Billie Holiday - Rare Live Recordings, 1934-1959: MusicNear.com

Music CD 1

Lost My Man Blues
Theme: Moten Swing
Announcer Introduction
Swing Brother Swing
Announcer Introduction
They Can't Take That Away From Me
I Cried For You
Fine And Mellow
Announcer Introduction
I'll Get By
Billie's Blues
Do Nothin' 'Til You Hear From Me
Danny Kaye Introduces Jerome Kern, Who Presents Billie With Her Award
I Cover the Waterfront
Fine And Mellow
All Of Me
Endy Gets Caught Playing Piano
Endy Goes To Storyville
Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans
Satchmo Talks
Farewell To Storyville
Farewell To Storyville: Studio Version
The Blues Are Brewin': Studio Version
The Man I Love
Miss Brown To You
Lover Man
I Wonder Where Our Love Has Gone
Billie's Blues
No More
Good Morning Heartache

Music CD 2

You're Driving Me Crazy
Maybe You'll Be There
Introduction By Donald Wood
You'd Better Go Now
Them There Eyes
Lady Day And Eddie Condon Speak
Keeps On Rainin'
Lady Day And Eddie Condon Speak
Lover Man (Incomplete)
I Cover the Waterfront
All Of Me
Narration/Early History
Fine And Mellow
Porgy
Jam Session Introduction
All Of Me
You're My Thrill
Lover Come Back To Me
Ain't Nobody's Business
You're Driving Me Crazy
He's Funny That Way
Miss Brown To You
Lover Man
Them There Eyes
My Man
I Cover the Waterfront
Crazy He Calls Me
Detour Ahead
Strange Fruit
Ain't Nobody's Business
All Of Me

Music CD 3

Porgy
My Man
Tenderly
God Bless the Child
My Man
Them There Eyes
Lover Man
Willow Weep For Me
I Only Have Eyes For You
My Man
Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone
Jon McCloughland: Introduction
I Cover the Waterfront
Too Marvelous For Words
Porgy
Them There Eyes
Willow Weep For Me
I Only Have Eyes For You
You Go To My Head
Stormy Weather
Ghost Of a Chance
Nice Work If You Can Get It
God Bless the Child
Please, Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone
Don't Explain
Porgy

Music CD 4

Fine And Mellow
What a Little Moonlight Can Do
Foolin' Myself
Easy To Remember
Moanin' Low
Don't Explain
When Your Lover Has Gone
Mort Saul: Introduction
Ain't Nobody's Business
Willow Weep For Me
When Your Lover Has Gone
God Bless the Child
I Only Have Eyes For You
Good Morning Heartache
Them There Eyes
Billie's Blues
What a Little Moonlight Can Do
Travelin' Light
Lover Come Back To Me

Music CD 5

I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good
Lady Day Speaks: Early History
Just Friends
Lady Day Speaks: The Number 13
Ghost Of a Chance
Please, Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone: 1
Everything Happens To Me
Please, Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone: 2
I Don't To Cry Anymore
Prelude To a Kiss
Jeepers Creepers
My Yiddishe Mama
Hey! Lady's Here
God Bless the Child
Introduction
Nice Work If You Can Get It
Willow Weep For Me
When Your Lover Has Gone
Billie's Blues
Please, Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone
God Bless the Child
Now Or Never
Untitled Track

Free Music Notes for Rare Live Recordings, 1934-1959

Free Music Review: Poor production values for a CD set of this price
Hit: 3 Stars

Rare Live Recordings, 1934-1959 Poster

"Considered by many to be the greatest jazz vocalist of all time, Billie Holiday lived a tempestuous and difficult life. Her singing expressed an incredible depth of emotion that spoke of hard times and injustice as well as triumph. Though her career was relatively short and often erratic, she left behind a body of work as great as any vocalist before or since." -- PBS.org, "American Masters"

A five-CD compilation of extremely rare live performance recordings from 1935-1959, plus a detailed liner timeline of performance information.

In 1972, thirteen years after her death, Congress extended copyright protections to include recorded musical performances. Billie Holiday would have benefited greatly from such protection: during the more than twenty-five years of her career, Holiday gave an unknown number of live performances on TV & radio and in clubs & concert halls, many of which were recorded both officially and unofficially by sound engineers, fellow musicians, and fans. Today ESP-Disk', which for many years has been assembling unofficial recordings of several artists from before 1972, has released one of the most comprehensive collections of live Billie Holiday recordings to date, some previously available but most not. These recordings, laid out in chronologicalorder, not only demonstrate the arc of Holiday's development as a vocalist but give a rare behind-the-scenes look into how the singer approached her musicians and her audience.

The first disc of this compilation opens with a twenty-year-old Billie Holiday performing with Duke Ellington in 1935, followed by a radio broadcast from the Savoy Hotel in New York two years later in which Holiday fronts the Count Basie Orchestra. The next four discs cover Holiday's career from 1949 to her death in 1959. During those ten years, advancesin radio and TV technology changed the way Americans consumed entertainment, and the mass proliferation of recorded media from that time leaves us with dozens of examples of Holiday's live performances. Set in the context of other early recorded media presentations, it is easy to imagine how revolutionary Holiday's singing sounded to mainstream American audiences, with her plaintive voice, blues inflections, and uncensored delivery.

This magnificent set includes a portfolio of photographs and performance data detailing a historical timeline of rare radio/television broadcasts and concert performances--and the events and situations that lead to these powerful performances--along with explanations of some of her most popular material. The set also includes a rare and private recordingof she and some friends in an impromptu setting, with Holiday singing "My Yiddisha Mamma."