Carmen McRae - Sings Lover Man and Other Billie Holiday Classics (1979 Japanese CBS/Sony Vinyl LP)

Vinyl: NM
Sleeve: EX
Obi: EX

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Carmen McRae - Sings Lover Man and Other Billie Holiday Classics | Vinyl LP - 1979 Japanese CBS/Sony (20AP 1420, CBS Favorite Jazz 100, CBS/Sony Inc.)

Carmen McRae was born on 8 April 1920; Billie Holiday on 7 April 1922. They knew each other from childhood in New York. When Holiday died on 17 July 1959, McRae was the obvious person to make a tribute record — not because she sounded like Holiday, but because she understood her. Teo Macero produced the sessions at Columbia Studio A in June and July 1961. Norman Simmons arranged and played piano. Mundell Lowe on guitar, Bob Cranshaw on bass and Walter Perkins on drums were the core group, with Nat Adderley on cornet and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis on tenor saxophone adding front line on most tracks.

"Strange Fruit" is the most exposed moment on the record: McRae sings it with Lowe's guitar as the only accompaniment. It was one of the few songs Holiday owned outright, having fought to perform it in defiance of club owners who refused it. McRae doesn't sentimentalise it. "Trav'lin Light" is also stripped back — neither Adderley nor Davis plays on it. "Lover Man," the Johnny Mercer and Jimmie Davis standard that Holiday recorded in 1945 while in the grip of heroin withdrawal, is the album's emotional centre. "God Bless the Child" — which Holiday wrote with Arthur Herzog Jr. — closes the record. Ralph J. Gleason wrote the original liner notes. This 1979 Japanese pressing is part of the CBS Favorite Jazz 100 series, manufactured by CBS/Sony Inc., and comes with its cap obi and insert. The record is still in its original shrink wrap.