The first of five volumes on the obscure British label
Acrobat
,
The Incomparable, Vol. 1
concentrates on the series of sides recorded by
Billie Holiday
at the dawn of her career, usually in front of a studio band and released on discount subsidiaries of
Columbia
such as
Brunswick
and
Vocalion
. Similar to
Fats Waller
and a handful of other musical greats occasionally forced to record subpar material,
Holiday
did surprisingly well considering the compositional sources, and certainly wasn't harmed by the addition of recording partners like
Cozy Cole
Roy Eldridge
Artie Shaw
Ben Webster
Harry Carney
, and
Teddy Wilson
. This disc has 20 tracks, including a few of
's best performances (
"What a Little Moonlight Can Do,"
"Billie's Blues,"
"Miss Brown to You"
) as well as a few
standards
(
"Summertime,"
"The Way You Look Tonight,"
"A Fine Romance,"
"Pennies from Heaven"
). Too much of this material, however, consists of dated pleasantries that even
has trouble rejuvenating -- check out
"Eeny Meeny Meiny Mo"
or
"One, Two, Button Your Shoe."
Though everything she recorded will obviously be of interest to real fans,
itself has collected these songs several times, with better notes and better sound. ~ John Bush