Album Reviews

This summer of 1955 set probably recorded at United in Los Angeles August 23rd and 25th 1955 just a few days after a successful Hollywood Bowl appearance finds Holiday covering standards in fine voice backed up a great small combo.

Holliday (born Eleanora Fagan) covers “I Don’t Want to Cry Anymore,” “It Had to Be You,” “Come Rain or Come Shine,” “I Get a Kick Out of You,” “A Fine Romance” and some others taken at a slow, summer’s eve pace, with both musical feet firmly set in the 1940s but with hi-fidelity sonics.

The backing musicians, including Harry “Sweets” Edison on trumpet, Benny Carter on alto and tenor sax, Jimmy Rowles on piano, Barney Kessel on guitar, John Simmons on bass and Larry Bunker on bass, provide exceptionally sympathetic support for Holiday’s sensual renderings of these introspective romantic musings.

From the photos on the jacket it’s obvious that the then 40 year old Holiday had lost her youthful sexual allure to both natural aging and substance abuse and was getting a bit jowly, but she still looked involved and invigorated and certainly what poured forth from her vocal cords was, with her upper registers still vibrant if just a bit scratchy.

The fine performances here, with her voice still relatively supple and expressive, make the vocal devastation that would render her second to final full album Lady in Satin (Columbia CS 8048), recorded just three years later, such a difficult listen.

Four years after this album Holiday would be gone. Between Holiday’s sophisticated interpretations, the compact, sympathetic arrangements and precise performances, and the “birth of hi-fi” sonics, this is an album that will bring repeated pleasure. A minor gem and highly recommended.