48 years after her passing,
Billie Holiday
was honored with a five-CD set of
Rare Live Recordings
that includes film soundtracks, concert and club performances, radio and television broadcasts, rehearsal tapes, and even a private home recording where
Lady Day
sings
"My Yiddishe Mama"
and
"God Bless the Child"
to a child! If you think you know this singer, tap into this collection and see how much more there was to her than at first meets the ear. The more or less chronological presentation maps her personal and artistic transformation between the years 1934 and 1959. Out of approximately 60 titles, seven are rendered no less than four times apiece, and three --
"Them There Eyes,"
"Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone"
-- appear in five different versions. For this reason, those who seek a nice all-purpose, easy-to-use sampler of her career should probably consult her studio recordings first.
ESP
's
set is for people who have been smitten for life and cannot possibly get enough
. The intertwined discography, biographical chronology, and extensive liner notes spread out over two booklets, are at once informative, insightful and (unfortunately) sprinkled with typographic, editorial, and even factual errors. The worst of these is a glaringly incorrect statement in reference to the
CBS
Sound of Jazz
television broadcast of December 8, 1957, whereby the producer makes the statement that "...this would also prove to be one of the last performances for baritone saxophonist
Harry Carney
." The reference was actually to tenor saxophonist
Lester Young
, who would die almost exactly four months before the passing of
in 1959. (
Carney
, of course, lived for another 17 years as the bass clef backbone of the
Duke Ellington Orchestra
.) Furthermore, the amazing rehearsal tapes are only partially represented here; they were reissued in their entirety on CD in 2006 as
Songs & Conversations: The Lost Billie Holiday Session
(
SRI
510021). Why
ESP-Disk
omitted several tracks from this soul-baring workshop (taped in bassist
Artie Bernstein
's living room with a rather outspoken
Jimmy Rowles
at the piano) is puzzling and maybe even frustrating. But let's not allow these flaws to detract too much from the magnificence of this extended tribute to a great artist.
, one of the world's great independent record labels, is to be commended for having
,
Charlie Parker
Bud Powell
in the same catalog with
Sun Ra
Albert Ayler
Marion Brown
Frank Wright
Pharoah Sanders
Patty Waters
Pearls Before Swine
Yma Sumac
. Given the relatively easy availability of
Vocalion/Columbia
Decca
, and
Verve
studio recordings, this fascinating anthology of her uncommon works can and will act as a richly rewarding appendix to the more familiar portions of her legacy. ~ arwulf arwulf