Billie Sings Like No Woman Can

Sony-Columbia once again comes up aces in their great job remastering and choosing the songs on this collection. Billie not only sounds wonderful, the sound quality itself is excellent. Majority of the hisses have been taken out. Holiday recorded these songs at a time when she was still fresh and upbeat, and this is reflected in her singing (or her drug habit hadn't fully kicked in yet). The song selection is hard to fault, most of them waxing romantic optimism. Even on the torchier numbers, the mood is still wistful as opposed to downright depressing as she would sound later in her career. One only wishes Sony had included more numbers on this set. Maybe there'll be a Love Songs Volume 2 next time?

Excellent Billie Holiday primer w/best sound possible

This compilation collects the very love songs from what is probably Billie's best records, the early Columbia (Brunswick/Vocalion) records. Those records do not equal her later records in terms of recording quality nor does it match the nuanced phrasing of her Verve records. What they have going is a young and fresh sounding Billie fronting unbeatable arrangements and performances. They also have some great upbeat material that would become increasingly absent towards the end of Billie's recording career, showing just how much she could do (as her voice faded, she became less capable of handling such material convincingly).

All the Columbia material was collected on the 9 volume "Quintessential" set, but unfortunately, while half of the stuff is pure gold, there's also a lot of dreck. Furthermore, all 9 volumes have poor, compressed sound, and some great stuff comes off limp and lifeless. "Love Songs" rectifies this, and it's just amazing how much better everything is once it's been put through Sony's 20-bit fairy dust. Now if they would only go back and re-do it all in a tightly packaged 6 CD set...

Some of the finest from Billie Holiday 1935-1941

"Love Songs" is, along with "Lady Day Swings", the best compilation of Billie Holiday's recordings. This is one of those definate essential CDs that everyone must have. These recordings date from 1935-1941.

The best songs on this disc for me are: "The Very Thought of You", which is one of the all time great Billie Holiday recordings, "All of Me", "Me, Myself And I", "Them There Eyes", "The Way You Look Tonight". The songs on this album, are absolutely the best, and it does not include a single bad one here. This is absolutely classic Billie Holiday.

Then just look at the great musicians that are here to accompany her on these recordings. Leslie Johnakins, Eddie Barefield, Hymie Schertzer (alto saxophone), Lester Young (tenor saxophone, clarinet), Ben Webster, Chu Berry, Babe Russin, Vido Musso (tenor saxophone), Roy Eldridge, Buck Clayton, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Jonah Jones, Charlie Shavers, Shad Collins, Emmet Berry (trumpet), George Hunt, Benny Morton (trombone), Buster Bailey, Jimmy Hamilton, Prince Robinson (clarinet), Count Basie, Teddy Wilson, Claude Thornhill, Eddie Heywood, Margaret Johnson (piano), Freddie Green, John Collins, Al Casey, Allan Reuss (guitar), Walter Page, Milt Hinton, John Kirby, Ted Sturgis, John Williams (bass), Jo Jones, Gene Krupa, Cozy Cole, Kenny Clarke, J.C. Heard (drums).

The recordings have been digitally remastered by Mark Wilder, and he has done such an excellent job at it. These recordings sound brilliant. There are also good liner notes by Delfeayo Marsalis. I always think a CD should come with liner notes. Billie Holiday beats all of the other jazz singers by far, and this CD is a great choice to add to the collection. This is one of my most listened to CDs. Its a must own. Very highly recommended.