Just
in time for the 100th anniversary of the birth of Billie Holiday on April 7,
2015, Universal Music Enterprises honors the iconic artist with the
simultaneous digital release of 17 classic Holiday albums.
These
vintage titles--originally released on the Commodore, Decca, Clef, Verve and
MGM labels--were recorded between 1939 and 1959, and represent a substantial
portion of the seminal vocalist's storied two-and-a-half-decade body of
recorded work, which ended with her death at the age of 44 on July 17, 1959.
The
anniversary release encompasses 17 Holiday albums, with six being issued
digitally for the first time including: Billie Holiday, The "Lady"
Sings, The Blues Are Brewin', Lover Man, Velvet Mood, and Billie Holiday With
Ray Ellis and His Orchestra (her final recording session). Other albums have
been Mastered for iTunes (MFiT): Billie Holiday At Jazz At The Philharmonic,
Stay With Me, Music For Torching, Lady Sings The Blues, Body And Soul, Songs
For Distingué Lovers, All Or Nothing At All, Recital, Solitude, Ella Fitzgerald
And Billie Holiday At Newport, and the posthumously released The Essential
Billie Holiday: Carnegie Hall Concert Recorded Live.
Included
on these albums are timeless Holiday classics, including "Strange
Fruit," "God Bless the Child," "My Man" and
"Lover Man," along with her distinctive readings of such jazz, blues
and pop standards as "I'll Be Seeing You," "What Is This Thing
Called Love," "He's Funny That Way," "It Had To Be
You," "Stormy Weather" and "Prelude To A Kiss," as
well as a pair of duets with Louis Armstrong.
In addition to Armstrong, these recordings find Holiday collaborating
with jazz greats Kenny Burrell, Benny Carter, Cozy Cole, Harry
"Sweets" Edison, Wynton Kelly, Barney Kessel, Red Mitchell, Jimmy
Rowles, Charlie Shavers and Ben Webster.
In a
career that was marked by equal amounts of personal tragedy and musical
triumph, Billie Holiday became a massively popular star, bridging racial and
genre barriers at a time when such crossovers were rare. In the decades since, she has remained an
immensely influential artist whose innovative, emotionally expressive vocal
approach influenced multiple generations of singers.
After
making her recording debut at age 18 with Benny Goodman's big band, Holiday
made her first recordings under her own name in 1936. She began scoring mainstream hits, many of
them self-written, almost immediately, recording on her own as well as working
with such prominent bandleaders as Teddy Wilson, Count Basie, Artie Shaw and
Paul Whiteman. Holiday remained popular
with audiences for the rest of her life, despite her ongoing problems with
drugs and alcohol, which contributed to her declining health and early death.
More
than half a century after her passing, Billie Holiday's recordings continue to
inspire listeners around the world. The
classic albums gathered for this 100th-birthday celebration include much of
Holiday's greatest and most enduring work, demonstrating why her music
continues to speak so powerfully to new generations of fans.
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