
- Billie holiday reverb lp lady in satin 3rd issue full#
- Billie holiday reverb lp lady in satin 3rd issue professional#
Holiday's voice had lost much of its upper range in her 40s, although she still retained her rhythmic phrasing.
Billie holiday reverb lp lady in satin 3rd issue professional#
Reception Professional ratings Review scores Soloists on the album included Mel Davis, Urbie Green and the bebop trombone pioneer J. It would turn out to be Holiday's most expensive music production.

Įllis used a 40-piece orchestra, complete with horns, strings, reeds and even a three-piece choir. When you say someone is evil, it means very, very bad. I was in love with that voice and I was picturing a very evil, sensuous, sultry, very evil.probably one of the most evil voices I've heard in my life.Evil is earthy to me. Despite her voice's condition, its distinctive edge had not been lost, and the style of phrasing that had made her a popular jazz singer remained at her command. By the mid- to late-1950s, Holiday's voice had changed drastically due to years of alcohol and drug abuse, altering its texture and giving it a fragile, raspy sound. Ray Ellis made his arrangements of the songs to match Holiday's voice. She wanted the album to be in the same contemporary vein of Frank Sinatra or Ella Fitzgerald on her Song Books series.
Billie holiday reverb lp lady in satin 3rd issue full#
Also, unlike the bulk of Holiday's recordings with Norman Granz and her early years at Columbia in the 1930s and early 1940s, rather than in the setting of a jazz combo Holiday returns to the backdrop of full orchestral arrangements as done during her Decca years eight years earlier. Columbia wanted Holiday to do an album of songs she had never recorded before, so the material for Lady in Satin derived from the usual sources for Holiday in her three-decade career, that of the Great American Songbook of classic pop. During Holiday's time with Norman Granz's label, she revisited old material she had previously recorded and songs that were well known in her repertoire, such as " My Man", " Lover, Come Back to Me", " I Cover the Waterfront", " Them There Eyes" and " I Only Have Eyes for You". When Holiday signed her contract for Columbia, the label looked at it as a new beginning, for this was her return to the label after sixteen years. Townsend went on to set up the recording dates for late February 1958. The musicians in the orchestra were paid $60 for the three sessions and Holiday was paid $150 per side in advance. Columbia provided an unlimited budget for the album. Ellis, having heard Holiday's work throughout the 1930s and 1940s, was excited for the project, saying, "I couldn't believe it.I didn't know she was aware of me." Townsend arranged a meeting for both Holiday and Ellis to sign a contract with Columbia. Townsend got in touch with Ellis about the album. She wanted to be flattered by that kind of sound. She wasn't interested in some wild swinging jam session.She wanted that cushion under her voice. But she said she wanted a pretty album, something delicate.

It would be like Ella Fitzgerald saying that she wanted to record with Ray Conniff. When Holiday came to Townsend about the album, he was surprised: Originally, she wanted to do an album with bandleader Nelson Riddle after hearing his arrangements for Frank Sinatra's albums, particularly In the Wee Small Hours, but after hearing Ellis's version of " For All We Know", she wanted to record with him. Therefore, she decided not to renew her contract.īy October 1957, Holiday contacted Columbia producer Irving Townsend and expressed interest in recording with bandleader Ray Ellis after listening to his album Ellis in Wonderland. By 1957, Holiday had recorded twelve albums for Granz and was unhappy. There were talks in the early 1950s of Holiday making albums, or songbooks, dedicated to composers such as George and Ira Gershwin and Jerome Kern, but they fell through and ended up going to Ella Fitzgerald when she signed to Verve. All of her work for Norman Granz consisted of small jazz combos, reuniting her with musicians she recorded with back in the 1930s when she made her first recordings with Teddy Wilson. The original album was produced by Irving Townsend and engineered by Fred Plaut.įor the majority of the 1950s, Billie Holiday was signed to jazz producer Norman Granz's Clef Records, which was later absorbed into the newly founded Verve Records by 1956. It is the penultimate album completed by the singer and last released in her lifetime (her final album, Last Recording, being recorded in March 1959 and released just after her death). Lady in Satin is an album by the jazz singer Billie Holiday released in 1958 on Columbia Records, catalogue CL 1157 in mono and CS 8048 in stereo. Columbia 30th Street Studio, New York City, New York
