Billie Holiday – At The Stratford Shakespearean Festival 1957

Description

This compilation of live & remote recordings is a 24-bit remaster of the original releases. It features a rarely heard performance given by Ms. Holiday at the Stratford Shakespearean Festival, in Ontario, Canada, in 1957. As a bonus, Billie’s complete Monterey Jazz Festival concert from the following year, featuring horn men Gerry Mulligan, Benny Carter and Buddy DeFranco. To round out this CD, four additional Billie Holiday live sets in their entirety, including her two songs at the Plaza Hotel in 1958, and three hard to find broadcasts: her only known recordings with the Percy Faith orchestra (1956), an obscure 1957 broadcast from Mr. Kelly’s in Chicago with Paul Quinichette, and her three songs on the London TV show “Chelsea at Nine,” in 1959, which marks one of the final recordings of her career.

Personnel

• BILLIE HOLIDAY, vocals
• Mal Waldron, piano
• Ernie Cosachuck, bass
• Archie Alleyne, drums

Live at the Stratford Shakespearean Festival, Stratford, Ontario, Canada, 10 August 1957.

Bonus tracks [7-26]

• (7-17) Billie Holiday (vx), Gerry Mulligan (bari), Benny Carter (alto), Buddy DeFranco (cl) Mal Waldron (p), Eddie Khan (b), Dick Berk (d).
• Monterey Jazz Festival, Monterey, California, October 5, 1958.

• [18-19] Billie Holiday (vx) with Percy Faith and the Woolworth Orchestra.
• New York, December 9, 1956.

• [20-21] Jazz at the Plaza:
• Billie Holiday (vx), Buck Clayton (tp), Mal Waldron (p), unknown bass and drums.
• Persian Room, Plaza Hotel, New York, September 9, 1958.

• [22-23] Live at Mister Kelly’s:
• Billie Holiday (vx), Paul Quinichette (tenor), Mal Waldron (p), unknown bass and drums.
• FM Broadcast, Mister Kelly’s, Chicago, March 1957.

• [24-26] “Chelsea at Nine” TV Show:
• Billie Holiday (vx) with Mal Waldron (p) and the Peter Knight Orchestra (on 24-25 only).
• TV broadcast, London, England, February 24, 1959.

Track listing

01) Nice Work If You Can Get It
02) Willow Weep For Me
03) I Only Have Eyes For You
04) Billie’s Blues
05) Lover, Come Back To Me
06) Lady Sings The Blues
07) Ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do
08) Willow Weep For Me
09) When Your Lover Has Gone
10) God Bless The Child
11) I Only Have Eyes For You
12) Good Morning Heartache
13) Them There Eyes
14) Billie’s Blues
15) Oh, What A Little Moonlight Can Do
16) Trav’lin’ Light
17) Lover Come Back To Me
18) You Better Go Now
19) Them There Eyes
20) When Your Lover Has Gone
21) Don’t Explain
22) Good Morning Heartache
23) You Better Go Now
24) I Loves You Porgy
25) Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone
26) Strange Fruit