Billie Holiday by Cabu

An anthology 1947/1956

Of all the jazz singers, Billie Holiday is undoubtedly the most moving. Certainly, others have illustrated vocal art in a more technical, more brilliant or more spectacular way; but none has managed to reach this degree of intensity in the interpretation of the slightest song, none has been able to make the melodies their own with such conviction, and none has been able to detail the words with such accent. of truth. No doubt, unlike that of her sisters, Billie 's existence had been marked from her childhood by a succession of ordeals which, at the same time as they contributed to weakening, then to undermining, finally to destroying his vulnerable personality, will also have given his singing this authentically expressive character.

This selection covers a period that could be described as " maturity ", giving pride of place to the irrepressible ballads of which the singer had made a specialty, but also to the lively pieces in which Billie displays at will, what we tend to forget his prodigious ability to generate this swing without which this music would not be what it is.