Billie Holiday: Body And Soul (Verve Essential) [VERVE]

Why you'll love it

This Verve Essential Vinyl Series pressing keeps the authentic artwork and is made in Germany. It sets Holiday among an all-star small group on Gershwin favourites and the title standard.

This edition

• Verve Essential Vinyl Series
• Original artwork
• Pressed in Germany

About the album

By 1957 Billie Holiday's voice had deepened and changed, and she sang with the weight of everything she'd lived through. Body and Soul catches her in an intimate small-group setting for Verve, unhurried and conversational, with players who knew exactly when to step forward and when to leave room. It was her seventh studio album, and it rewards close listening.

Ben Webster's tenor is all breath and velvet, Harry Edison adds muted trumpet, and Barney Kessel, Jimmy Rowles, Red Mitchell and drummers Alvin Stoller and Larry Bunker keep things easy. The title track opens at over six minutes, the Gershwins get three songs in "They Can't Take That Away From Me," "Let's Call The Whole Thing Off" and "Embraceable You," and "Moonlight In Vermont" closes on a hush. "Darn That Dream," "Comes Love" and "Gee, Baby, Ain't I Good To You" fill out the set, each given room to breathe.

Verve's Essential series keeps the original cover, so it looks the part on the shelf too. It's a late-night record in the best sense. We've put it on at closing time, which turned out to be a poor strategy for actually closing.

Also at Kops: more Billie Holiday on vinyl · browse Vocal Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Verve, a reissue of the 1957 album.