CD - Billie Holiday: Ghost Of Yesterday

This Holiday double CD is the first in Blue Orchid's 'Hits and Highlight's series. Definitely one of the greatest jazz singers of all time, probably the best in her era, this album captures her at her peak, from the very early straight ahead jazz recordings through to classic tracks such as 'God Bless The Child' and the achingly plaintive 'Strange Fruit'.

There is no doubt that Holiday had a naturalistic phrasing and emotional quality that has probably never been matched and, even though she died ridiculously early of a drugs overdose in 1959, she has influenced just about every female jazz singer who has followed in her footsteps. Just look (and listen) to the current crop of easy listening jazz favourites who are currently flavour of the month for evidence of that. If you need a two CD retrospective of Holiday's work, then look no further.

The remastering is excellent, although judgement on that was slightly hampered by the Shades review copy skipping as badly as a very skippy thing on our CD player. These things happen however, and we're sure that's a one off!

August 2005