Billie Holiday - Lady Love
This is a posthumous release of a two parts live jam session, recorded in Basilea, Switzerland on Feb.04, 1954; apparently rather obscure, this seems to be the 1st release of these recordings that would in the future appear in several other issues; ignorant as I’m about the Lady’s career, I can say nothing about the comparative rating this LP should have in her discography, but one thing I know: I like Billie’s both sad and affirmative style, her alcohol and smoke tinged mid-high pitched tone and I sure can see where Janis got a lot of her inspiration from;
on side A she’s backed by pianist Carl Drinkard’s trio, which include Red Mitchell (bass) and Elaine Leighton (drums) and it consists of 7 short numbers of which 3 are ballads (one evolving to an up tempo swing) the other four ranging from mid to up tempo swinging versions of songs from different duos of song writers ;
Side B, also begins with a short Leonard Feather introduction , who besides being the producer also presents Billie’s musicians, and is composed by two long tracks; the band consists of the same rhythm section but this time with Beryl Booker and Sonny Clark on pianos (!) Jimmy Raney on guitar, Red Norvo on vibes and Buddy de Franco on clarinet; the excitement of a Jam session feel is much more evident here, as you can listen to the crowd applauding and cheering and the musicians energizing each other as the solos develop; on the relaxed tempo of Billie’s penned “Blues” everyone does good contributions but I’ll emphasize the vibes one and specially a fiery piano solo, I don’t know who I shall attribute to..:-(
The tempo speeds up for the final track and over a hi-rolling bass groove and indefatigable cymbals, clarinet, vibes and guitar all score high until they leave space for Billie to resume the vocal part
Limited Edition on Clear Vinyl
A1 Announcement 0:27
A2 Blue Moon 2:08
A3 All of Me 1:38
A4 My Man (Mon Homme) 2:45
A5 Them There Eyes 1:30
A6 I Cried for You 3:10
A7 What a Little Moonlight Can Do 2:25
A8 I Cover the Waterfront 3:10
B1 Billie's Blues 11:28
B2Lover Come Back to Me 6:35