The Complete Commodore Recordings
| The Complete Commodore Recordings | |
|---|---|
| Studio album by Billie Holiday | |
|
Publication |
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| Label (s) | Commodore / GRP |
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Format (s) |
78 , LP, CD |
|
Title (number) |
45 |
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running time |
143 min |
| occupation |
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|
Studio (s) |
New York City , Brunswick World Broadcasting Studios (1939) , WOR Studios (1944) |
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The Complete Commodore Recordings is a jazz album by singer Billie Holiday . It contains all of the songs she recorded for the Commodore Records label in 1939 and 1944 , a total of 18 master takes , 4 were made in 1939 and 12 more in 1944. They first appeared on four shellac records in 1946 ( Billie Holiday , Commodore CR-2 ) and after various LP editions in 1997 as a double CD with GRP Records , supplemented by further, previously unreleased alternate takes .
The first Commodore session in 1939
Bille Holidays recordings for Commodore are closely related to their appearances at the newly opened New York jazz club Cafe Society from January 1939. After Columbia Records refused to release their song Strange Fruit , " Milt Gabler and his Commodore Records come into play," which had started to produce records himself from 1938. Holiday got permission to record four sides of a record for Gabler outside of her contract; on April 20, 1939, recorded with the band of trumpeter Frankie Newton , in addition to "Strange Fruit", Jerome Kern's classic "Yesterdays", "I Gotta Right to Song the Blues" by Ted Koehler and Harold Arlen from 1932, the Jack Teagarden had already made it popular, and finally “Fine and Mellow”, which - as the B-side of “Strange Fruit” - became a hit on the jukeboxes .
Milt Gabler had arranged the recording session in a similar style to how Joe Smith had accompanied Bessie Smith :
- "I let the saxophones behind her play a motif that Tab Smith had worked out, plus a lush piano, and Frankie Newton's muted trumpet (...)."
The second Commodore session in 1944
After the end of the recording ban , Milt Gabler took the chance and started recording again in November 1943. In February 1944 there was a session with Eddie Heywood , who was band leader at the Cafe Society at the time. He had success with a cover version of " Begin the Beguine ". After Columbia had not renewed the contract with Holiday in 1944, Gabler wanted to make recordings with her again. He offered her manager Joe Glaser $ 1,000 for a recording session, which was significantly more than what Columbia had paid for. They then produced a total of twelve songs on March 25, April 1 and April 8, 1944, mostly in several versions. they were accompanied by Eddie Heywood's sextet, in which Doc Cheatham , Vic Dickenson , Sid Catlett , John Simmons and Lem Davis played; Heywood, Simmons and Catlett only appeared as a trio on some recordings. Gabler had selected numbers like "How Am I to Know", "My old Flame", "I'll Get By", " I Cover the Waterfront ", "I'll Be Seeing You", "I'm Yours", "Embraceable You", " As Time Goes By ", "He's Funny That Way" and "Love Come Back to Me". At the end of the sessions they played a new version of Gabler's favorite song "Billie's Blues".
Numerous songs from the Commodore sessions such as "Yesterdays", "Fine and Mellow", "I Cover the Waterfront" or "I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues" became an integral part of her further stage repertoire.
The pieces of the album
- Disc 1
1. Strange Fruit 2. Strange Fruit - (alternate take) 3. Yesterdays 4. Yesterdays - (alternate take) 5. Fine and Mellow 6. I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues 7. I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues - (alternate take) 8. How Am I to Know? - (alternate take) 9. How Am I to Know? - (alternate take) 10. How Am I to Know? - (alternate take) 11. How Am I to Know? 12. My Old Flame - (alternate take) 13. My Old Flame - (Take 2) 14. My Old Flame - (alternate take) 15. My Old Flame 16. I'll Get By (As Long as I Have You) 17. I'll Get By (As Long as I Have You) - (alternate take) 18. I Cover the Waterfront - (alternate take) 19. I Cover the Waterfront - (alternate take) 20. I Cover the Waterfront - ( alternate take) 21. I Cover the Waterfront 22. I'll Be Seeing You - (alternate take) 23. I'll Be Seeing You 24. I'll Be Seeing You - (alternate take)
- Disc 2
1. I'm Yours - (alternate take) 2. I'm Yours - (alternate take) 3. I'm Yours 4. Embraceable You - (alternate take) 5. Embraceable You 6. Embraceable You - (alternate take) 7. As Time Goes By 8. As Time Goes By - (alternate take) 9. He's Funny That Way - (alternate take) 10. He's Funny That Way - (take) 11. He's Funny That Way 12. He's Funny That Way - (alternate take) 13. He's Funny That Way - (alternate take) 14. Lover, Come Back to Me - (alternate take) 15. Lover, Come Back to Me - (alternate take) 16. Billie's Blues - (alternate take ) 17. Billie's Blues - (alternate take) 18. Lover, Come Back to Me 19. Billie's Blues 20. On the Sunny Side of the Street 21. Lover, Come Back to Me - (alternate take)
reception
Harry Lachner selected the album for the Arte series of recordings of the century of jazz and wrote: "The Commodore recordings show them at the height of their art of working out the finest nuances in all songs." The author added in particular to "Strange Fruit":
- “This first recording remains the most intense, convincing and moving to this day. Everything about this piece is perfect: with Billie Holidays phrasing between sadness and rebellion. A text somewhere between poetry and accusation. A dramatic ingenious arrangement between intensity and silence. Strange Fruit , boycotted by many radio stations, became Billie Holidays' greatest success. "
The Downbeat rated the album four (out of five) stars:
- (...) the songs were very good and the performances often very moving .... these records are so basic to Holiday's work, they remain indispensible (...) .
George Kanzler describes her technique of slowing down and shifting the accent of the melody in the final choruses of I'll Be Seeing You as "an object lesson in jazz personification;" these sessions also included the "last dashing swing numbers" before their ballad phase at Decca , like I'll Get By and On the Sunny Side of the Street .
Editorial notes
Milt Gabler's Commodore label released the following tracks on shellac records:
- Strange Fruit - Fine and Mellow (Commodore 526)
- Yesterdays - I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues (Commodore 527)
- I'll Be Seeing You - I'll Get By (Commodore 553)
- I Cover the Waterfront - Lover Come Back to Me (Commodore 559)
- She's Funny That Way - How Am I to Know (Commodore 569)
- I'm Yours - My Old Flame (Commodore 585)
- How Am I to Know - She's Funny that Way (Commodore 614) (Trio Version)
- I Love My Man - Lover Come Back to Me (Commodore 7516)
- How Am I to Know - He's Funny That Way (Commodore 7517)
- My Old Flame - Im Yours (Commodore 7518)
- I Love My Man (Trio) - On the Sunny Side of the Street (Trio) (Commodore 7519)
- Embraceable You - As Time Goes By (Commodore 7520)
Web links
Individual references / comments
- ↑ such as The Commodore Days (on Mainstream Records) or Commodore Jazz Classics (on Doxy Records).
- ^ A b Clarke, Billie Holiday, pp. 190 ff., Chapters 1937-1939 - Strange Fruit
- ^ As a result, Decca Records produced a cover version of "Fine and Mellow" with Alberta Hunter after Gabler registered Billie Holidays copyrights. In doing so, he had ensured that she would receive royalties for this song until her death.
- ↑ She had already recorded the song for Columbia; it was the first time that she had recorded a new version of one of her records. See Clarke, p. 282.
- ^ Clarke, Billie Holiday, pp. 280 ff.
- ↑ a b Harry Lachner: Review of the album in the series - Century Recordings of Jazz at ( Memento of the original from July 22, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Arte
- ↑ Down Beat (06/01/1997)
- ^ Review of the album The Complete Commodore and Decca Masters at All About Jazz
- ^ 78discography - Commodore
