Billie Holiday - Solitude (1982 Japanese Verve Mono LP)

Vinyl: NM
Sleeve: NM
Obi: EX

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Billie Holiday - Solitude | Vinyl LP - 1982 Japanese Verve Mono Reissue (23MJ 3189, Polydor K.K.)

• Billie Holiday's first recordings for Norman Granz's Clef label, made in Hollywood in March and April 1952 with the Oscar Peterson Trio
• Originally issued as the 10" Billie Holiday Sings (Clef, 1952) and expanded to twelve tracks for reissue as Solitude (Clef, 1956)
  
• 1982 Japanese Verve mono pressing (23MJ 3189), manufactured by Polydor K.K.

Norman Granz signed Billie Holiday to his Clef label in April 1952. The first sessions — eight tracks recorded at Radio Recorders in Hollywood on 26 March 1952 — paired her with the Oscar Peterson Trio (Peterson on piano, Ray Brown on bass, Barney Kessel on guitar), Alvin Stoller on drums, Charlie Shavers on trumpet and Flip Phillips on tenor saxophone. Four additional tracks were recorded in Los Angeles in April 1952 with J.C. Heard on drums in place of Stoller. Granz supervised both sessions. The eight March tracks appeared originally on the 10" album Billie Holiday Sings (Clef MGC-118); when Clef phased out the 10" format in 1956, all twelve tracks were consolidated and released as Solitude (Clef MGC-690).

By 1952, Holiday's voice had changed considerably from the supple lightness of her Billings and Hammond sessions in the 1930s. Granz's response was to give her the best musicians available and the most carefully selected repertoire, drawing on the Songbook material she had not recorded before. The sessions produced some of her most sustained work. Peterson's accompaniment — responsive, never intrusive — and Kessel's guitar framing of the title track are frequently cited among the finest backing Holiday received. Shavers and Phillips solo briefly on most tracks without dominating. The programme includes "East of the Sun," "Blue Moon," "You Go to My Head," "These Foolish Things," Duke Ellington's "Solitude," Cole Porter's "Love for Sale" and "Tenderly," among others. This is the 1982 Japanese Verve mono reissue, manufactured by Polydor K.K.