5 comments about Songs for Distingué Lovers.

1. Through the years, I have read critics write about Billie losing her voice
   as she got older - UTTER NONSENSE! Not on this recording. If anything, she gained feeling and emotional content due to living life.
   
   You would be hard pressed to put together a better group of sympathetic musicians from this period to back her, and to play such GORGEOUS solos.
   BEN WEBSTER, HARRY EDISON, BARNEY KESSEL, JIMMY ROWLES, RED MITCHELL, ALVIN STOLLER - Wow! These gentlemen were (are) a singers' dream to record with. Sinatra should have hired similar personnel when he formed REPRISE, but this is getting off track here.
   
   Like K.O.B.(for instrumental jazz), THIS RECORDING belongs near the top
   of anyone's Vocal collection.



2. If you like/appreciate alternative interpretations of songs.. BUY THIS CD! It made an immediate impression on me. I found it in the used bin after looking at it full price and I am soooo happy I did. First off the other reviewers are correct; tracks 1-6 create a mood unto themselves and are the original album. Track #7 and on are fun but are in a totally different mood. Second, if you are a jazz beginner, or appreciate more traditional interpretations of songs, you may not love this right off the bat. Billie is taking songs that have been sung hundreds of times before and putting her own inimitable stamp on them. She hints at meanings not originally there, turns melodies around, and in general gives these songs a new twist that no one to this day can match. If you are familiar with Ella Fitzgerald or Sarah Vaughn--they are going to offer you a more "pure" delivery. I love those singers too.. but Billie Holiday rises to a whole new plane on this album. She's singing in a way only she can.. and the only word I can think of to describe it is ART.



3. i am a 25 y'o black male i must say i have over 35 billie holiday cds and this one is # 2 on my list her voice is at it's best i think she did a good job at picking this songs to me billie holiday is the voice of jazz



4. As the back of the newly-remastered SONGS FOR DISTINGUE LOVERS appropriately points out, Billie Holiday's voice did change in her later years. It was much lower & richer in texture, but it was one coming from a life's worth of experience that left Billie both scarred yet still resonant as ever. While the subsequent 1959's LADY IN SATIN would make it all too clear that Billie was nearing the end, 1957's SONGS FOR DISTINGUE LOVERS indicates very little of her short time left & thus creates a masterpiece on the level of SATIN.

   The original album only contained 6 songs, kind of skimpy even for 1957, but those 6 songs were all longer than 4 minutes, so time constraints probably were the reason for that. Thanks to Verve Records' extensive reissue campaign, DISTINGUE is stretched out to 12 songs with 6 other songs cherry-picked from other albums. Naturally, old standards & Great American Songbook entries are the order of the day, but Billie proves even the best-worn songs are ripe for a reinvention & on DISTINGUE, she does an excellent job as always.

   Definitely the most represented songwriters on the album are George & Ira Gershwin & their always sophisticated tunes are rendered even more so thanks to Billie's gently-nuanced delivery. Only "A Foggy Day" was on the original album, while "Let's Call The Whole Thing Off" (taken at a brisk, very jazz-like tempo) & "They Can't Take That Away From Me" (probably the Gershwins' most sophisticated song) appeared on BODY & SOUL. "Love Is Here To Stay" was first found on ALL OR NOTHING AT ALL. With the Gershwins having been the epitome of class & elegance, their material goes hand in hand with Miss Holiday, who always exuded those qualities even during the darkest hours of her life.

   Cole Porter's "Just One Of Those Things" (an original album entry) is given a new lease on life thanks to Billie, proving no matter how many times a song has been done by as many artists, Billie makes it sound like it's being sung for the very first time. Rodgers & Hart's "I Didn't Know What Time It Was" (on the original) is given a very torch-song-based delivery, hinting at the just-plain-downhearted atmosphere of LADY IN SATIN. Johnny Mercer's (who also did a fair amount of recording on his own, making him one of the first singer-songwriters) "Day In, Day Out" & "One For My Baby [And One More For The Road]" (all on the original album) are given epic arrangements that are often longer than Billie's vocals, but the music is so accessible & warm, they allow you to just let it run.

   Other songs are written by people not as famous on a level as the previously-mentiond writers, but perhaps the songs themselves are well-known anyway. "Stars Fell On Alabama" (original album), "I Wished On The Moon" (on ALL OR NOTHING AT ALL & co-written by playwright Dorothy Parker), "Body & Soul" (on the album of the same name) & Moonlight In Vermont" (also on BODY & SOUL and probably well-known thanks to its constant cover versions) show the equal footing on which Billie & her band are making them stars on the same bill.

   By the time Billie Holiday made SONGS FOR DISTINGUE LOVERS in 1957, she was 42 years old, but had lived quite a lot in that relatively short amount of time. Because her voice was still in pretty good shape at this time, how it almost deteriorated by the time of LADY IN SATIN was definitely a shocker. Those who care to dive into Billie's later work may want to try SONGS FOR DISTINGUE LOVERS on for size before being brave enough to go for LADY IN SATIN (I did the opposite, to tell you the truth). Nevertheless, if you want music that's "distingue" all over (the music, the lyrics, the vocals, the songwriters), look no further than this.




5. This is not one of my favorite Holiday recordings.

   After reading some of the other reviews I feel like I missed something. Because, to me, she sounds tired and flat on this record, not her usual tricky, flirting, powerful self. The arrangements are too slick, too...tired, for me.

5 comments about The Complete Verve Studio Master Takes.

1. This review is not about the packaging (besides, it's not the worst even though whoever decided to glue the acordion like disc holder to the metal box wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, and whoever designed the art work wasn't the brightest bulb in the lamp).
   
   This is strictly on the music alone. If this was on the Verve & Cleff material only, this would be getting a 5 star rating. On the first 5 discs, she hadn't totally messed up her vocal chords on cigarettes and heroin yet. Unfortunately, Verve (originally owned by Polygram, now owned by UMG) also owned MGM, and to live up to the complete angle, they had to release the MGM (Ray Ellis conducted / arranged / produced) album simply titled Billie Holiday. This section got worst for 2 reasons. Instead of having really great jazz artists, you have strings (which just doesn't work). Also (Like Lady In Satin), her voice has had it.
   
   All the other discs (and actually the first 4 songs on disc 6) are all very good, but once you start to hear All The Way, it becomes dificult to listen to (another similarity to Lady in Satin). Is it worth the price for the poor packaging and the imfamous MGM album? From me, you'll get a resounding YES. On the other discs, Billie is in good voice, and the musicians are hot. This is perfect for the person who doesn't want all the alternate tracks that you get in the Complete Verve, and feel that the 2 disc set is too skimpy.



2. Yes, the music is wonderful. If you love Billie Holiday's music, then you'll love listening to this set. I'm enjoying it immensely.
   
   HOWEVER, as has been noted already, the packaging is the worst I've ever seen. This set is all about being completely uninformative and unusable. There is the fold-out accordion-style holder for the discs, which is very cumbersome. Want to know what the songs are on which disc? Good luck! First of all, the discs are not labeled, save for the tiny writing around the spindle hole in the center of the disc. Once you figure out which disc is which you'll then need to extricate the booklet from the first leaf of the fold-out accordion holder. I was not able to get my booklet out, it seems that it was glued in place and is now worse for wear after a tug of war getting it out.
   
   And, if the annoyances of trying to actually use this set is not enough, what is with the completely inappropriate design? There is the worst photo of Billie Holiday ever taken that you will see when you open the tin box and then there is the colorful motifs of daisies and sunshine on each of the discs which begs the question, what was the designer thinking? UMG, owner of Verve, has invested a lot of effort, and is presumably charging you, the buyer, a lot of money for gratuitous and inappropriate design indulgence and impulsive whims of clueless designers. I give this two stars - the music deserved five stars but the packaging is so insulting and unusable that I have to knock it down to two stars. Now that I've ripped it into iTunes, I will not be struggling with trying to play these CDs.



3. The music is absolutely great and I love these disc.
   
   BUT, the tin box and the packaging is beyond my worst imagination. The picture they choose for Lady Day and the way they put it---I am so angry with it that the first thing I did was to repachaging these discs myself....
   
   It is a crime against the great music.....



4. The last phase of Billie Holiday's career is captured here in great sound (the very slight hiss means they didn't take off a layer of sound just to get pristine silent background, a good sign, a mistake Japanese issues often make). With a return to great jazz backup, as in her 30s recordings (arguably the greatest jazz/popular recordings ever made), Holiday isn't in great voice and she sometimes isn't up to the material, which is much better than the material she was handed in the 30s. But that's a rare sometimes, and her take on anything is always interesting. And often great. She completely remakes "Love for Sale" (which was a rather silly risque Porter number til she took it on) or "Solitude", unearthing colors the composers likely didn't realize they'd buried there; much as her daughters Aretha Franklin and Nina Simone would do so often after her. The damage she had done to her instrument and herself, as well as the damage the world inflicted on her, shows and sometimes she is using it and sometimes it is using her. On a few cuts you're listening to a woman in great pain, and it's not art; it becomes voyeurism. In the end, it's an essential collection, and preferable to the fuller complete collection - her false takes in this period aren't useful, as the 30s outtakes were, where nothing she did was the same twice. The packaging is silly, and has nothing to do with her style; the photo on the inside front cover is just ugly, though there is an Aztec quality to it that would be interesting if there was anything Aztec about Holiday. She was also very beautiful and a chameleon (at different times, she looked Chinese, African, patrician, no two photos from different shoots look the same), which highlights her essential nature as an actress. The greatest singing actress, in fact. But the perfumed soap tin box doesn't disguise the unique music inside.



5. Okay, the music is flawless. Nothing needs to be said.
   
   And yes, the packaging is horrible. However, it's not the functionaliy of the packaging the irks me (even though this is also poor). My wife and I are both designers, and nothing about the packaging is aesthetically cohesive. The disc art looks like it can also be used on an XTC or Theivery Corporation album (or maybe it was stolen from one). The photos are very unflattering. All of this would not be such a crime if it wasn't coming from a period and label that wasn't known for classic, trend-setting and influential album covers. It honestly looks as if different people designed parts of the package without seeing what the other was doing.
   
   Oh well, it's going right on my iPod anyway where I'll swap out the art for something nicer. Here is a great hint/trick for fellow iPod jazzers....
   
   Change your encode settings to MONO on anything recorded before 1958. Stereo wasn't used until 1958, and changing the setting to MONO will make the file half the size with 0% loss of quality. (The "automatic" setting in iTunes cannot differentiate mono from stereo, so you need to do this manually.) If your entire iPod is pre-1958, you will get twice as much music on it.

4 comments about Dave Van Ronk: The Folkways Years, 1959-1961.

1. I admit it. I LOVE Dave Van Ronk's music.... his styling, playing and singing .... I even like what I know about him from the book about him mentioned in the title of this review. I associate him and his music with my own coming-of-age in the early 60's. His music was gritty, tuneful and 'real' in a way that sharply contrasted the neatly produced works of such contemporaries as Peter, Paul and Mary, Joan Baez and The Kingston Trio. His sound spoke to the way I wanted to see myself - and today, at 60, I still listen to it quite a bit and enjoy playing my own renditions of these tunes on both the 6 and 12 string guitar. A necessary addition to any folk music collection!



2. When I first heard folk music in my youth I felt unsure about whether I liked it or not. As least against my strong feelings about the Rolling Stones and my favorite blues artist such as Howling Wolf and Elmore James. Then on some late night radio folk show here in Boston I heard Dave Van Ronk doing `Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies' and that was it. That old-time gravelly voice (even though I found out later that he was relatively young at that time) still commands my attention in the same way.
   
   The last time I saw Dave Van Ronk perform, after not seeing him for a fairly long period of time, was not a particularly good night as he was pretty sick by that time. Moreover, his politics seemed to have crumbled over time from that of the hardened Trotskyist of his youth going out slay the benighted Stalinists for the soul of the working class. His dedication to leftist politics, as testified to by those who knew him well like Tom Paxton, was well know and passionate. A man who can write an interesting ditty about the notorious Moscow Lubyanka political prisonm is definitely a political man. Although no one asks a musical performer to wear politics on his or her sleeves as a litmus test, given his status as a prime historian/activist of the folk revival of the 1960's, this was disconcerting.
   
   That folk scene, of which Dave was a central and guiding figure not fully recognized outside a small circle to this day, was not only defined by the search for root music and relevancy but by large political concerns such as civil rights, the struggle against war, and the need for social justice. Some of it obviously was motivated as well as simply a flat out need to make our own mark on the world. Dave was hardly the first person from this period to lose his political compass in the struggle against injustice. I say this with sadness in his case but I will always carry that memory of that late night radio experience in my head. That said, please listen to this man reach under a song. You will not forget it either.



3. My first exposure to Dave Van Ronk, although I've known his name for years. Definitely a winner for those interested in roots folk/blues. Fabulous unique and creative guitar rhythms blend perfectly with Van Ronk's rough voice. Mostly obscure songs from the early 1900s learned from friends and off the street - a plus for me. The album includes a sheet of comments about the songs.
   My favorite: "Just a Closer Walk with Thee", the old spiritual done as never before.



4. I listened to Dave Van Ronk's old Folkways records a LOT growing up - most of these songs I have not heard in years. There are enough good songs to make this CD worth owning ("River Come Down" is a particular favorite of mine). My 12-year-old enjoys the same songs I enjoyed at his age: "Yas-Yas-Yas", "Willie the Weeper". A number of the old folk tunes sound so amateurish to me now they are painfully embarassing to listen to: "Saint James Infirmary" for example is just awful. Nevertheless this is a good collection and a good example of a genre that was extremely popular during the Folk Revival of early 60s.

5 comments about Hooker.

1. some material is repetitive but overall a must for any blues listener or any other music listener. the nuances of his playing develope deeper with each listening. hooker, buddy guy, b.b. king--what a great cache of music we have at our eartips to listen to.



2. This chronology of Hooker recordings is simply awesome! To walk through the progression of songs from early recordings to the present is simply mesmerizing. Some titles are repeated throughout the 4 disc set put are clearly an evolution of the artist. It is clear why he influenced so many artists, too. You can't go wrong with this set.



3. If you like the blues you gotta get these 4 CDs. At times the songs may seem sparse and repetitive but there is so much soul in them I can listen to them over and over again. A wonderful overview of John Lee Hooker's career. Excellent remastering.



4. This box set starts out with acoustic foot tapping blues just as you would expect but by the middle of disc 2 it really picks up.Disc 3 and 4 is John Lee Hooker at his finest.He truly was one of the best at singing and playing the blues.I would recommend this to anyone who loves the Blues.



5. Heard great review on NPR. Took gamble and was not disappointed. Excellent compilation

3 comments about Carolina Blues Man, Vol. 1.

1. This is a great collection of performances. Not so much raw as real. Great energy in every performance.



2. This is the first of three wonderful albums which veteran songster Pink Anderson recorded for Bluesville in 1961. The focus on blues here is a little deceptive, as Anderson was far more than just a bluesman.

   A number of these performances are Blind Boy Fuller numbers learned from recordings, and Anderson is a little stiff rythmically at times. However, three numbers in particular stand out. "Every Day of the Week" is a jaunty number celebrating promiscuity, and given a delightful performance, as is "Meet Me in the Bottom", where Anderson's bass-lines are the epitome of the Piedmont guitar style. The final track "Try Some of That", is an entertaining double - entendre medicine show tune where Anderson plays an inventively varied guitar accompaniment to the increasingly cheeky lyrics, which he delivers with great elan.

   Anderson was not as nimble on the guitar as he was in his 1950 recordings, but this CD, and all the Bluesville discs, are a great record of the range of repertoire of a first class songster. Strongly recommended for all lovers of East Coast blues.




3. This blues album is very high quality blues! Pink Anderson inspired Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd, to so entitle the psychedelic rock band, fighting off other titles such as the abdabs, and sigma 6, syd named his band after Pink Anderson, this legendary blues artist who's music is found here, and Floyd Council, yet another blues artist, thus coming up with Pink Floyd.

   This album will be something that will stick with you for life, and you ears will be blessed with the great blues sound of the south.

   Simon recommends this album, and a great buy here at Amazon.Com.

5 comments about Lady Sings the Blues.

1. Lady Sings The Blues is a marvelous two CD set that has so much to offer! This really gives people a large amount of timeless ballads from some of the best divas of the entire twentieth century. The sound quality is excellent and the artwork is very thoughtful.
   
   Sarah Vaughan kicks off the set with her wonderful interpretation of "Key Largo." Sarah sounds just lovely and her ability to play with tempo changes impresses me greatly. The musical arrangement is rather jazzy as well. There's also "Embraceable You" sung by Dianne Reeves; Dianne sings this with all her heart and soul. The tempo is slowed down somewhat from the tempo I'm used to but this ballad as sung here by Dianne Reeves still holds its own very well. Della Reese also sounds great on "Call Me." "Call Me" has a particularly lush arrangement and Della's voice is rich, warm and rather vibrant. Della sure could belt out a tune!
   
   Dinah Washington turns in a fine performance on "Call Me Irresponsible;" this tune gets the royal treatment from Dinah and she was born to sing songs like these! Dinah's energy makes this a major highlight of this two CD set and I'm sure you'll like it as much as I do. Moreover, Nancy Wilson's "The Very Thought Of You" is absolutely perfect--Nancy delivers this with panache, heart and soul! The strings are used to great advantage and the piano arrangement is very elegant as well. Kay Starr sings a stunning version of "It Had To Be You;" if this is your type of music then I dare you not to like this!
   
   The second CD continues the hits. Sarah Vaughan returns to sing a passionate rendition of "Stormy Weather." Sarah bats this one straight out of the ballpark and she never sings a superfluous note, either! Sarah Vaughan always remains one of my favorite songbirds of all time; and just one listen will tell you why. Cassandra Wilson also sings "Someday My Price Will Come" with a slow, romantic delivery that just amazes me whenever I hear it; and listen also for "You've Changed" by the great Nancy Wilson. "You've Changed" is a classic bluesy ballad that Nancy infuses with so much emotion that it truly shines here on this set.
   
   Julie London sings "Cry Me A River;" many people said that this song in actuality belonged to Julie London--and I think those people are right! Julie sings this with a degree of sensitivity that only she could muster. Keely Smith also does a smash-up job on "I Wish You Love;" Keely's voice is very rich and warm. "I Wish You Love" stuns me with its natural beauty. The CD set also ends well with Lena Horne performing "We'll Be Together Again." "We'll Be Together Again" is the perfect ending to this two CD set.
   
   Overall, blues music aficionados cannot afford to go without this two CD set. These timeless ballads shine so well; don't be surprised if you find yourself listening to this practically every day of the year!



2. Lady Sings The Blues is a spectacularly rich Capitol Records compilation of women jazz/blues singers in a 2-CD collection that has the listener begging for more.
   
   Combining legendary chanteuses such as Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughn, and Ella Fitzgerald with the modern ones (Dianne Reeves, Diana Krall, Norah Jones), this release rolls out older and newer songs that these ladies interpret with gusto and panache.
   
   No weak cuts on these records, but here are a few standouts,"Embraceable You" by Reeves, "Solitude" by Fitzgerald, "Key Largo" by Vaughn, "Don't Go To Strangers" by the great Etta James ("At Last"), "Call Me" by everyone's favorite overseeing angel Della Reese, and many others, the classic "Something Cool" by June Christy.
   
   This is a wonderful collection that shows that in today's hip-hop influenced music culture that there is still room for the old standards.



3. Altho the disk spans 50 years of torch singing, it amazed me how all these ladies sound the same. Only Etta James stands out with some life in her voice, everyone else is so so smooth I lose track of who is singing.



4. This is a very nice cd. The contributions by Norah Jones and Patricia Barber alone are well worth the price. Where is Tierney Sutton?!



5. Wow these womens voice can sound as deep as the ocean to as high as the everlasting sky. Each song & singer is fantastic!

1 comments about Deep River of Song: Mississippi - Saints and Sinners.

1. This is essential music for anyone looking into the traditions of African American music, whether string band, blues, or whatever.
   
   There is so much heritage and so much of the traditional rhythms that have since been smothered out of Black churck music in the interventing years on the religious tunes. There are several of the old Church Rocks and preaching as musical as any song or dance here.
   
   As a string band musician on banjo, guitar, and fiddle, I naturally gravitate to the superb music of Sid Hemphill, Lucius Smith and Will Head in Sledge Mississippi (btw this is the Mississippi Cotton Pickin town that Black CW star Charlie Pride grew up in and wrote the song about). Hemphill is fantastic as a fiddle and a quiller, and this band has a distinct rhythm that no other string band matches.
   
   It should be noted that on the same day that Lomax recorded these string band selections, he recorded a number of selections by the same group playing in a band with quill or fife and drum. You can hear these if you get a copy of the "Traveling Through the Jungle" collection of Black drum band recordings.
   
   It is a shame that nobody has bothered to put all the recordings Lomax and other did of Sid Hemphill, Lucius Smith and their various band mates in 1941 and 1942 and in the 1950s out on one CD and one has to gather different CDS to find them, for example more string band music by this group appears (misplaced in) this series's Black Appalachia recording even though these people were from the hill country of Mississippi and nowhere near Appalachia. Still other string band recordings and solo work by Hemphill and Smith are on David Evan's superb collection, Afro-American Folk Music from Tate and Panola Counties, Mississippi. If you are into banjo Evans collection's booklet, a treasure for anyone into African American traiditional music in its own right, has a great explanation of Smith's banjo style.

1 comments about Driftin' Blues: The Best of Charles Brown.

1. I was saddened to read of Charles Brown's passing two weeks ago.

   My favorite of his was his 1961 Christmas album on King.

   This album won't disappoint you. It's best appreciated when you want to relax.

5 comments about The Ultimate Collection.

1. This is a lovely collection of Ms. Holiday's finest. My dad wanted a copy of the 20th Century Masters Collection I have of hers and since Christmas was coming up, I decided to buy him his own copy of the disc rather than just burning him a copy. I came to [...] and looked for that disc, but saw a ad for this one - this not only had all of the songs on the other album, but a whole other CD worth, too! Plus, it has a great DVD full of concert clips and interviews. My dad was stoked when he got his present and has been listening to it nonstop for a few days now :)



2. The Ultimate Collection This one is a rip-off. There are not enough songs on the CD and they try to compensate by sending a DVD which freezes all over the place. Buy Lady Day instead which has tons of her songs and is a superb value.



3. There are some good songs on this collection. Overall a good Billie Holiday presentation. Also descent quality.



4. If you are addicted to the music and sound of Lady Day, then you must include this collection in your music porfolio. One can never get too much of Holiday.



5. Loved the compilation. Nice mix of tunes and certainly hits som eof her more contreversial works. Nice packaging too, lots of music in a small and neat package.

5 comments about Q: The Musical Biography of Quincy Jones.

1. Beautiful music. This is lovely bio-discography. Jazz, movie, pop, funk .... for all kind of music, he is #1 . Fans of Q, u have to buy it !



2. I had no idea who Quincy Jones really was until I watched a PBS special the other night called American Masters. I am a big fan of his album "Big Band Bossa Nova" and I was amazed to see that he did a great deal of big-band styled music. This box set encompasses so many different aspects of his career. Big band music, movie & television scores, to producing some of pop music's greatest stars. I am extremely pleased with this purchase. There are so many great songs on these 4 discs they will be in heavy rotation on my MP3 player for quite some time.



3. This collection runs the gamut of pop and jazz musical styles. When songs differed between the single and album version, the single version is used. For a Rhino box set, this title has excellent remastering. Instead of the usually over-bright presentation, Bernie Grundman is the remastering engineer here -- and he treats these tracks with a slight hand, allowing the original musicality of the master tapes shine through. You probably don't have these tracks sounding this good elsewhere in your collection (unless you own the Grundman remastered Michael Jackson albums).



4. The wide array of music in this collection is amazing - I've always enjoyed his later albums (The Dude, Back on The Block) but this collection opened up the depth of his earlier work to me. I had originally ordered this from Amazon, but cancelled it after I found it at a discount club (Costco)...



5. Jones's musical biography is a history of American music. The variety and depth of the music compiled on these CDs is amazing.