Solitude (album)

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Solitude
Studio album by Billie Holiday

Publication
(s)

1953

Label (s) Clef / Verve

Format (s)

LP, CD

Genre (s)

jazz

occupation

production

Norman Granz

Studio (s)

los Angeles

chronology
Billie Holiday at Storyville
(1952) 		Solitude Recitals by Billie Holiday
(1952)
Template: Info box music album / maintenance / parameter error
Charlie Shavers, National Studios, circa May 1947.
Photograph by William P. Gottlieb .

Solitude is a jazz album by Billie Holiday , which was recorded in two sessions in April 1952 for the label Clef Records (later Verve Records ) by Norman Granz and released in 1953.

The album

In 1950, Billie Holidays records were played less frequently on the radio; her chronicler Donald Clarke speculates that it might be because of her bad reputation. In any case, after her last Decca recordings in 1950, her contract was not renewed. In 1951, four recordings were made under the direction of guitarist Tiny Grimes as part of a short-term contract with the small label Aladdin Records . In late October, she made appearances at Storyville ; In the spring of 1952 she began recording for Norman Granz, for whom she had already performed in the context of Jazz at the Philharmonic , first for Mercury Records and finally for Granz 'own label Clef . For the next five years, her career was entirely in the hands of Granz, who gave her massive support; With the album "Solitude", the singer's last phase of work begins, which she spent in the studios of Clef and later of Verve . During this time, classic albums such as Lady Sings the Blues (1954), Music for Torching (1955) and Songs for Distingué Lovers 1957 were to be created.

In two sessions with almost identical cast (only drummer JC Heard replaced Alvin Stoller ) Lady Day can be heard on some tracks with Barney Kessel , Oscar Peterson , Ray Brown and tenor saxophonist Flip Phillips and trumpeter Charlie Shavers . The title Love for Sale stands out , in which the singer is only accompanied by the young pianist Oscar Peterson. The singer Shirley Horn later said of this duet: "Oscar scattered flowers at her feet".

According to her biographer Donald Clarke, Granz presented Billie Holiday "again in the environment in which her fans wanted to hear her". The musicians belonged to Granz ' JATP troupe, which he has presented in ever-changing line-ups since 1945. Lady Day had known Granz for twelve years; she had already performed at his JATP tour concerts in 1945/47, where the first recordings were made.

Clarke sums it up: “They were and are wonderful recordings. Her voice is rougher, has lost its youthfulness and thus makes the artistic achievement even more glamorous, even more clearly visible. ” Richard Cook and Brian Morton awarded the new edition with the second highest rating in the Penguin Guide to Jazz .

The titles

Billie Holiday (1947) photographed by William P. Gottlieb
  • Billie Holiday: Solitude (Clef MGC 690)
  1. " East of the Sun (and West of the Moon) " (Bowmans)
  2. " Blue Moon " ( Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart )
  3. "You Go to My Head" (Gillespie-Coots)
  4. "You Turned the Tables on Me" (Mitchell-Alter) (without Shavers + Phillips)
  5. "Easy to Love" ( Cole Porter )
  6. "These Foolish Things" (Strachey-Marvell-Link) (without Shavers + Phillips)
  7. "I Only Have Eyes for You" (Warren-Dubin)
  8. "Solitude" ( Duke Ellington , Eddie DeLange and Irving Mills ) (without Flip Phillips)
  9. "Everything I Have Is Yours" ( Lane-Adamson ) (without Shavers)
  10. " Love for Sale " (Porter) (Oscar Peterson only)
  11. " Moonglow " (Hudson-DeLange-Mills) (without Phillips)
  12. "Tenderly" (Lawrence-Gross)
  13. "If the Moon Turns Green" (Coats-Hanighan)
  14. "Remember" ( Irving Berlin )
  15. "Autumn in New York" ( Vernon Duke ) (LP version)
  16. "Autumn in New York" ( Vernon Duke ) (78 rpm take version)

Editorial note

Recordings 1-9 were made during the first session, the remaining tracks after April 21, 1952. Tracks 1-11 were initially released as Clef singles, then as LP (Clef MGC 690), and later on the Verve label under the number MGV 8074. The remaining tracks of the second session, "If the Moon Turns Green", "Remember" and "Autumn in New York" appeared in the LP era on the album Recitals by Billie Holiday (Clef MGC 686 resp. Verve MGV 8027), coupled with the Joe Newman / Paul Quinichette session in July 1952. The new CD edition (Verve 519 810-2) released in the 1990s contains the complete April sessions.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cit. after Clarke, p. 399.
  2. ^ Clarke, p. 400