Them There Eyes; I Cried For You; Don’t Explain; Fine And Mellow; What A Little Moonlight Can Do (74.51)
Holiday (v) on all tracks with:
(1) Carl Drinkard (p); Red Mitchell (b); Elaine Leighton (d).
(2) Red Norvo (vib); Buddy De Franco; Haywood Henry (ts, bar (cl); Jimmy Rainey (g); Sonny Clark, Beryl Booker (p); Mitchell (b); Leighton (d).
(3) Haywood Henry (ts, bar); Bobby Tucker (p); Tiny Grimes (g); unknown bass & drums.
(4) Paul Whiteman Orchestra. Los Angeles, 12 June 1942.
(5) Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels, Belgium, 24 January 1954.
(6) Drinkard (p); Mitchell (b); Leighton (p).
Other dates dates and locations include Basel, Switzerland, 4 February 1954; New York, 29 April 1951; Los Angeles, 12 June 1951.
Poll Winners Records PWR 27344
