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The Complete Commodore & Decca Masters

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The Complete Commodore & Decca Masters is a 3CD box set of recordings by Billie Holiday, released by Hip-O Records in 2009, compiling all the master takes released as 78rpm singles by Commodore and Decca Records. It includes an essay by Ashley Kahn.[3]

Content

In 1939, Columbia Records refused to let Billie Holiday record the anti-lynching protest song "Strange Fruit". Milt Gabler invited her to record it for his small specialty label Commodore Records, and Columbia granted her a one-time exemption from her contract to do so, in which she recorded four songs (material for two 78rpm records). "Strange Fruit", backed with "Fine and Mellow", turned out to be the biggest selling record of her career. Although she continued to record for Columbia, in 1944, following the musicians' strike recording ban, Holiday permanently left Columbia for Commodore. Small labels like Commodore had been quicker to settle with the musician's union than large labels like Columbia, thus Holiday was able to return to recording quicker by switching to the smaller label. The Commodore tracks were more dominated by torch songs and dramatic ballads than her swing oriented Columbia material had been, although her later Columbia sides (e.g. "God Bless the Child") show she had already been evolving in this direction.

Later the same year, Holiday then followed Gabler to Decca Records, to record Lover Man. Decca had allowed Gabler to keep his own label, while also being employed by them, so long as he directed all potential hits to Decca. Both Holiday and Gabler suspected Lover Man had the potential to be a hit, thus it became her first Decca single, and indeed another of her biggest hits. Lover Man was notable for featuring a string section, and all her Decca tracks typically featured string arrangements and even choral backing, rather than jazz combos. This was Holiday's choice, as strings were often used in the white pop records of the day, and when she recorded Lover Man she wanted the same sound offered to artists like Bing Crosby, and specifically her friend Frank Sinatra. During this same period, Holiday began performing in concert halls rather than nightclubs, and her live performances became more theatrical than jazz, with many of these dramatic songs becoming centrepieces of her set. Holiday continued to record for Decca throughout the 1940s, before again switching to Norman Granz's Clef label (later Verve) in the next decade.

The orchestras Holiday recorded with while at Commodore and Decca were variously led by Toots Camarata, Bob Haggart, Bill Stegmeyer, John Simmons, Buster Harding, Sy Oliver, and Gordon Jenkins.

Big Stuff was a Leonard Bernstein single, with Billie doing a new vocal to a song Bernstein had written as the prologue to his 1944 ballet Fancy Free. The b-side was another Bernstein song from the ballet, without Holiday: Fancy Free (Galop Variation And Finale) performed by the Ballet Theatre Orchestra Under Direction of Leonard Bernstein.

You Can't Lose A Broken Heart and My Sweet Hunk O' Trash were collaborations with Louis Armstrong.

Guilty was the only track not originally released as a 78rpm record, first appearing on the much later compilation LP The Blues Are Brewin' (Decca – DL 8701) in 1958.[4]

Track listing

Disc One: The Commodore Recordings

Track Recorded Catalogue Released Song Title Writer(s) Time
1. April 20, 1939 Commodore 526-a 1939 Strange Fruit Abel Meeropol 3:12
2. April 20, 1939 Commodore 527-a 1939 Yesterdays Jerome Kern, Otto Harbach 3:24
3. April 20, 1939 Commodore 526-b 1939 Fine And Mellow Billie Holiday 3:16
4. April 20, 1939 Commodore 527-b 1939 I Gotta Right To Sing The Blues Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler 2:49
5. March 25, 1944 Commodore 569-b 1944 How Am I To Know Jack King, Dorothy Parker 2:43
6. March 25, 1944 Commodore 585-b 1944 My Old Flame Sam Coslow, Arthur Johnston 3:01
7. March 25, 1944 Commodore 553-b 1944 I'll Get By Fred E. Ahlert and Roy Turk 2:58
8. March 25, 1944 Commodore 559-a 1944 I Cover The Waterfront Johnny Green, Edward Heyman 3:29
9. April 1, 1944 Commodore 553-a 1944 I'll Be Seeing You Sammy Fain and Irving Kahal 3:30
10. April 1, 1944 Commodore 585-a 1944 I'm Yours Johnny Green and Yip Harburg 3:16
11. April 1, 1944 Commodore 7520-a 1944 Embraceable You George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin 3:15
12. April 1, 1944 Commodore 7520-b 1944 As Time Goes By Herman Hupfeld 3:10
13. April 8, 1944 Commodore 569-a 1944 He's Funny That Way Richard Whiting, Neil Moret 3:15
14. April 8, 1944 Commodore 559-b 1944 Lover Come Back To Me Sigmund Romberg, Oscar Hammerstein II 3:19
15. April 8, 1944 Commodore 7519-a 1944 I Love My Man (Billie's Blues) Billie Holiday 3:07
16. April 8, 1944 Commodore 7519-b 1944 On The Sunny Side Of The Street Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields 3:01

Disc Two: The Decca Recordings

Track Recorded Catalogue Released Song Title Writer(s) Time
1. October 4, 1944 Decca – 23391a 1945 Lover Man Jimmy Davis, Roger ("Ram") Ramirez, and James Sherman 3:15
2. October 4, 1944 Decca – 23483a 1946 No More Toots Camarata and Bob Russell 2:45
3. November 8, 1944 Decca – 23391b 1945 That Ole Devil Called Love Allan Roberts and Doris Fisher 2:52
4. August 14, 1945 Decca – 23565a 1946 Don't Explain Billie Holiday and Arthur Herzog Jr. 3:20
5. August 14, 1945 Decca – 23483b 1946 You Better Go Now Bickley Reichner and Robert Graham 2:29
6. August 14, 1945 Decca – 23565b 1946 What Is This Thing Called Love Cole Porter 3:09
7. January 22, 1946 Decca – 23673a 1946 Good Morning Heartache Irene Higginbotham, Ervin Drake, and Dan Fisher 3:05
8. January 22, 1946 Decca – 23673b 1946 No Good Man Irene Higginbotham, Dan Fisher, Sammy Gallop 3:04
9. March 13, 1946 Decca – 23463a 1946 Big Stuff Leonard Bernstein 2:29
10. April 9, 1946 Decca – 23957a 1946 Baby, I Don't Cry Over You Morton Krouse 3:09
11. April 9, 1946 Decca – 23957b 1946 I'll Look Around George Cory and Douglass Cross 3:12
12. December 27, 1946 Decca – 48259a 1951 The Blues Are Brewin' Eddie DeLange and Louis Alter 3:02
13. December 27, 1946 (unreleased on 78?) 1958 Guilty Richard Whiting, Harry Akst, and Gus Kahn 3:11
14. February 13, 1947 Decca – 24138a 1947 Deep Song George Cory and Douglass Cross 3:10
15. February 13, 1947 Decca – 23853a 1947 There Is No Greater Love Isham Jones, Marty Symes 2:56
16. February 13, 1947 Decca – 24138b 1947 Easy Living Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin 3:10
17. February 13, 1947 Decca – 23853b 1947 Solitude Duke Ellington, Eddie DeLange and Irving Mills 3:07
18. December 10, 1948 Decca – 24551a 1949 Weep No More Gordon Jenkins and Tom Adair 3:19
19. December 10, 1948 Decca – 24551b 1949 Girls Were Made To Take Care Of Boys Ralph Blane 3:11

Disc Three: The Decca Recordings Continued

Track Recorded Catalogue Released Song Title Writer(s) Time
1. December 10, 1948 Decca – 24638a 1949 Porgy (I Love You) George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin 2:54
2. December 10, 1948 Decca – 24638b 1949 My Man Jacques Charles, Channing Pollock, Albert Willemetz, and Maurice Yvain 2:55
3. August 17, 1949 Decca – 24726a 1949 Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do Porter Grainger and Everett Robbins 3:19
4. August 17, 1949 Decca – 24726b 1949 Baby Get Lost Leonard Feather and Billy Moore, Jr 3:13
5. August 29, 1949 Decca – 27145a 1950 Keeps On A-Rainin' Spencer Williams and Max Kortlander 3:14
6. August 29, 1949 Decca – 27145b 1950 Them There Eyes Maceo Pinkard, Doris Tauber and William Tracey 2:49
7. September 8, 1949 Decca – 48259b 1951 Do Your Duty Wesley 'Sox' Wilson 3:14
8. September 8, 1949 Decca – 24947a 1950 Gimme A Pigfoot (And A Bottle Of Beer) Wesley 'Sox' Wilson 2:43
9. September 30, 1949 Decca – 24758a 1949 You Can't Lose A Broken Heart James P. Johnson and Flournoy E. Miller 3:13
10. September 30, 1949 Decca – 24758b 1949 My Sweet Hunk O' Trash James P. Johnson and Flournoy E. Miller 3:18
11. September 30, 1949 Decca – 24947b 1950 Now Or Never Billie Holiday and Curtis Reginald Lewis 3:15
12. October 19, 1949 Decca – 24796a 1949 You're My Thrill Jay Gorney and Sidney Clare 3:22
13. October 19, 1949 Decca – 24796b 1949 Crazy He Calls Me Carl Sigman and Bob Russell 3:02
14. October 19, 1949 Decca – 24857a 1950 Please Tell Me Now Arnold Clawson and Toussaint Pope 3:12
15. October 19, 1949 Decca – 24857b 1950 Somebody's On My Mind Billie Holiday and Arthur Herzog Jr. 2:55
16. March 8, 1950 Decca – 24972a 1950 God Bless The Child Billie Holiday 3:08
17. March 8, 1950 Decca – 24972b 1950 This Is Heaven To Me Ernest Schweikert and Frank Reardon 2:51

Billie Holiday's Commodore and Decca recordings have been compiled many times, beginning with 78rpm albums in the 1940s and then 10 inch vinyl LPs. Some compilations also include many alternate takes of the songs, but only the master takes originally released as 78rpm singles are included in this set.

Personnel

Contributing musicians, in chronological order.[5]

References

  1. ^ The Complete Commodore & Decca Masters review at Allmusic, accessed March 22, 2016
  2. ^ The Complete Commodore & Decca Masters review at All About Jazz, accessed March 22, 2016
  3. ^ The Complete Commodore & Decca Masters, Discogs.com, accessed March 22, 2016
  4. ^ The Blues Are Brewin', Discogs.com, accessed March 22, 2016
  5. ^ Billie Holiday sessionography, at the Jazz Discography Project, accessed Feb 20, 2016
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