Empty Pockets Don't Ever Make The Grade

Billie Holiday: It's Like Reaching For The Moon
from The Quintessential Billie Holiday, Vol.2: 1936 (Columbia 1990)

Billie Holiday: My Man (Mon Homme)
from Billie Holiday: The Complete Decca Recordings (Verve 1991)

Billie Holiday: Stars Fell On Alabama
from Songs for Distingué Lovers (Verve 1956)


On April 5th Hip-O/Verve will release a new two CD/DVD retrospective of Billie Holidays music. Most of the early reviews tend to focus on the DVD aspect, small wonder considering that videos of her performances are few and far between and that the quality of the music on the CD is not quite up to par with some of the more comprehensive box sets. And since this CD/DVD has got me pumped and eagerly anticipating its release, I've decided to post some treasured Lady Day songs.

The first track is Billie's 1936 recording of It's Like Reaching For The Moon. While the song itself is your basic hackneyed tin-pan alley construction, this apparent weakness actually works in Billie's favor as it allows for her and the Teddy Wilson orchestra to actually take it musically beyond its inherent boundaries. The opening, with Teddy Wilson and Johnny Hodges' trading a chorus each of piano and alto sax respectively sets the intro for a young Billie, her voice higher pitched but still inimitable. The song more than hints at the emotional expression and maturity that her voice would acquire, influenced by Blues vocalists Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey. The awkward time of the lyrics poses no obstacle to Billie as she rips through the quick two verses and takes an ultimately forgettable song and makes it her own.

Fast forward thirteen years to 1949 and Billie's recording of My Man and you can immediately hear the pathos and intense phrasing that she is best known for. This song, recorded just nine months after her release from jail for possession, is from the tail end of her tenure with Decca records, a time that many consider, vocally, was her best output. This is an alternate version of the hit that was released under the Decca label and is just as moving as the released version. Able to take a song and squeeze it for all of its emotion, Billie moves the earth with this one. Married several times and having gone through a series of abusive relationships, the song fits Billie perfectly, from the perfect timing of lines like "Cold and wet/ Tired? You bet. All of this I'll soon forget/ With my man" (a line that she would use to close her autobiography) and "I don't know why I should?/ He isn't true, he beats me too" to the hope that she infuses into the last line with it's minute hint of doubt that comes from the break in her voice, the song just oozes the Billie Holiday sound.

The last track Stars Fell On Alabama is from the 1957 recordings for her album Songs For Distingue Lovers (a horribly pretentious title) and was recorded two years prior to her death at age 44. Her voice already failing and sounding frail and hoarse it's to her testament that she can still carry the song and that her phrasing on the melody of the song is just as moving as her earlier recordings. Perfectly complimented by Harry "Sweets" Edison's trumpet (his opening of the song recalls one of Billie's idols, no pun intended, Louis Armstrong) and then again by Ben Webster's tenor sax, the song at the end has a playful, bouncing interplay between the three.

It almost seems unfair to distill Lady Day's career to just three songs as her catalog is literally sprinkled with jazz classics that have defined the genre. Strange Fruit, God Bless the Child, Lover Man, Fine And Mellow, the list goes on and not including any selections from her recordings with composer Ray Ellis (her most naked and raw recordings done before her death) seems to great an oversight to commit but then again, I could have made this post with thirty to forty songs and still not covered all the bases. And so with that in mind I chose three personal favorites from her catalog that are not as frequently covered in musical retrospectives of her career.