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Velvet Mood: Songs by Billie Holiday (1956)

Where the lyrics of Velvet Mood: Songs by Billie Holiday take you, and where it was really made.

The sessions that made this album also produced all the material for her previous record, Music for Torching.

Key places

Two sessions in Los Angeles (1956)

Recording site Los Angeles — The album was recorded over two sessions in Los Angeles, two days apart. The same sessions also produced the material for Music for Torching. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Velvet Mood: Songs by Billie Holiday, the fifth studio album by jazz singer Billie Holiday
• Released in 1956 on Clef Records
• Eight tracks, four on each side of the record
• Side one opens with "Prelude to a Kiss" and closes with "Nice Work If You Can Get It"
• Side two includes "I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues" and "Everything I Have Is Yours"

Background

• The album is Holiday's fifth studio album
• Her previous album was Music for Torching (MG C-669)
• The material for Music for Torching came out of the same recording sessions as this album

Recording

• Recorded over two sessions in Los Angeles, two days apart
• Benny Carter plays alto saxophone and Harry "Sweets" Edison plays trumpet
• Jimmy Rowles plays piano and celesta on three tracks
• Barney Kessel plays guitar, John Simmons plays bass, and Larry Bunker plays drums
• Billie Holiday handles the vocals

Cover

• Artwork credited to Alex de Paula

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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

• Released in 1956 on Clef Records as the fifth studio album by jazz singer Billie Holiday
• Side one: "Prelude to a Kiss" (Duke Ellington, Irving Mills, Irving Gordon), 5:37
• Side one: "When Your Lover Has Gone" (Einar Aaron Swan), 4:58
• Side one: "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone" (Sam H. Stept, Sidney Clare, Bee Palmer), 4:23
• Side one: "Nice Work If You Can Get It" (George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin), 3:48
• Side two: "I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues" (Harold Arlen, Ted Koehler), 5:55
• Side two: "What's New?" (Bob Haggart, Johnny Burke), 4:20
• Side two: "I Hadn't Anyone Till You" (Ray Noble), 4:05
• Side two: "Everything I Have Is Yours" (Burton Lane, Harold Adamson), 4:33
• The album is built from songs by several different songwriting teams, presented in two sides of four tracks each

Reappraisal

Records

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The two recording sessions were held in Los Angeles two days apart, and they also produced all the material for the earlier album Music for Torching.
• Jimmy Rowles played celesta on "I Hadn't Anyone Till You", "Everything I Have Is Yours", and "What's New?" in addition to piano.
• Alex de Paula is credited for the artwork.
• The album's side one opens with "Prelude to a Kiss", a Duke Ellington composition co-written with Irving Mills and Irving Gordon.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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