Search - Gene Quill, Ray Ellis, Billie Holiday :: Last Recordings

Voice and health diminished, Billie was still a great singer

D. Hofkin | 02/22/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I must correct another reviewer, who suggested that Billie was an "older woman" at the time of these, her final studio recordings made four months before her death. To (mis-)use a lyric from a song she interpreted so well, while Billie certainly sounds old, it's easy to forget (and frightening to remember) that she was just shy of her 44th birthday at the time.



Nevertheless, her interpretations of these songs are absolutely stunning. She had, by this time, been worn down to the bare minimum, and listening to these songs can be difficult, given her choice of songs, our understanding of what she had been through, and the inevitable comparisons to her earlier years. But the fact of the matter is that, putting all of that aside, she still at this point was able to extract the essence of a song and put it across like no one else except perhaps Frank Sinatra.



It is interesting to note that, on this album as well as her previous "Lady In Satin", she chose songs she had never recorded before. Perhaps she was trying to avoid the aforementioned comparisons people would make to her earlier years when her voice soared seemingly effortlessly like a horn. Or perhaps she simply wanted to do something different and liked these songs, some of which were relatively new at the time.



While Frank Sinatra's recordings for Capitol of "All the Way", "I'll Never Smile Again", and "Don't Worry 'Bout Me" are certainly difficult to match, I think Billie comes close to doing so. On the other hand, her reading of "It's Not For Me To Say" handily beats Johnny Mathis's overly mawkish reading. And she makes "Just One More Chance" completely her own. The more up-tempo numbers are excellent as well.



Bottom line: While Billie was not the same singer as she was 10+ years earlier, one does not have to make excuses for her to find her later work very worthwhile. This album is certainly no exception and represents some of the best of her late work."

A poignant ending

Don O. | Canada | 07/19/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is Billie Holiday's last recording, made in March 1959, a little over a year after "Lady in Satin" was completed. This final studio date with Ray Ellis, who had earlier written the charts for "Lady in Satin," seems to rise out of the doldrums conveyed previously in "...Satin." Indeed, the first six tracks are sung and played in an optimistic, bright tempo. Even the bittersweet sentiment of "You Took Advantage of Me" and "Sometimes I'm Happy" is masked by a swinging horn section. The solos by Gene Quill (alto sax), Harry "Sweets" Edison (trumpet), and Jimmy Cleveland (trombone) complement Holiday's impeccable timing and phrasing. The string arrangements are less lush than in "Lady in Satin" and thus, do not pull you into an emotional spin. Billie's bright rendition of "'Deed I Do" seems to wash out the gloom in the previous album. That's where the optimism ends. "Don't Worry 'Bout Me" brings back the Billie Holiday that fans know very well: a great singer with a sad story to tell. Listen to her sing; you could peek into her soul and see the anguish there. Only Frank Sinatra and The Four Freshmen can do an equally great job on this song. As if that wasn't enough, she goes on with "All The Way" [one of Sinatra's signature songs], "Just One More Chance" and "I'll Never Smile Again." The album ends with a jaunty arrangement of "Baby, Won't You Please Come Home" as if to lift you out of your own doldrums. You will find yourself snapping your fingers and then before you know it, the song ends. So does the album. Then you realize this is Billie Holiday's last recording: a beautiful, poignant ending to her great but tragic career."