It's easy to call any collection "The Very Best Of" and mislead naive listeners into believing the claim until they take the record home and give it a spin, and find it was compiled of dead dogs or substandard material licensed by some shoddy label to make a buck. Not so with this fine 14-cut collection by
Sony/
BMG Legacy,
God Bless the Child: The Very Best of Billie Holiday, which certainly makes a convincing argument for the claim. While it begins with a 1941 performance of the title track, with
Roy Eldridge,
Jimmy Powell,
Grachan Moncur,
Eddie Heywood, and
Herbert Cowans in the band, it goes backward to 1935 when she fronted
the Teddy Wilson Orchestra for a historic session that yielded three classic performances, including
"I Wished on the Moon." Her association with
Wilson continues into 1936 with one cut,
"I Cried for You," featuring
Jonah Jones,
Wilson,
Harry Carney, and
Cozy Cole in the band. The version of
"Billie's Blues" included here is the original recorded take from 1937 with
Bunny Berigan,
Artie Shaw, and
Joe Bushkin. Of course,
"Easy Living" is included here, with
Holiday once more fronting
Wilson's band, which in 1937 included
Buck Clayton,
Walter Page,
Jo Jones, and the great saxophonist
Lester Young. Other performances that make this set an amazing buy for the price include
"My Man" from 1937;
"Some Other Spring" with
Charlie Shavers and
Tab Smith;
"Body and Soul" from 1940;
"I Cover the Waterfront" from 1941; and one of the most haunting
vocal tunes in the history of
jazz,
"Gloomy Sunday" with the
Wilson band -- featuring
J.C. Heard on drums -- from 1942. These 14 tunes give an overview of
Holiday at her peak and will certainly inspire listeners to dig deeper into her catalog. ~ Thom Jurek
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