Customer Reviews

Lady Day: The Complete Columbia Golden Years

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This set is a European budget edition of the more lavish US box. Discs are in simple cardboard sleeves; the 10 of them and the booklet fit neatly in a cardboard box the size of a thick jewel case. Another review incorrectly identifies this as a Definitive Records (Spain) issue. However, this is genuine Sony Music, Legacy series. The sound is as good as the US edition. Extra tracks (alternative takes and airchecks) start on disc 7 and take up the last three discs, as on the US edition. The booklet contains full production notes, an alphabetical song index, and Gary Giddins' essay "Ladies Day". Another essay by Farah Jasmine Griffin describes literary references to Ms. Holiday. The sound on these 2001 remasters is excellent: hi-hats and bass are easily heard. The sound is possibly as open and natural as it will ever get. I am very pleased with this set.

Although Billie's Columbia recordings have been reissued many times and in many formats, the one used here with the sessions complete as far as master takes are concerned is most pleasing as it preserves the mood of those sessions without getting bogged down. Among the delights: songs that somehow never get featured on Billie Holiday compilations but contain stellar performances by the accompanists can be enjoyed side by side with the better known ones. Any of these ten discs (and especially the first six) can be appreciated as fine representations of the music of the era. For that reason, and while this complete set is available at budget prices, I recommend it over pick-and-choose three or four disc compliations. For a concise listening experience, the 2-CD reduction Lady Day is excellent (good selections and flow) and also recommended. Another recommended set (1-CD) is "A Musical Romance": Although by no means representative of everything she did during the Columbia years, it nevertheless manages to capture the essence of the period and some of her best work with Lester Young. The CD keeps you engaged and wishing the romance never ended with each passing song.

Time was when Columbia reissued "The Quintessential Billie Holiday" on CD, in their CBS Jazz Masterpieces series, proudly proclaiming "Digitally remastered directly from the original (sic) analogue tapes". Despite that claim, sound quality left much to be desired, and is perhaps most politely summed up as muffled.

That ended appropriately with "Until the Real Thing Comes Along", and was overtaken in 2001 by the reissue of the 10-CD boxed set "Lady Day, The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia" which retailed for £100. Not a bad price, unless you stopped to reflect that the dedicated collector would have expended several times that amount already on previous vinyl and digital reissues. The price was geared as much to the LP-sized package as to the contents, but sound quality was vastly improved.

Having stayed my hand then, I am delighted that this magnificent compilation has been repackaged in a CD-sized box and is now available at a price that puts it in reach not just of the ardent collector, but of the casual purchaser also. The set includes a 68-page booklet, which comprises a song index (invaluable if you want to locate just one) an appreciation of Lady Day by Gary Giddins, a shorter essay of her effect on literature by Farah Jasmine Griffin, and a discography. Photographs are scattered throughout the essays, and there's a colour montage of some of the original 78 labels.

Giddins makes a nod in the direction of John Hammond, and the latter deserves credit as the catalyst for these recording sessions. He was not a hard-nosed record producer (most of whom were unsympathetic to jazz) but a genuine fan who could afford to indulge his passion. To digress, I'm glad also that Giddins has highlighted the irony of the sympathetic portrayal of Louis McKay in the biopic "Lady Sings the Blues", but the irony didn't end there. McKay acted as a paid consultant on the movie, which portrayed Billie as having been introduced to drugs by one of the members of an unnamed white band with which she was touring. Had Artie Shaw chosen to sue it would have been no contest!

To begin with Teddy Wilson got label credit and Billie's vocal was confined to the middle section. Later her own name was used increasingly, and she introduced the song, the group played the middle section, and she sang the ride-out. My favourite disc is number 6, which includes such sublime masterpieces as Some Other Spring, Ghost of Yesterday, and Body and Soul. Billie is very much in the driving seat, and the various groups provide the most wonderful homogenised accompaniments, against which she weaves the lyric. But whichever you choose to play there is treasure, and this set must rank as the Best Buy of the Year.

The Spanish label "Definitive Records" collected 233 songs, including all the studio material recorded between 1933 and 1942 for Columbia. All the alternates are included (at the end of every cd: good choice) and there are some great live sessions. The 10 cd box is very cheap and has a nice design. There's a 100 pages booklet with all the lyrics, the liner notes and a short essay about the issue. The 24-bit remasterization, in my opinion, cleaned the sound and made the instruments more "present", even if a background noise is recognizable in many songs. I think the result is remarkable, and I suggest this box not only to Billie Holiday's fans but also to all music lovers.

Since my purchase I have listened to the entire 10 CD collection at least 3 times and continue to be very impressed with the quality of the remastering. I have a medium priced Bose system and whatever volume I choose to listen at, the fidelity is excellent. All of the subtlety of the instrumentation is there, and without any discernible analogue noise that I expected. Wonderful music to match the genius the Lady.

I've never heard these recordings sound better! And I guess I don't need to discuss them. Everyone knows how great they are. No matter how they sound.

I've been listening to fake stereo versions of these that I folded down into mono but they never sounded like this. I also had a few of Columbia's Quintessiantal albums but they don't sound like this either. And I have a lot of this music on vinyl but these discs are really bringing this music to life for me.

These disc are a revelation. Highly recommended. Jazz at it's finest! Plus Teddy Wilson and Lester Young really shine on these discs. If you're interested in them these discs are a must.

Billie Holiday / Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia / 1933-1944 / The imported "Golden Years" budget version:

Billie Holiday was a true vocal artists and this 10 CD set is fantastic. I had the old "Quintessential Billie Holiday" set and this new version of those recording is far superior. This imported "Golden Years" version is far less expensive than the U.S. version yet has the same recordings. This is a Five Star set.

Billie Holiday is Nathanael West's words forced through a microphone. She's iconic because her idiosyncratic voice echoes an era. And I enjoy evocations.

What I'm saying is that Billie Holiday's recordings are evocative of a period in history best depicted in a novel like "The Day of The Locust." I feel like I should be ironing my shirt while sweat drips down my forearms as a cigarette dangles from my lips and a overhead fan whirls a hot breeze that makes the air dank with the odor of baked dust.

So I listen to her and I smell the sorrow and the sadness and I wipe the sweat from my untoiled brow. A white man identifying with a black woman singing the blues? Christ. The only depression I've experienced is the one my ass made in a sofa.

Yet I listen and I hear history.
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