Classic Female Blues

One of the high points of Helen Humes' career, this Contemporary set (reissued on CD) features superior songs, superb backup, and very suitable and swinging arrangements by Marty Paich. Humes' versions of "If I Could Be With You,"

Victoria Spivey, who made her initial reputation with dark and somewhat scary blues lyrics, altered her style during the period covered by this second of four "complete" Document CDs. She is heard in a series of double entendre songs (usually issued in two parts) with singer/guitarist...

Document's Complete Recorded Works (1928-1929) is an exhaustive overview of Bessie Tucker's known recordings, compiled from a pair of late-'20s sessions and including no less than seven alternate takes (each presented right next to the original). This reliance on exact sequencing,...

One of the more notorious albums in the history of vocal music, What a Diff'rence a Day Makes! is the lush session that bumped up Dinah Washington from the "Queen of the Blues" to a middle-of-the-road vocal wondress -- and subsequently disenfranchised quite a few jazz purists....

This is a rather incredible collection: ten CDs enclosed in a tight black box that includes every one of the recordings Verve owns of Billie Holiday, not only the many studio recordings of 1952-57 (which feature Lady Day joined by such jazz all-stars as trumpeters Charlie Shavers and Harry...

Billie Holiday is one of the most legendary of all jazz singers and still a household name 44 years after her death. She had a small voice and never scatted yet her phrasing, behind-the-beat delivery and her combination of subtlety and deep emotions have been very influential for 65 years. Her...

The fifth and final volume in Document's series begins with a mid-1940 studio date, Memphis Minnie's first in over a year; recorded with Little Son Joe on second guitar, these simple, unaffected sides are among her strongest, with tracks like "Ma Rainey" (a tribute to the...

The Queen, as she was known in jazz circles, was a cross-over artist. Universal acclaim came when her What a Difference a Day Makes hit the charts in 1960 but R & B fans had followed her career from the 1940s. In point of fact, Dinah was a blues singer at heart, nurtured in the storefront...

Gifted with a strong, beautiful voice and very precise phrasing, Dinah Washington translated Bessie Smith's irrepressible spirit and flair even better than Billie Holiday, Smith's most famous devotee. For her tribute album, Washington avoided Smith's best-known songs ("Baby...

The first volume in Document's series of Memphis Minnie solo recordings collects the material she cut in Chicago over a period of six sessions between the first weeks of 1935 and Halloween of that same year. Her first sides following her personal and professional breakup with Kansas Joe...

Document's Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 2 (1930-1931) reissues 23 sides from Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe, including classics like "Memphis Minnie-Jitis Blues," "Frankie Jean (That Trottin' Fool)," and a version of "Bumble Bee." Still, the lengthy...

This is the most controversial of all Billie Holiday records. Lady Day herself said that this session (which finds her accompanied by Ray Ellis' string orchestra) was her personal favorite, and many listeners have found her emotional versions of such songs as "You've Changed"...

Helen Humes had not recorded as a leader in seven years when she made the first of three albums for Contemporary, all of which have been reissued on CD via the OJC imprint. Humes, 45 at the time, was at the peak of her powers, although she never really made a bad record. Accompanied by Benny...

There are many jazz lovers, even dedicated ones, who cannot afford to part with the 150 dollars or so that the ten-disc Complete Billie Holiday on Verve commands, so this two-disc distillation will do very nicely as a detailed summary of her troubled, soulful Verve period. Set out in...

Part of the label's top-notch series of roundup discs, Verve Jazz Masters 12: Billie Holiday cherry-picks the best of Holiday's '50s stretch under Norman Granz's watch. At her autumnal best, Holiday particularly shines on "Good Morning Heartache,"...