Customer Reviews

Lady Sings

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you haven't purchased one of Proper Record Company's extraordinary jazz boxes, you don't know what you're missing; and this release, THE LADY SINGS, is the best of the bunch. For the past few years, Proper has researched and assembled the most critical recordings by leading jazz performers from the first half of the last century, and packaged them in four-disk sets with extensive booklets that actually have something new to say -- all for a super, super budget price. Their remastering is so skillful, recordings such as Billie Holiday's here --stand up to the best remastering efforts of Decca and Sony. The richness and value of this collection -- as with other Proper Boxes from the UK -- are simply extraordinary. From her affecting Brunswick recordings of the early 1950's with Teddy Wilson and his Orchestra to her sides with Decca, Commodore, Columbia and Vocalion, Holliday's accompanists read like a Who's Who of classic jazz. Lester Young. Ben Webster. Roy Eldridge. Kenny Clarke. Benny Goodman. Milt Hinton. And some of her most celebrated material is here. God Bless the Child. My Old Flame. Gimme a Pigfoot. Lover Man. As Time Goes By. I Hear Music. I Can't Get Started. Almost 100 songs, flawlessly restored and a far better value than expensive sets such as the new Sony compilation, Proper's BILLIE HOLIDAY: THE LADY SINGS is simply a pleasure. It's great music to listen to by a roaring fire. Wonderful to play after a long, hard day.
Good anytime you need a lift. Strongly recommended.

Nobody sings the blues quite like Billie Holiday. This boxed set represents the best value for money, not only for the quantity of music and the extensive liner notes, but also for the sound quality and the fact that this contains music recorded for several different record labels (Brunswick, Vocalion, Commodore, Okeh, Columbia, Capitol, Decca) between 1935 and 1949. Billie continued to record great music in the fifties (for Verve, Clef and Norgran) but that music is not represented here.

Billie had plenty of hits on the American pop charts between 1935 and 1938 (when she was with Teddy Wilson), after which she had just four more hits, none of them reaching the top ten. However, the passage of time has added substantially to her credibility as many blues, jazz and R+B singers cite Billie as one of their influences. Her first hit was What a little moonlight can do, a song I first came across via a Crystal Gayle cover. I didn't realize the song's origin at the time but I've heard several versions since. I love them all but Billie's is the definitive version.

Billie's other classic hits included here are These foolish things, A fine romance, The way you look tonight, I can't give you anything but love, I've got my love to keep you warm, This year's kisses, Carelessly (her only number one hit), How could you, Moaning low. Mean to me, Easy living, Me myself and I, Sailboat in the moonlight, Nice work if you can get it, My man, You go to my head, I'm gonna lock my heart, Strange fruit, God bless the child and Trav'lin' light. Some big hits are omitted including Twenty-four hours a day, Who loves you and Pennies from heaven, but I'm not complaining. Some of the songs that Billie is best remembered for didn't chart at all.

Although the hits became rare after 1938, this was not due to the quality of the music. Listen to Billie's versions of such classic standards as I gotta right to sing the blues, Night and day, Body and soul, Let's do it, All of me, Love me or leave me, It's a sin to tell a lie, As time goes by and You're my thrill (to name a few). And, of course, there's the classic That old devil called love, revived by Alison Moyet in the eighties, when it became a UK number two hit for Alison.

If you only buy one collection of Billie's music, make it this one. You might begin by asking yourself if you really want five hours worth of Billie's music - but eventually, you are likely to ask yourself if it's enough.

For the price, this is as good a collection of Billie Holiday's early material (for some, the ONLY Billie) as there is out there. Almost all of the essential recordings are included - Brunswick, Vocalition, Decca, Columbia, and Commodore - and the presentation includes a great booklet with photos and information. Proper is in the process of putting together and releasing some of the best American music - both jazz and other-wise - in stunning compilations with great presentations. Look for more of them.

Great sound quality, packaging, liner notes and booklet. 4 discs, 99 songs, 21 bucks. Huh? What's the catch?

The best part is - there isn't any. Just another great product from the British label, Proper - which seems to appreciate great American music even more than Americans do.

Most, if not every, Holliday song on every label - Decca, Commodore, Columbia - released between 1935 to 1949. Now you've got the early to mid (and in many people's minds, the best) recording eras of Holliday covered.

It sure beats any other "best of" out there. Why save $6 to get one disc with 10 to 20 songs. (And unlike the Ken Burns collection, the songs on this box set sound great).

Buy it as an introduction to Lady Day. Keep it as a collector.

Maybe for today's crowd,four cds of BILLIE HOLIDAY in her greatest years can be hard to digest.Don't feel sorry for yourself,because sooner or later,if you have any interest in jazz singing,this PROPER box set will do the trick.Don't listen to this only once,repeating listenings are recommended to have you hooked on BILLIE.The musicians who played on these famous sessions are among the finest of the era.Even if you don't look at the credits,one can easily know when LESTER YOUNG is soloing,his economical solos always hit home.Be aware that this is the thirties and the forties, when conductors were not stars the way they will be in the fifties.Many will find that all the songs sounds the same.While there is some truth to that,you've got to figure out the contect of these recordings to fully appreciate them.Maybe i seem to act like an history teacher reviewing this,if so i am sorry.BILLIE HOLIDAY has inspired countless singers that came after her who often recorded tribute albums.

I didn't expect the quality of the music to be so good, but I have no complaints (very clear with no static, etc). You get around 99 songs for a fraction of what they would cost on iTunes. I have always loved her music and was delighted to see so many songs in one collection.

THE PACKAGING: A 'narrow' cardboard box, which contains 4 CDs in cardboard sleeves, not jewel cases as is stated in Amazon's description. It's easy to get the CDs out of the sleeves, though. The back of the box has a tracklisting, as do each individual CD sleeve. There's also a booklet with a mini-bio, background info and descripions of the individual recording sessions in addition to a discography with dates, personnel and original recording code and label. Altogether fine.
THE SOUND: Not great. I can only compare with a Columbia "Best of" compilation from 1990 that has some of the same recordings. The Columbia issue is marginally better. However, more recent issues are said to be even better than Columbia's 1990 issue. This box suffers from too much noise reduction to the extent where there is no surface noise and practically no treble. To compensate, it sounds like they decided to boost the upper mid-range, giving Holiday's voice a shrillness that can be a little hard to listen to. Overall, it's certainly listenable, though.
THE MUSIC: Well, other reviewers say it much better than me. Nothing to criticise.
Should you get this box? If you're not very critical about the sound, like I am, you certainly should. The music is fantastic. But if you are, save your money for now and look elsewhere.

This is really a great collection, lots of old nuggets. Here are the tracks:

CD 1

1 I Wished On The Moon
2 What A Little Moonlight Can Do
3 Miss Brown To You
4 A Sunbonnet Blue (And A Yellow Straw Hat)
5 These Foolish Things
6 I Cried For You
7 Summertime
8 Billie's Blues (I Love My Man)
9 A Fine Romance
10 Let's Call A Heart A Heart
11 Easy To Love
12 The Way You Look Tonight
13 Who Loves You?
14 Pennies From Heaven
15 I Can't Give You Anything But Love
16 I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm
17 He Ain't Got Rhythm
18 This Year's Kisses
19 Why Was I Born?
20 I Must Have That Man

CD 2

1 Carelessly
2 Let's Call The Whole Thing Off
3 They Can't Take That Away From Me
4 I'll Get By
5 Mean To Me
6 Foolin' Myself
7 Easy Living
8 I'll Never Be The Same
9 Me, Myself And I
10 A Sailboat In The Moonlight
11 Trav'lin' All Alone
12 He's Funny That Way
13 Nice Work If You Can Get It
14 My Man
15 Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man
16 I Can't Believe That You're In Love With Me
17 If Dreams Come True
18 Back In Your Own Backyard
19 You Go To My Head
20 I'm Gonna Lock My Heart

Billie Holiday's voice is constantly and deservedly praised as one of the finest musical instruments ever to be immortalized on records. Her phrasing, inflections, tone, all of it are, to steal an oft-repeated catchphrase, often imitated but never duplicated. To this day, the multiple record companies that Billie recorded for have released compilations, box sets, best-ofs, etc. and many of them are absolutely worth a good listen.

Proper Records in the UK has seen fit to take 99 of Billie's recordings from 1935-1949 on Columbia, Brunswick, Vocalion, Okeh, Commodore, and Decca and release them in a 4-CD box set for about the same price as many of the official 1-CD compilations of material from these years. So what's the catch? None, really. Sound quality isn't flawless, and that's actually not a bad thing - removing analog flaws can often create digital ones if remaster engineers are a little too heavy-handed with their digital scrubbing. The songs on this collection, thankfully, have all of the character and soul that was recorded into them. The packaging, while not of the same design caliber that the major labels could create, is still attractive - a hard cardboard box that snugly (but not too snugly - at least in my case) houses four mini-LP sleeves, each containing a CD (The biggest flaw in this set is that each CD is labeled with "The Lady Sings: This Year's Kisses," the title of the first disc. A very minor quibble.), a catalog of other releases from Proper - many of which have since become part of my wishlist thanks to my satisfaction with this set - and a booklet featuring several B&W photos and an informative essay, plus recording session info on every song in the set.

Honestly, I can think of hundreds of reasons to recommend this set, but I can't think of a single reason *not* to. 99 songs with great sound quality packaged nicely for a budget price? If you need an introduction to Billie Holiday's pre-Verve years (which, along with her penultimate album "Lady In Satin," also provide plenty of superb material, even with the deterioration of her voice) you could do a lot worse. And I will be adding more Proper Records sets to my library in the future.

very good cd set cant beat the value, includes almost 100 songs. sound
quality is excellent also.item was just as described and many merchants
wanted a lot more money for the same item.