Retrospective 1935-1952
« Il y a maintenant des jeunes qui veulent savoir d’où vient mon style, comment il a évolué… Je ne sais que leur dire : si un air vous émeut, il n’y a pas à faire évoluer quoi que ce soit. Il suffit que vous ressentiez quelque chose et quand vous le chantez les gens ressentent la même chose que vous. » 1
LADY DAY… Derrière l’évocation du surnom légué à Billie Holiday par son ami Lester Young traîne un parfum de légende. Née à Baltimore en 1915, Billie Holiday aura mené une existence chaotique, sa vie privée prenant parfois une tournure dramatique. Néanmoins, durant les 44 années de sa vie, cette femme afro-américaine aura su se forger une carrière hors du commun et tracer une voie singulière et durable dans le monde du jazz et bien au-delà.
Plus que tout autre vocaliste, Billie Holiday ne se contente pas de chanter, mais de vivre littéralement les chansons qu’elle interprète. « Son art repose bien plus sur une lutte au corps à corps avec le texte et la mélodie, sur un investissement total dans ce qui devient un instant intense d’un drame gigantesque, bouleversant et authentique : le sien. C’est dire qu’au-delà de la performance vocale, et de son évanouissement, dans ses dérapages, reste – et s’amplifie même – la puissance émotionnelle, intacte, presque accrue par la réalité des épreuves et des souffrances. » 2
La carrière de « Lady Day » ne se limite bien évidemment pas à ses enregistrements, officiels ou non, mais ils sont aujourd’hui les seuls témoignages réellement vivants de son art…
1. Lady Sings the Blues, Billie Holiday with William F. Dufty, Doubleday & Company, Inc 1956.
2. in Dictionnaire du Jazz, ouvrage collectif, Bouquins, Robert Laffont, Paris 1988.
“Young kids always ask me what my style is derived from, how it evolved, and everything else. What can I tell them? If you find a tune and it’s got something to do with you, you don’t have to evolve anything. You just feel it, and when you sing it other people can feel something too.” 1
LADY DAY… Behind the evocation of the nickname bequeathed to Billie Holiday by her friend Lester Young lurks a hint of legend. Born in Baltimore in 1915, Billie Holiday led a chaotic existence, her private life sometimes taking a dramatic turn. Nevertheless, over the 44 years of her life, this African-American woman forged an extraordinary career for herself, blazing a unique and lasting trail in the world of jazz and beyond.
More than any other vocalist, Billie Holiday doesn’t just sing, she literally lives the songs she sings. “Her art rests much more on a hand-to-hand struggle with text and melody, on a total investment in what becomes an intense moment of a gigantic, moving and authentic drama: her own. In other words, beyond the vocal performance, and its fading, in its slips, remains—and even amplifies—the emotional power, intact, almost heightened by the reality of hardship and suffering.” 2
Lady Day’s career is of course not limited to her recordings, official or otherwise, but today they are the only truly living testimony to her art…
1. Lady Sings the Blues, Billie Holiday with William F. Dufty, Doubleday & Company, Inc 1956.
2. in Dictionnaire du Jazz, ouvrage collectif, Bouquins, Robert Laffont, Paris 1988.
CD 1
PAUL WHITEMAN AND HIS ORCHESTRA 1942
01 – Trav’lin’ Light
BILLIE HOLIDAY WITH THE ALL-STAR JAM BAND 1944
02 – I Love My Man
BILLIE HOLIDAY AND HER ORCHESTRA 1938
03 – I’m Gonna Lock My Heart
ARTIE SHAW AND HIS ORCHESTRA 1938
04 – Any Old Time
TEDDY WILSON AND HIS ORCHESTRA 1938
05 – They Say
BILLIE HOLIDAY WITH EDDIE HEYWOOD AND HIS ORCHESTRA 1941
06 – Solitude
TEDDY WILSON AND HIS ORCHESTRA 1939
07 – Sugar
BILLIE HOLIDAY AND HER ORCHESTRA 1938
08 – You Go to My Head
TEDDY WILSON AND HIS ORCHESTRA 1938
09 – If Dreams Come True
FRANKIE NEWTON AND HIS CAFÉ SOCIETY ORCHESTRA 1939
10 – Fine and Mellow
BILLIE HOLIDAY AND HER ORCHESTRA1937
11 – (I Got a Man, Crazy for Me)
He’s Funny That Way
TEDDY WILSON AND HIS ORCHESTRA 1937
12 – I’ll Never Be the Same
13 – Mean to Me
FRANKIE NEWTON AND HIS CAFÉ SOCIETY ORCHESTRA 1939
14 – Strange Fruit
BILLIE HOLIDAY AND HER ORCHESTRA 1939
15 – You’re a Lucky Guy
BILLIE HOLIDAY AND HER ORCHESTRA 1938
16 – The Very Thought of You
TEDDY WILSON AND HIS ORCHESTRA 1938
17 – You’re So Desirable
COUNT BASIE AND HIS ORCHESTRA 1937
18 – Swing, Brother Swing
TEDDY WILSON AND HIS ORCHESTRA 1937
19 – Things Are Looking up
TEDDY WILSON AND HIS ORCHESTRA 1935
20 – Eeny Meeny Miney Mo
CD 2
BILLIE HOLIDAY AND HER ORCHESTRA 1940
01 – Practice Makes Perfect
BILLIE HOLIDAY WITH EDDIE HEYWOOD AND HIS ORCHESTRA 1941
02 – Georgia on My Mind
BILLIE HOLIDAY AND HER ORCHESTRA 1940
03 – Laughing at Life
04 – Body and Soul
BILLIE HOLIDAY WITH EDDIE HEYWOOD AND HIS ORCHESTRA 1944
05 – I’ll Be Seeing You
06 – All of Me
07 – Let’s Do It
BILLIE HOLIDAY WITH TEDDY WILSON AND HIS ORCHESTRA 1941
08 – Gloomy Sunday
BILLIE HOLIDAY AND HER ORCHESTRA 1940
09 – Time on My Hands (You in My Arms)
BILLIE HOLIDAY WITH BENNY CARTER AND HIS ALL STAR ORCHESTRA 1940
10 – St. Louis Blues
BILLIE HOLIDAY WITH EDDIE HEYWOOD AND HIS ORCHESTRA 1941
11 – God Bless the Child
BILLIE HOLIDAY WITH TEDDY WILSON AND HIS ORCHESTRA 1941
12 – I Cover the Waterfront
BILLIE HOLIDAY WITH EDDIE HEYWOOD AND HIS ORCHESTRA 1944
13 – I’ll Get By
BILLIE HOLIDAY WITH THE ALL STAR JAM BAND 1944
14 – Do Nothin’ till You Hear From Me
BILLIE HOLIDAY WITH EDDIE HEYWOOD AND HIS TRIO 1944
15 – Lover Come Back to Me
BILLIE HOLIDAY WITH BOB HAGGART AND HIS ORCHESTRA 1945
16 – Don’t Explain
BILLIE HOLIDAY WITH EDDIE HEYWOOD AND HIS TRIO 1944
17 – On the Sunny Side of the Street
BILLIE HOLIDAY AND HER ORCHESTRA 1946
18 – Big Stuff
BILLIE HOLIDAY WITH LOUIS ARMSTRONG AND HIS BAND 1946
19 – Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?
CD 3
BILLIE HOLIDAY WITH SY OLIVER AND HIS ORCHESTRA 1949
01 – Gimme a Pigfoot and a Bottle of Beer
BILLIE HOLIDAY WITH BOBBY TUCKER AND HIS TRIO 1948
02 I Loves You Porgy
BILLIE HOLIDAY WITH BOB HAGGART AND HIS ORCHESTRA 1947
03 There Is No Greater Love
BILLIE HOLIDAY WITH SY OLIVER AND HIS ORCHESTRA 1949
04 Do Your Duty
BILLIE HOLIDAY WITH GORDON JENKINS AND HIS ORCHESTRA 1949
05 You’re My Thrill
BILLIE HOLIDAY AT STORYVILLE 1951
06 ‘Tain’t Nobody’s Biz-ness If I Do
LADY DAY WITH TINY GRIMES SEXTET 1951
07 Rocky Mountain Blues
BILLIE HOLIDAY WITH BOBBY TUCKER AND HIS TRIO 1948
08 My Man
BILLIE HOLIDAY WITH GORDON JENKINS AND HIS ORCHESTRA 1949
09 – Crazy He Calls Me
BILLIE HOLIDAY WITH SY OLIVER AND HIS ORCHESTRA 1949
10 – My Sweet Hunk O’Trash
11 – Now or Never
12 – Them There Eyes
BILLIE HOLIDAY AT STORYVILLE 1951
13 – Miss Brown to You
BILLIE HOLIDAY WITH JOHN SIMMONS AND HIS ORCHESTRA 1946
14 – The Blues Are Brewin’
BILLIE HOLIDAY WITH BUSTER HARDING AND HIS ORCHESTRA 1949
15 – Baby, Get Lost
BILLIE HOLIDAY AND HER ORCHESTRA 1952
16 – I Only Have Eyes for You
BILLIE HOLIDAY AND HER LADS OF JOY 1952
17 – I Can’t Face the Music
BILLIE HOLIDAY AND HER ORCHESTRA 1952
18 – Blue Moon