Maps of Music

Last Recording (1959)

Where the lyrics of Last Recording take you, and where it was really made.

The album was released in 1959 as Billie Holiday, but it was retitled Last Recording after her death.

Key places

Recorded in New York (1959)

Recording site Record Plant Studios — The album was recorded in New York on March 3, 4 and 11, 1959. This point marks the city only and does not show a specific studio. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Twelfth and final studio album by jazz singer Billie Holiday
• Released on MGM Records in 1959 under the title Billie Holiday
• Retitled Last Recording after her death
• Follows Lady in Satin (1958), which was also recorded with arranger Ray Ellis
• Recorded in New York on March 3, 4 and 11, 1959
• Track listing of 12 songs, including titles taken from Silk Stockings, Hit the Deck, Present Arms, Safe in Hell and The Joker Is Wild

Background

• After the success of Lady in Satin, Holiday wanted to record another album with Ray Ellis
• Ellis had moved from Columbia to MGM, so Holiday switched labels to avoid breaching her Columbia contract
• Her health was poor after years of difficulty and substance abuse
• During Lady in Satin's sessions, a nurse sometimes had to help keep her propped up on a high stool as she sang
• The album was completed on March 11, 1959
• Lester Young, her lifelong friend and music partner, died on March 15, 1959, four days after the album was completed
• Holiday died on July 17, 1959, at age 44, four months later

Recording

• The album departs from the more string-laden Lady in Satin
• Uses a lighter string orchestra, no choir, and more horns, including saxophone
• Songs such as "All of You", "'Deed I Do" and "Baby Won't You Please Come Home" have a lighter, happier tempo and no strings
• Personnel include Holiday on vocals, Ray Ellis as arranger and conductor, Hank Jones on piano, Milt Hinton on bass and Osie Johnson on drums
• Brass and reed players include Harry Edison and Joe Wilder on trumpet, Billy Byers on trombone, and Gene Quill, Al Cohn and Danny Bank on saxophones
• Ellis said producers accidentally adjusted the speed by a quarter pitch faster in the studio, making Holiday's voice high-pitched on some songs such as "You Took Advantage of Me"

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Born Eleanora Fagan on April 7, 1915, in Philadelphia; grew up in Baltimore.
• Began singing in Harlem nightclubs as a young teenager, taking her stage name from actress Billie Dove and her father Clarence Halliday.
• Discovered by producer John Hammond, who arranged her recording debut in November 1933 with Benny Goodman.

Members

• Solo artist; frequent collaborators included pianist Teddy Wilson and tenor saxophonist Lester Young, who nicknamed her "Lady Day".

Career

• Signed to Brunswick in 1935; recorded many sessions with Teddy Wilson, including "What a Little Moonlight Can Do".
• Toured with Count Basie and Artie Shaw in 1937–1938, among the first Black women to work with a white orchestra.
• Recorded "Strange Fruit" for Commodore in 1939, which became her best-selling record.
• Had hits on Decca in the 1940s, including "Lover Man" and "God Bless the Child".
• Arrested for narcotics in 1947 and sentenced to prison; returned to perform a sold-out Carnegie Hall concert in 1948.
• Recorded for Verve and Columbia in the 1950s, including the album Lady in Satin (1958).
• Died on July 17, 1959, at age 44 from cirrhosis and heart failure.
• Won four posthumous Grammy Awards; inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Jazz critic Leonard Feather said Holiday walked into the studio statuesque and sharp as ever when she returned in March 1959
• The sessions followed the commercial success of Lady in Satin (1958)

Reappraisal

• AllMusic critic Ron Wynn stated that in many ways it was a sad event, and that it is poignant in a tragic way
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings gave the album three stars but placed the whole rating in brackets, showing reservations about the album as a whole
• By 1959 hard drugs and alcohol had taken a toll on Holiday's voice
• Her voice had clearly deteriorated since Lady in Satin
• Ellis's account of the speed adjustment says her voice sounded high-pitched on some songs

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Lester Young, her lifelong friend and music partner, died four days after the album was completed.
• Holiday replaced the name Jack Benny with Frank Sinatra in one song, "There'll Be Some Changes Made".
• Holiday told Ray Ellis she wanted to sound like Sinatra when recording Lady in Satin.
• Some say that during this period she did not look like herself at all and looked like a ghost of what she once was.
• The album was retitled Last Recording after her death.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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