Description
**THIS IS A VINYL LP**
Release Date: 2024
Label: Waxtime Records
Side A
- Reading from Lady Sings the Blues
- Lady Sings the Blues
- It Ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do
- Travelin’ Light
- Reading from Lady Sings the Blues
- Billie’s Blues
- Body and Soul
- Reading from Lady Sings the Blues
- Don’t Explain
Side B
- Yesterdays
- Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone
- I’ll Be Seeing You
- Reading from Lady Sings the Blues
- My Man
- I Cried for You
- Fine and Mellow
- I Cover the Waterfront
- Oh, What a Little Moonlight Can Do
Notes
The live recordings included here are among the very best from Billie Holiday’s final years. Part of the motivation behind the 1956 Carnegie Hall concert was to promote Billie’s autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues.
The music was attuned entirely to Billie’s character part, reinforced by readings from her book by Gilbert Millstein. Although recorded in 1956, the LP was issued in 1961, nearly two years after Billie’s passing on July 17, 1959, at the age of 44.
PERSONNEL:
- Billie Holiday – (vocals)
- Roy Eldridge – (trumpet)
- Coleman Hawkins – (tenor sax)
- Carl Drinkard – (piano)
- Tony Scott – (clarinet (piano on “Lady Sings the Blues” only)
- Carson Smith – (bass)
- Chico Hamilton – (drums)
- Gilbert Millstein – (readings from the book Lady Sings the Blues)
Live at Carnegie Hall, New York, November 10, 1956.
