Billie Holiday - Lady in Satin

On Lady's 93rd birthday, the CD is playing...

When I was very young, I heard my mother play this record, and I envisioned the singer as follows: she bathed in milk, ate chocolate for breakfast, wore violets and fur all year round, and took frequent vacations on other planets; equal parts Venus de Milo, Mother Earth, and the Tooth Fairy. Years later, I read Lady's book and found out that I was both 100% wrong and 100% right. I also started buying Lady's early works, and I understood how she arrived here.

Lady in Satin is a work of sublime majesty and grandeur. If you've ever wondered whether there was life after Bird and before Trane, buy the record. If you've ever wondered whether jazz can be sung with strings and a chorus, buy the record. If you've ever wondered whether Marvin Gaye or Robert Palmer got it from, buy the record. (Both claimed it as formative.) Whatever time of day or night you listen, dawn caresses the heavens for the duration of this album. April 7, 2008

Lady In Satin Billie Holiday

Even after more then 50 years, Billie Holiday (a singer before my time) songs can still capture the heart of many who listen to her singing and her emotion behind her song. Ella has always been my facourite.

However, it was by chance that I listened to Bilie Holiday's voice and was quickly captured my attention. I have many of her recordings CD from the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. In the early years, her voice was sweet. However, it was her recording in her 50s that I can truley feel what she is singing.

The songs from the Lady in Satin CD truley revealed Billie's inner emotions especially in the songs: I am a Fool to want you; and The End of a Love affair...songs that can really bring tears into your eyes.

Enjoy your Billie Holiday Lady in Satin CD...even though her voice has become rough, her strong emtion behind the songs truley made them a real timeless Classic!

I cannot seem to think of any other songs that can be so sad and so emotional!

Thanks for giving us the songs! April 1, 2008

Like the title says: "Lady in Satin"

The name really does say it all. This is Holiday at her smoothe, silky best. When it comes to female jazz singers, a lot of fans like to break off into various camps: Camp Holiday, Camp Fitzgerald, Camp Simone, Camp Vaughn, etc. I'm not one of those people. I listen to jazz singers to work on and improve my jazz music phrasing. So to start, I get different experiences and learn different things from different singers, making me a Holiday fan, but certainly no basher of any other singer. Listening to any of the above singers is beneficial and enjoyable, but make no mistake: They are different. For me, I have always liked Billie Holiday because, if you know the notes, when you listen to her sing, you aren't always sure she's going to get where she needs to go in the number of beats/measures she has left to get there. But somehow, she always does. Some of the tracks on this CD are shining examples of her ability to take a phrase, soak it down, wring it out, and put it back into an unexpected but pleasing shape. Probably the best example of that is track 3, "You don't know what love is". The selection of songs on this CD leaves a little to be desired, but at the same time, the alternate takes really are "alternative", so the listener gets to experience different aspects of the same song, which makes the listening all the more challenging, but rewarding. In short, I always enjoy this CD and I come back to it quite often. Casual jazz fans looking for a compilation to add to their collection could probably do better with Billie Holiday: The Complete Decca Recordings, but it is more expensive than this CD. Serious jazz fans familiar with Ms. Holiday and wanting a broader introspective, on the other hand, will not be disappointed with this work. March 19, 2008

"Lady In Satin" - Disappointing

Old and great fans of Billie Holiday, but this sound track is scratchy.....voice sounds bad, as if the singer is attempting to relive the golden years, but the voice is just not up to it. Did not enjoy listening, and could not even listen to the entire CD it was of such poor quality. January 3, 2008

Best Jazz Album Of All Time

I can only quote the eloquent review from Amazon:
A harrowing classic, Billie Holiday's personal favorite among her '50s albums captures the singer 17 months before her death, her once honeyed voice, scarred and weakened from punishing life, its ravages highlighted by the 1958 session's crisp sonics and the contrasting "satin" of Ray Ellis' sleek string arrangements. Yet it is that very contrast that explains the power of these performances: In revisiting its torchy standards, Holiday reduces them to their core of pain and longing, transforming "I'm a Fool to Want You," "You Don't Know What Love Is," and "You've Changed" into naked declarations as mesmerizing and unsettling as a horrific accident. Any postrocker that presumes pop standards and string sections automatically translate to "easy listening" hasn't listened to this. This 1997 version adds unreleased takes and a beautiful 20-bit digital transfer to extract every shivering pang of Holiday's music. --Sam Sutherland

Nothing to add more. Only that I own all her albums, as well as around 25000 mp3s of all kinds of artists like Sinatra, Hendrix, all that one could call good music. This album was her favorite, and it is possibly the most beautiful album I have come across in music.
As they say, only a sad life makes it possible to sing from the heart, as one can find out listening to Piaf and Callas among others. This beautifully melancholical album is a treasure of Billie Holiday's voice and embodies her work, which is, unfortunately, receded to recorded history.'
When NASA decides to shoot a CD into space again as they did in 1977, this should be the one! July 12, 2007

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