Billie Holiday: The Essential Collection auf 2 CDs

Born in Baltimore in 1935 Billie Holiday, affectionately known as Lady Day is up there amongst the great iconic jazz giants of the 20th century. She booked her place alongside the immortals Bird, Prez, Miles, Duke, Satchmo, Diz, Ella, Bessie by both living the kind of life you could not have made up and singing with a such an anguished and emotive voice that reflected the life she was living!

AVID’s Essential Billie Holiday collection charts her rise to fame from 1935 as vocalist with Teddy Wilson to starting out on her own the following year, through to 1955, four years before her untimely death at just 44.

It was a measure of her stature that she was able to include as her sidemen such greats as Benny Goodman, Roy Eldridge, Ben Webster, Johnny Hodges, Benny Carter and of course Lester “Prez” Young the man who had christened her Lady Day!

CD2 continues the story to 1955 and includes such classics as Strange Fruit, That Ol’ Devil Called Love, Lover Man and God Bless The Child a song co-written by Billie herself.

Listen and be blown away as the legend once more comes to life. In the current climate of female jazz vocalists from Norah Jones to Diana Krall , Billie Holiday still sounds as contemporary today as she did over 50 years ago and is still the best in our humble opinion!!