Billie Holiday

This release contains a rarely heard performance given by Billie Holiday at the Stratford Shakespearean Festival, in Ontario, Canada, in 1957. As a bonus, Holiday’s complete Monterey Jazz Festival concert from the following year, featuring hornmen 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 min 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, August 10, 1957.

• (*) BONUS TRACKS [7-26]:
• (7-17) Billie Holiday (vcl), Gerry Mulligan (bar), Benny Carter (as), Buddy DeFranco (cl) Mal Waldron (p), Eddie Khan (b), Dick Berk (d).
• Monterey Jazz Festival, Monterey, California, October 5, 1958.

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

• [20-21] Jazz at the Plaza:
• Billie Holiday (vcl), 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 (vcl), Paul Quinichette (ts), Mal Waldron (p), unknown bass and drums.
• FM Broadcast, Mister Kelly’s, Chicago, March 1957.

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

TRACKS:

• 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 HeartacheV
• 23) You Better Go Now
• 24) I Loves You Porgy
• 25) Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone
• 26) Strange Fruit

• TOTAL TIME: 75:09 Min