Customer Reviews

Lady In Autumn: The Best Of The Verve Years

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This two CD set, with incredible liner notes by Leonard Maltin, Yes, the Television guy, is a landmark release. The chosing of ALL the material here is very carefully thought out, not like others, with whatever they can get to fit, whatever condition, this one is constructed top to bottom with perfection.This set displays Billie in all her Autumn glory, from live recordings, to outtakes that are better than the originals. If you want a set that represents what Billie meant in her later years, get this one. It will take you down her many paths, of pathos, despair, happiness, and just great talent, period. An EXCELLENT starter set.

There is an on-going dispute between Holiday fans: is Billie Holiday more interesting at the beginning of her career, when her voice was at its best, or at the end of her career, when her interpretive skills were at their finest? My preference is for the latter, and LADY IN AUTUMN offers a truly fine sampling of later Billie Holiday recordings.

Even at its youthful best, Billie Holiday's distinctive, very quirky voice was never noted for any of the qualities we usually applaud in great singers: Holiday's range, power, and breath support were always more than a little ify. But Holiday showed a remarkable facility for shaping her voice much as sculptor might, and she transformed her vocal defects into an astonishing personal idiom that has never failed to mix musical delight with raw emotional power. And this ability was at its height toward the end of her career.

It is true, however, that Holiday's later recordings are an acquired taste, and listeners who are new to her unique stylings may be put off by the vocal roughness of her later work. But for those who have already listened to an enjoyed her earlier work, Billie Holiday's LADY IN AUTUMN will be a revelation.

This is the best ballad collection of Billie Holiday to date. You hear someone who has experienced life, in every nuance of her voice. 'These Foolish Things Remind Me Of You' is the most heartbreakingly perfect ballad ever recorded, with a subtly touching piano accompaniment by Oscar Peterson. This track is for those who have loved and lost. 'Don't Worry 'Bout Me' has an ironic sadness when viewed from here and it is appropriately placed as the last song in the set. It will make you cry.

This selection of her post war work for Verve is among Billie Holiday's Best work. Instead of looking at Holiday as a personal crsisi in process, or as unblemished idol who was always good, it is interesting to look at this selection in regard to where she was as a developing artist.

My opinion is that along with some of the live shots from concerts at the time, this is her last good work because Verve really packaged her as a JAZZ SINGER PLAYING IN A TOTAL jazz package. Unlike some of the Verve recordings of some of the old stars of Swing in the 1940s and the early 1950s, these Holiday recording surrounded Billie with great Jazz musicians like Ben Webster, and eschews either Billie's unfortunate attempts in the early 40s to become a cabaret chanteuse, or later attempt to put over Billie as a pop or R & B singer.

It's the Jazziness, the swing, and the manipulation of the diction that bop and swing and entrance you here. She no longer has the great voice and the raucous swing she possessed as a woman in her twenties in the 1930s. Heroin and hard living had clearly had their effect on her voice and outlook. However, she conquers these sides with a superior sense of swing and attitude. She does that in distinction to her other work because Verve provided a great group of jazz musicians, real jazz arrangements and trusted in Billie.

At the same time, there is a more developed harmonic and rhythmic take here and a great ability to put depth into ballads here.
This is altogether different than the prewar stuff. The prewar stuff bounces and raves and dances, whereas this is jivy, thoughtful, and gracefully swinging, more what you would listen to with a good Scotch than a good beer.

This 2-CD sampler will make a lot of Billie's fans happy for those who cannot afford the $120 10-CD box set. It spans the last 15 years of Billie's life on this planet and takes multiple tracks from all her Verve albums. Sound quality is very good, even on the live recordings from 1945-47. Billie's voice actually holds up quite well on most of the tracks with the exception of the last 2 tracks taken from her final album, I would have left out those tracks because her voice is just not there. It's quite chilling to listen to what remains just a shell of the artist. But the entire 2 CD set is well worth the experience of sitting thru 2 hours plus of what has come to be the Holiday experience, a journey thru every emotion you can experience as a music fan and lover of jazz music. Get it and you'll be glad.

For many years now, there's been going on a "strange" comparison between Billie's two periods : before and after her time in prison.... The explanation is very simple. You don't buy Billie's records in order to HEAR them, but to FEEL them !!!! It wasn't her technical capabilities in singing that made the Lady famous. It was her emotions, her strength at heart, her willingness to overcome all the problems she had with her private life. That's what you get if you purchase the "Lady in Autumn" CD. You get a Great Lady that stands up with pride, and still manages to keep a high level of quality at her work. It's harder to remain at the top, than getting there at the first place. And Billie stood at the top for a very long time !!!!!

This 2-CD sampler will make a lot of Billie's fans happy for those who cannot afford the $120 10-CD box set. It spans the last 15 years of Billie's life on this planet and takes multiple tracks from all her Verve albums. Sound quality is very good, even on the live recordings from 1945-47. Billie's voice actually holds up quite well on most of the tracks with the exception of the last 2 tracks taken from her final album, I would have left out those tracks because her voice is just not there. It's quite chilly listening to the shell of the former artist. But the entire 2 CD set is well worth the experience of sitting thru 2 hours plus of what has come to be the Holiday experience, a journey thru every emotion you can experience as a music fan and lover of jazz music. Get it and you'll be glad.

This is more than a decade old, and I dont like the sound very much. Verve should really release these tracks in a new compilation with better sound. I prefer the early Billie Holiday, and to me she reached her peak at her last sessions for Columbia. I'd strongly recommend to anyone just getting into Bilie to check the Columbia/Legacy stuff first. This is more difficult to appreciate, but stil is great music. Billie is the best jazz singer that ever lived, period.

I've loved Billie Holiday's voice from the instant I first heard it: "You've Changed" from Lady In Satin. I've purchased many of her albums. Often I've played them only once in a while. Because of a busyness and an intrusiveness of the accompaniment surrounding her. The exception is Lady In Satin. Orchestral with strings: a classic. And another which I sampled and then purchased on Amazon: Billie Holiday: Lady In Autumn. The former I find exceptional. But painful to experience. For me, its a heartbreaker. Lady In Autumn however, is the Billie Holiday I want to have about me. Often. This is Ms. Holiday with a depth of feeling, an understanding of life that can only come from one who has lived, experienced what it is to be competely human, vulnerable to life. Her voice on this album carries in it the essence of her genius as an expressive artist who happened to be the greatest Jazz singer - ever. Read somewhere that its not the voice of the singer but what's behind it, contained in the depth, truthfulness and intensity of the thought and the emotion that is the linchpin of the communicative act that is singing. This cd is an example of that. Its not what she does vocally or what's surrounding her instrumentally that communicates - its her BEING - at the peak of its life experience and aliveness that radiates a depth ,an understanding of life that is sheer, unadulterated, profound - BEAUTY. The accompaniment on this 2cd set, made up of the finest Jazz musicians, never intrudes or competes with this spiritual essence - this BEING. If you're going alone to that desert island, and can only take one album - this is all you'll ever need to keep you rich in spirit as long as you're there. Most highly recommended.

The title "Lady in Autumn" says it all, as this is Lady Day at her mature best. "Autumn" picks up following Holiday's departure from Decca Records and serves as a sampler of her Verve Years, mixing live tracks with studio recordings. This particular box set throws in live recordings from the late 1940s through her studio work right up until the time of her passing in 1959. As usual Holiday tackles a variety of songs from the Great American Songbook, all treated with her vocal prowess and naked emotion. Holiday in unafraid of poaching songs others may have owned such as Lena Horne's "Stormy Weather" and her delivery runs the gamut of emotions from wistful sadness, to savage beauty, to a warm embrace. "Autumn" is hardly the definitive collection of her Verve Years, but it does showcase how phenomenal a talent she was as a vocalist even as her life was coming apart.

Those interested in comparing Lady Day's Decca and Verve Years can compare a number of tracks such as "God Bless the Child," "Lover Man," and others to see what they think. Some may feel she was burning out towards the end but for me she shows an intense mellowness and spark still showing a depth and warmth unimaginable on tracks such as "Stars Fell on Alabama," "April in Paris" and others. "Autumn" is hardly the best of the Verve Years, nor is it terribly complete, yet it is a nice starting point for those recordings. If I had to chose a starting point for Billie Holiday during her Verve Years this would be the logical starting point.