The Billie Holiday Story Volume III

Very smart clean double album with a gloss gatefold cover.

This compilation, gathered from recordings of her New York sessions in 1954, is an excellent sampler of the skills and charms of Lady Day. While the disc may appear to be just another throw-together of Holiday hits, with nothing in particular to distinguish it from the others, the arrangements, the performances and the recordings themselves are all wonderful.  Backed by tight, laid-back session musicians (Oscar Peterson plays piano on many of the tracks--check out his solo on "Lover, Come Back to Me"), Holiday here enjoys the last full flush of her talents before health and substance abuse problems claimed her voice in the late '50s.               

                    In tracks like "He's Funny That Way" and "Softly," her raspy voice plays over melodies, caressing them, trailing off the end of phrases for emotional punctuation.  Her tone is at once rich and wispy, managing simultaneously to convey vulnerability, despair, strength and sexuality.  From the up-tempo swing of "Too Marvelous for Words" to the piano/vocal duo "I Thought About You, RECITAL is full of gems and a perfect album to put on at 3:00 in the morning.