Music for torching

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Music for torching
Studio album by Billie Holiday

Publication
(s)

1955

Label (s) Clef Records , Verve

Format (s)

LP, CD

Genre (s)

jazz

Title (number)

8/17

occupation

production

Norman Granz

Studio (s)

Radio Recorders Studio, Los Angeles

chronology
Lady Sings the Blues
(1954) 		Music for torching Songs for Distingué Lovers
(1957)
Template: Info box music album / maintenance / parameter error

Music for Torching is a jazz album by Billie Holiday , which was recorded in two sessions on August 23 and 25, 1955 for the Clef label (later Verve Records ) by Norman Granz and released in 1955.

Prehistory of the album

After her career had regained its footing thanks to the support of Norman Granz , Lady Day recorded a number of albums on his Clef label from 1952, such as Solitude in 1952 with Charlie Shavers and Flip Phillips , Recitals by Billie Holiday in 1953 with Joe Newman and Paul Quinichette and Lady Sings the Blues in 1954 with Harry Sweets Edison . The swing trumpeter also appeared in the session the following year, when Granz put the band together to record Music for Torching with Billie Holiday . The album title refers to the American tradition of Torch songs . Swing veteran Benny Carter played alto saxophonist, pianist Jimmy Rowles , guitarist Barry Galbraith , bassist John Simmons and Larry Bunker on drums in the backing band .

According to Lady Day's biographer Donald Clarke, the composition of the songs is "one of the best that Lady has ever had". Her vocal condition was also relatively good; While she still sounded rough at the rehearsal the day before, she still had intonation problems on August 23, "two days later, however, it was better, even better. All recordings are fantastic; it depends a lot on the band".

The music and its evaluation

"Five slow pieces are followed by a brisk one:" Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone ", describes Donald Clarke the session," Simmons' bass is particularly beautiful here, and his former sweetheart manages this text with flying colors : it is casual, but it is quite serious. Then "It Had to Be You" follows, again with Carter, and "Nice Work" gets livelier again. Sweets plays without a damper on "I Got a Right to Sing the Blues" ("My poor heart is badly shaken by a certain man in this town ..."). On " What's New? " Rowles switches to celesta and Carter plays a solo. Rowles is so cautious on "A Fine Romance" that he could be Miles Davis of the piano, after which the accompaniment of Carter and Edison sets in: these two never come to the fore. With "I Hadn't Anyone till You" the horns drop out; the intimacy of this song is great. In "Everything I Have is Yours" Lady makes some changes and ends with "Isn't This a Lovely Day?". Music by candlelight, so the free translation, is the program to which the tempos of the titles and the intonation of the soloists are subordinate. As given by the LP title, there is a steady, ballad-like tempo on both sides of the LP.

Richard Cook and Brian Morton awarded the new edition the second highest rating.

Editorial note

The original publication of individual tracks - such as "I Don't Want to Cry Any More" and "A Ghost of a Chance" first took place in the form of singles from the Clef label, then as a 10-inch LP (Clef MGC 669) . After Clef became part of the Verve label, which was founded in 1956 , a 10-inch LP was released (Verve MGV 8026). The later CD edition of the same title also contained pieces that were released on the album "Velvet Mood" (Verve MGV 8096) in the LP era. The complete session with the alternate takes of "A Fine Romance" and "When Your Lover Has Gone" includes the Verve edition "The Complete Billie Holiday on Verve".

The titles of the LP

Billie Holiday 1947 photographed by William P. Gottlieb
  • Billie Holiday: Music for Torching (Clef MGC 669)
  1. " It Had to Be You " - 4:03
  2. "Come Rain or Come Shine" - 4:25
  3. "I Get a Kick Out of You" - 5:42
  4. "I Don't Want to Cry Anymore" - 3:56
  5. "I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You" - 4:29
  6. "A Fine Romance" - 3:34
  7. "Gone with the Wind" - 3:25
  8. "Isn't this a Lovely Day?" - 4:17

The titles of the CD edition

  1. "I Don't Want to Cry Any More" (Schertzinger)
  2. " Prelude to a Kiss " ( Duke Ellington / Gordon / Mills)
  3. "Ghost of a Chance" (Crosby / Ned Washington / Young)
  4. "When Your Lover Has Gone" (Swan)
  5. "Gone With the Wind" (Magidson / Allie Wrubel )
  6. "Please Don't Talk About Me when I'm Gone" (Clare / Slept / Palmer)
  7. "It Had to Be You" (Jones / Kahn)
  8. " Nice Work If You Can Get It " (Gershwin)
  9. "Come Rain or Come Shine" ( Johnny Mercer / Arlen)
  10. "I Got a Right to Sing the Blues" ( Harold Arlen / Ted Koehler )
  11. "What's New?" (Haggart / Burke)
  12. "A Fine Romance" ( Dorothy Fields / Jerome Kern )
  13. "I Hadn't Anyone till You" (Noble)
  14. "I Get a Kick out of You" (Porter)
  15. "Everything I Have is Yours" ( Burton Lane / Adamson)
  16. "Isn't This a Lovely Day?" ( Irving Berlin )
  17. "Prelude to a Kiss" ( Duke Ellington / Gordon / Mills)

literature

Individual references / comments

  1. ↑ During the trial session on August 22, 1955 with Jimmy Rowles , 26 tracks were recorded in the apartment of the bassist Artie Shapiro , who also accompanied him. Sometimes not used in the clef session. The trial session was later released as Songs and Conversations on the Paramount label. She also appeared on the Verve edition The Complete Billie Holiday on Verve and as a single edition as Billie Holiday in Rehearsal (Original Master Recording)
  2. ↑ cit. after Clarke, p. 460
  3. ↑ cit. after Clarke, p. 460 f.
  4. ↑ The two tracks appeared as a single under the number Clef EPC 369, the tracks "Gone with the Wind" and "It Had to Be You" as Clef OPC 368 . See Clarke, p. 576.