Search - Billie Holiday :: Diva Series

"There's No Love For Nobody Else . . . I Intend To Be Indepe

Rebecca*rhapsodyinblue* | CA USA | 08/12/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

""The Diva Series" is part of Verve Records' project that pays tribute to the most remarkable jazz divas of all-time with their most impressive body of work. Billie Holiday was definitely one of them and she truly deserved the title being one of the pioneers who helped shaped the Great American Songbook in the music world. She was one of the greatest interpreters of this music genre. She had the most extraordinary style of singing and a very distinctive voice that sets her apart from other jazz singers.



This compilation contains sixteen of the most notable songs recorded between 1939 and 1957 under Verve Records with some of the most distinguished musicians namely Oscar Peterson, Wynton Kelly, Horace Henderson (piano), Herb Ellis, Barney Kessel (guitar), Sweets Edison (trumpet), Ben Webster (tenor sax) and Ray Brown (bass) from among many others.



All the songs are highlights, each song is interpreted distinctively like no other - I simply call it "Billie Holiday's very own unique style of phrasing and delivery." While I so enjoyed listening to "What A Little Moonlight Can Do," "Speak Low," "Just One of Those Things" and "Easy Living," I would single out as a top favorite the lyrics by Gus Kahn to the music of Walter Donaldson, one of the pair's most popular songs and the most widely-recorded by jazz vocalists and instrumentalists, "Love Me Or Leave Me," which Lady Day sings in a very rare fashion.



"You won't believe me but I love you only

I'd rather be lonely than happy with somebody else

You might find the night time the right time for kissing

Night time is my time for just reminiscing

Regretting instead of forgetting with somebody else

There'll be no one unless that someone is you

I intend to be independently blue...

For your love is my love

There's no love for nobody else"



"The Diva Series" is such a delightful collection, I own this one plus The Diva Series: Astrud Gilberto, and I'm looking forward to add Diva Series: Ella Fitzgerald, Diva Series: Blossom Dearie, Diva Series: Dinah Washington and Diva Series: Sarah Vaughan. Wholeheartedly recommended."

Diva Series-Billie Holiday

J. D. Codd | KENT United Kingdom | 01/04/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is an excellent Billie Holiday CD. I have many CDs

of hers, but most suffer from poor quality reproduction,

this one is superb,at last we can hear Billie Holiday

as she must really have sounded,every track a winner.

"