Remixed & Reimagined

Billie Holiday

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 7, 2007)
• Original Release Date: March 27, 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony Legacy
• ASIN: B000NA283Y
• Also Available in: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #44,249 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Hot on the heels of Nina Simone's like-minded project, this 14-track disk takes Billie Holiday's masterful and mourning vocals of 1935 to 1958 to the 21st-century digital dance floor, courtesy of some resourceful remixers and DJs from Swingsett & Takuya and Nickodemus & Zeb to Organica and Poppyseed. You have to give these aural alchemists credit for their daring, but some tracks work better than others. The best include "Spreadin’ Rhythm Around," featuring Digable Planet's Ladybug Mecca, the echoplexed embers of GXR's "Long Gone Blues," DJ Logic's string-centric "Glad to be Unhappy," and Daniel Y's infectious, Soul to Soul/Loose Ends grooved "Billie's Blues." With augmentation provided by live guitarists, keyboardists, and percussionists, these scientists of sound don't desecrate the gardenia-wearing goddess's eternal artistry; rather, they globally reposition it for this era's electronica-fueled iPod generation, from the downbeat to the download. --Eugene Holley, Jr.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reimagined imaginatively, September 3, 2007

By	heyamishgirl (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews

If you're a Billie Holiday purist, as some of these other reviewers seem to be, this is not the CD for you. But if your taste in music ranges from classic jazz to downtempo, this is a terrific compilation.

True, Billie Holiday's voice is borrowed in bits and piece and the songs are not played all the way, per se, but I think the mixes highlight the genius of her phrasing and range of voice. She sounds completely contemporary, as if she had sung the songs for the tracks. I also liked the range of styles included. With some CDs of this sort, you get things that sound like they blend together (and not in a good way), but on this CD, each song has a unique presence.

In "Spreadin' the Rhythm Around" the RR Remix, you can almost picture her with Lady Bug on a stage in one of those live let's-bring-together-all-kinds-of-artists performances, that often disappoints, but sometimes produces concert magic. The energy is contagious.

Another one of my favorites is Poppyseed's remix of "He Ain't Got Rhythm" which juxtoposes an excellent rhythm section against the words of the song. The message, unsung, is that she has enough rhythm for both of them.

Love it!

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars 2 1/2 stars - Remixed, Ruined & Disrespected, September 3, 2007

By	W. E. Phillips (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I will start off by saying this: I did not enjoy the Nina Simone remixed album. Still, I bought this because I wanted to give the idea another chance, and maybe this one was better. Although I enjoyed this collection a bit more, I am still very disappointed.

This disc has all the same problems as the Nina Simone album of the same title; the vocals of legendary Billie Holiday are treated as just another pro-tool by most of the producers. They are chopped up, blurred, distorted and some are neglected and left out of the mixes altogether. Her voice is burried in the mix of extremely repetitive, long and anti-climactic backdrops of lounge music and quite frankly, the emotion and feeling is lost for me. Some of the remixes sound like they put her records on and they just kept on skipping and skipping on the same lyric, over and over again. And as sad as I am to say this, Billie is almost never the main focus.

I did actually enjoy a few. "I Hear Music" is quite energetic, I like the modern touch to "Spreadin' Rhythm Around" and "Glad To Be Unhappy" was pretty nice, too. The others were just a blur for me. A very annoying, drawn out blur. Is this a good CD to play in the background of a small get together or a store? Sure. Is this for you if you like lounge music? Probably, yes. Is it a good thing to put on when cleaning? Why not? But can I sit down, listen to it and appreciate it? No. I'll stick to the originals, thanks.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as Nina Simone Remix . . . , September 9, 2007

By	A. D. S. Garcia "A & T" (Mexico City, D.F. Mexico) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

We got this because we were so happy with the Nina Simone remix. We felt it was a great light manipulation of Nina's music, but Nina Simone's music remained the focus of the disk, whereas the Billy Holiday remix seems to be more about the DJ or the remix, or the something, but a lot of the soul of the BIlly Holiday music is lost. It is still a good CD, 6 or 7 on a scale of 1 to 10, but it isn't as nice as the Nina Simone of the same name.