Lady Sings the Blues

Lady Sings the Blues is an album by Billie Holiday. This was Holiday's last album released on Clef Records, for the following year, it would be absorbed into Verve Records. Lady Sings the Blues was taken from sessions taped during 1954 and 1956. It was also released with her ghostwritten autobiography of the same name. Taken from a couple of sessions taped during 1954-1956, Billie Holiday is in top form and backed by the sympathetic likes of tenor saxophonists Budd Johnson and Paul Quinichette, trumpeter Charlie Shavers, pianist Wynton Kelly, and guitarist Billy Bauer. And while these autumnal sides bear some of the frayed vocal moments often heard on Holiday's '50s Verve sides, the majority here still ranks with her best material. This...