Billie Holiday - Lady in Satin (1958)

Billie Holliday was the best jazz singer of his generation and, in the opinion of his admirers and many critics, the best of all time. Eleanora Holiday was born in Baltimore's black ghetto. His birth certificate was never found, so the accepted date of his birth was that she used to say: 07 de April 1915. His mother, Sadie Fagan (13 years) called Nora and her father, guitarist Clarence Holiday (15 years), were still adolencentes when Billy was born. It was Clarence who called him "Bill" because he thought she was acting like a kid. Billie has everything you could expect in the life of an American girl black and poor.

He lived with his mother separated from her father, was raped by a neighbor for ten years and punished for it, was hospitalized in an institution with "correctional methods" pre-medieval. At twelve, work washing floors and providing the owner of a brothel where he hears the first time records of Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith. At 14, already in New York and angered by the position created for her mother and racism, falls into prostitution and faces four months in jail. Reason: not wanting to meet a mob boss's black Harlem. In 1930, threatened with eviction by $ 45 due to the landlord, Billie takes to the street willing to steal or kill if necessary. Thus begins the legend of Billie.

Walking through the bars of Harlem looking for some money enter the Pod's and Jerry's offering himself as a dancer. A disaster. The pianist sorry asks if she can sing and Billie asks him to play "Trav'lin All Alone" and in a few moments all eyes are glued to her leaving the bar with fifty-seven dollars and a job with fixed salary. Three years after having sung in many places is assisted by producer John Hammond, enter the studio on November 27th, 1933 at the hands of Benny Goodman. In 1935 already seen performing with the orchestra of Duke Ellington in "Symphony in Black, A Rhapsody of Black Life" and start a fruitful partnership with pianist Teddy Wilson, and recorded over eighty songs in six years.

However their experiences with the Big Bands between 1936 and 1938 are bitter. With Count Basie undergoes humiliation how to paint your face with shoe polish as a businessman thought his skin was very clear. With the orchestra of white Artie Shaw is very well treated by the musicians but feel racism on tour Tired of the South such humiliation back to New York and again at the hands of Hammond, gets a good contract at the Cafe Society of Barney Josephson. On January 25, 1937, Billie and saxophonist Lester Young come together for the first time in a studio. Someone wrote that on that day "came a new form of love poetry of the human voice and musical instrument." In four years they recorded about 50 songs, true gems full of swing, taste, creativity and complicity that extended the trumpeter Buck Clayton. Lester called her Lady Day and she nicknamed Prez (President of the tenor sax). Autobiography (1956), written in collaboration with the journalist William Dufty, was called Lady sing the Blues. The title refers more to his unhappy childhood and his involvement with heroin than their actual music.

A fiasco. His career was interspersed with entries in hospitals and prisons as the addiction brought him more trouble. The film Lady Sings the Blues (The case of a star), starring Diana Ross (a bad interpretation), only served to draw public attention on Billie. Diana is not good on paper and not spared criticism. Billie Holiday only won the fame and respect due after his death, held on July 17, 1959, in Philadelphia at age 44 overdose victims and other circustancias depresivas. His voice is a unique interpretations of hundreds of treasures that no longer recorded. The album "Lady In Satin", their best work, hostenda the title referring to the luxurious string arrangements of conductor Ray Ellis orchestration with a plausible voice even more hoarse Billy due to overuse of heroin. Packaged in a contagious harmony, the album has recreations of classics like "I'm A Fool to Want You" (immortalized in the voice of Frank Sinatra) and "The End Of A Love Affair" (Edward Redding). Recorded on 19 and February 21, 1958 for the Columbia Records label and production of Irving Townsend, "Lady In Satin" was only introduced in June 1958. Interestingly the revival of 1997, adds another 04 tracks take killing a little nostalgia.
Songs
01 - I’m a Fool to Want You
02 - For Heaven’s Sake
03 - You Don’t Know What Love Is
04 - I Get Along Wiyhout You Very Well
05 - For All We Know
06 - Violet for Your Furs
07 - You’ve Changed
08 - It’s Easy to Remember
09 - But Beaultiful
10 - Glad to Be Unhappy
11 - I’ll be around
12 - The End of a Love Affair

Musicians:
Billie Holiday - vocals
George Ockner - Violin
David Sawyer - Violoncelo
Janet Putnam - Harpa
Danny Bank - Flaute
Phil Bodner - Flaute
Romeo Penque - Flaute
Mel Davis - Trumpete
J.J. Johnson - Trombone
Urbie Green - Trombone
Tom Mitchell - Trombone
Mal Waldron - Piano
Barry Galbraith - Guitar
Milt Hinton - Acustic Bass
Osie Johnson - Drum
Elise Bretton - Backing Vocals
Miriam Workman - Backing Vocals
http://borboletasdejade.blogspot.com/2009/11/1958-lady-in-satin-billie-holiday.html