The Complete Commodore & Decca Masters
Box set by
Billie Holiday
Released2009
RecordedApril 20, 1939 – March 8, 1950
GenreVocal jazz
Length????
LabelHip-O Records
Hip-O Select – BC013146-02
ProducerMilt Gabler
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[1]
All About Jazz(favorable) [2]

The Complete Commodore & Decca Masters is a 3CD box set of recordings by Billie Holiday, released by Hip-O Records in 2009, compiling all the master takes released as 78rpm singles by Commodore and Decca Records. It includes an essay by Ashley Kahn.[3]

Content

In 1939, Columbia Records refused to let Billie Holiday record the anti-lynching protest song "Strange Fruit". Milt Gabler invited her to record it for his small specialty label Commodore Records, and Columbia granted her a one-time exemption from her contract to do so, in which she recorded four songs (material for two 78rpm records). "Strange Fruit", backed with "Fine and Mellow", turned out to be the biggest selling record of her career. Although she continued to record for Columbia, in 1944, following the musicians' strike recording ban, Holiday permanently left Columbia for Commodore. Small labels like Commodore had been quicker to settle with the musician's union than large labels like Columbia, thus Holiday was able to return to recording quicker by switching to the smaller label. The Commodore tracks were more dominated by torch songs and dramatic ballads than her swing oriented Columbia material had been, although her later Columbia sides (e.g. "God Bless the Child") show she had already been evolving in this direction.

Later the same year, Holiday then followed Gabler to Decca Records, to record "Lover Man". Decca had allowed Gabler to keep his own label, while also being employed by them, so long as he directed all potential hits to Decca. Both Holiday and Gabler suspected "Lover Man" had the potential to be a hit, thus it became her first Decca single, and indeed another of her biggest hits. "Lover Man" was notable for featuring a string section, and all her Decca tracks typically featured string arrangements and even choral backing, rather than jazz combos. This was Holiday's choice, as strings were often used in the white pop records of the day, and when she recorded "Lover Man" she wanted the same sound offered to artists like Bing Crosby, and specifically her friend Frank Sinatra. During this same period, Holiday began performing in concert halls rather than nightclubs, and her live performances became more theatrical than jazz, with many of these dramatic songs becoming centrepieces of her set. Holiday continued to record for Decca throughout the 1940s, before again switching to Norman Granz's Clef label (later Verve) in the next decade.

The orchestras Holiday recorded with while at Commodore and Decca were variously led by Toots Camarata, Bob Haggart, Bill Stegmeyer, John Simmons, Buster Harding, Sy Oliver, and Gordon Jenkins.

"Big Stuff" was a Leonard Bernstein single, with Billie doing a new vocal to a song Bernstein had written as the prologue to his 1944 ballet Fancy Free. The b-side was another Bernstein song from the ballet, without Holiday: "Fancy Free (Galop Variation And Finale)" performed by the Ballet Theatre Orchestra Under Direction of Leonard Bernstein.

"You Can't Lose A Broken Heart" and "My Sweet Hunk O' Trash" were collaborations with Louis Armstrong.

"Guilty" was the only track not originally released as a 78rpm record, first appearing on the much later compilation LP The Blues Are Brewin' (Decca – DL 8701) in 1958.[4]

Track listing

Disc One: The Commodore Recordings

TrackRecordedCatalogueReleasedSong TitleWriter(s)Time
1.April 20, 1939Commodore 526-a1939Strange FruitAbel Meeropol3:12
2.April 20, 1939Commodore 527-a1939YesterdaysJerome Kern, Otto Harbach3:24
3.April 20, 1939Commodore 526-b1939Fine And MellowBillie Holiday3:16
4.April 20, 1939Commodore 527-b1939I Gotta Right To Sing The BluesHarold Arlen and Ted Koehler2:49
5.March 25, 1944Commodore 569-b1944How Am I To KnowJack King, Dorothy Parker2:43
6.March 25, 1944Commodore 585-b1944My Old FlameSam Coslow, Arthur Johnston3:01
7.March 25, 1944Commodore 553-b1944I'll Get ByFred E. Ahlert and Roy Turk2:58
8.March 25, 1944Commodore 559-a1944I Cover The WaterfrontJohnny Green, Edward Heyman3:29
9.April 1, 1944Commodore 553-a1944I'll Be Seeing YouSammy Fain and Irving Kahal3:30
10.April 1, 1944Commodore 585-a1944I'm YoursJohnny Green and Yip Harburg3:16
11.April 1, 1944Commodore 7520-a1944Embraceable YouGeorge Gershwin and Ira Gershwin3:15
12.April 1, 1944Commodore 7520-b1944As Time Goes ByHerman Hupfeld3:10
13.April 8, 1944Commodore 569-a1944He's Funny That WayRichard Whiting, Neil Moret3:15
14.April 8, 1944Commodore 559-b1944Lover Come Back To MeSigmund Romberg, Oscar Hammerstein II3:19
15.April 8, 1944Commodore 7519-a1944I Love My Man (Billie's Blues)Billie Holiday3:07
16.April 8, 1944Commodore 7519-b1944On The Sunny Side Of The StreetJimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields3:01

Disc Two: The Decca Recordings

TrackRecordedCatalogueReleasedSong TitleWriter(s)Time
1.October 4, 1944Decca – 23391a1945Lover ManJimmy Davis, Roger ("Ram") Ramirez, and James Sherman3:15
2.October 4, 1944Decca – 23483a1946No MoreToots Camarata and Bob Russell2:45
3.November 8, 1944Decca – 23391b1945That Ole Devil Called LoveAllan Roberts and Doris Fisher2:52
4.August 14, 1945Decca – 23565a1946Don't ExplainBillie Holiday and Arthur Herzog Jr.3:20
5.August 14, 1945Decca – 23483b1946You Better Go NowBickley Reichner and Robert Graham2:29
6.August 14, 1945Decca – 23565b1946What Is This Thing Called LoveCole Porter3:09
7.January 22, 1946Decca – 23673a1946Good Morning HeartacheIrene Higginbotham, Ervin Drake, and Dan Fisher3:05
8.January 22, 1946Decca – 23673b1946No Good ManIrene Higginbotham, Dan Fisher, Sammy Gallop3:04
9.March 13, 1946Decca – 23463a1946Big StuffLeonard Bernstein2:29
10.April 9, 1946Decca – 23957a1946Baby, I Don't Cry Over YouMorton Krouse3:09
11.April 9, 1946Decca – 23957b1946I'll Look AroundGeorge Cory and Douglass Cross3:12
12.December 27, 1946Decca – 48259a1951The Blues Are Brewin'Eddie DeLange and Louis Alter3:02
13.December 27, 1946(unreleased on 78?)1958GuiltyRichard Whiting, Harry Akst, and Gus Kahn3:11
14.February 13, 1947Decca – 24138a1947Deep SongGeorge Cory and Douglass Cross3:10
15.February 13, 1947Decca – 23853a1947There Is No Greater LoveIsham Jones, Marty Symes2:56
16.February 13, 1947Decca – 24138b1947Easy LivingRalph Rainger and Leo Robin3:10
17.February 13, 1947Decca – 23853b1947SolitudeDuke Ellington, Eddie DeLange and Irving Mills3:07
18.December 10, 1948Decca – 24551a1949Weep No MoreGordon Jenkins and Tom Adair3:19
19.December 10, 1948Decca – 24551b1949Girls Were Made To Take Care Of BoysRalph Blane3:11

Disc Three: The Decca Recordings Continued

TrackRecordedCatalogueReleasedSong TitleWriter(s)Time
1.December 10, 1948Decca – 24638a1949Porgy (I Love You)George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin2:54
2.December 10, 1948Decca – 24638b1949My ManJacques Charles, Channing Pollock, Albert Willemetz, and Maurice Yvain2:55
3.August 17, 1949Decca – 24726a1949Ain't Nobody's Business If I DoPorter Grainger and Everett Robbins3:19
4.August 17, 1949Decca – 24726b1949Baby Get LostLeonard Feather and Billy Moore, Jr3:13
5.August 29, 1949Decca – 27145a1950Keeps On A-Rainin'Spencer Williams and Max Kortlander3:14
6.August 29, 1949Decca – 27145b1950Them There EyesMaceo Pinkard, Doris Tauber and William Tracey2:49
7.September 8, 1949Decca – 48259b1951Do Your DutyWesley 'Sox' Wilson3:14
8.September 8, 1949Decca – 24947a1950Gimme A Pigfoot (And A Bottle Of Beer)Wesley 'Sox' Wilson2:43
9.September 30, 1949Decca – 24758a1949You Can't Lose A Broken HeartJames P. Johnson and Flournoy E. Miller3:13
10.September 30, 1949Decca – 24758b1949My Sweet Hunk O' TrashJames P. Johnson and Flournoy E. Miller3:18
11.September 30, 1949Decca – 24947b1950Now Or NeverBillie Holiday and Curtis Reginald Lewis3:15
12.October 19, 1949Decca – 24796a1949You're My ThrillJay Gorney and Sidney Clare3:22
13.October 19, 1949Decca – 24796b1949Crazy He Calls MeCarl Sigman and Bob Russell3:02
14.October 19, 1949Decca – 24857a1950Please Tell Me NowArnold Clawson and Toussaint Pope3:12
15.October 19, 1949Decca – 24857b1950Somebody's On My MindBillie Holiday and Arthur Herzog Jr.2:55
16.March 8, 1950Decca – 24972a1950God Bless The ChildBillie Holiday3:08
17.March 8, 1950Decca – 24972b1950This Is Heaven To MeErnest Schweikert and Frank Reardon2:51

Billie Holiday's Commodore and Decca recordings have been compiled many times, beginning with 78rpm albums in the 1940s and then 10 inch vinyl LPs. Some compilations also include many alternate takes of the songs, but only the master takes originally released as 78rpm singles are included in this set.

Personnel

Contributing musicians, in chronological order.[5]

References

  1. ↑ The Complete Commodore & Decca Masters review at Allmusic, accessed March 22, 2016
  2. ↑ The Complete Commodore & Decca Masters review at All About Jazz, accessed March 22, 2016
  3. ↑ The Complete Commodore & Decca Masters, Discogs.com, accessed March 22, 2016
  4. ↑ The Blues Are Brewin', Discogs.com, accessed March 22, 2016
  5. ↑ Billie Holiday sessionography, at the Jazz Discography Project, accessed Feb 20, 2016
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