The Complete Commodore & Decca Masters

by Billie Holiday

Overview

Although many of Billie Holiday's recordings for Commodore and Decca are often overlooked -- at least in comparison to the songs that bookend her career (for Columbia and Verve) -- they include some of her best work, beginning at the end of the '30s with "Strange Fruit" and stretching to the end of the '40s with "God Bless the Child." In 1939, Billie Holiday was a jazz sensation without a hit record. She gained that hit record, and began her journey to musical immortality, when her label Columbia refused to record "Strange Fruit," and jazz fan Milt Gabler welcomed her to his aficionado label, Commodore. Gabler recorded Holiday often over the next ten years, both at Commodore and through his work at Decca in the mid-to late '40s. While on Commodore, Holiday focused on downcast ballads, including "I Cover the Waterfront" and "I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues" (dubbed "loser" songs by Gabler), but she also excelled with warm and affectionate material too, "Embraceable You" and "On the Sunny Side of the Street." Regardless of the material, her backing consisted of small groups usually led by a pair of saloon-sound maestros: Doc Cheatham on trumpet and Eddie Heywood on piano. That sound was in for a switch when Holiday moved to Decca, however, beginning with another big hit, "Lover Man," a pop ballad with the full crossover treatment -- strings and all. (Gabler had no compunction about false notions of purity, and he happily recorded Holiday with strings and backing choruses whenever the song demanded it.) Even more than her work for Commodore, Holiday's work for Decca was melancholy and resigned in the extreme, with sterling treatments of yet more loser songs: "Don't Explain," "Good Morning Heartache," "You Better Go Now," and "What Is This Thing Called Love." Individually, the songs are excellent, and as a package, The Complete Commodore & Decca Masters can hardly be beat. It's a splendid accompaniment to similar sets devoted to Billie Holiday's Columbia and Verve output, and while completists will bemoan the lack of the many alternate takes -- most of the Commodore sides have two alternate takes for each master recording, available elsewhere -- this is all the war-years Billie Holiday one could hope for. ~ John Bush

Product Details

Release Date:	03/25/2022
Label:	Groove Replica
UPC:	8436569195581
Rank:	6638

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Billie Holiday   Primary Artist,Vocals
Louis Armstrong   Primary Artist,Vocals
Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra   Primary Artist
Billy Kyle   Piano
Stan Webb   Sax (Baritone)
Tony Mottola   Guitar
Tab Smith   Sax (Alto)
Sy Oliver   Director,Conductor
Big Sid Catlett   Drums
Bernie Leighton   Piano
Bob Haggart   Bass,Director,Conductor
Bill Stegmeyer   Strings,Clarinet,Director,Sax (Alto)
Bob Tucker   Piano
Bobby Tucker   Piano
Jimmy Shirley   Guitar
Bobby Hackett   Trumpet
Kenny Clarke   Drums
Al Klink   Sax (Alto)
Wallace Bishop   Drums
Jack Lesberg   Bass
Cozy Cole   Drums
Everett Barksdale   Guitar
Eddie Barefield   Sax (Baritone),Clarinet
Eddie Dougherty   Drums
Frankie Newton   Trumpet
Vic Dickenson   Trombone
John Simmons & His Orchestra   Conductor,Featured Artist
Charlie LaVere   Piano
Hymie Schertzer   Sax (Alto)
Russ Case   Trumpet
Tutti Camarata   Conductor
Bob Bain   Guitar
Jimmy Nottingham   Trumpet
John Simmons   Bass,Director
Johnny Mince   Sax (Alto)
Denzil Best   Drums
Lester Young   Sax (Tenor)
Horace Henderson   Piano
Sammy Benskin   Piano
Pete Clark   Sax (Alto)
Art Drellinger   Sax (Tenor)
Jimmy Crawford   Drums
Dick Vance   Trumpet
Specs Powell   Drums
George Matthews   Trombone
George Wettling   Drums
Vic Dickerson   Trombone
Joseph Quadri   Violin
Jimmy McLin   Guitar
George Dorsey   Sax (Alto)
Dan Perry   Guitar
Armand Kaproff   Viola
George Stevenson   Trombone
Kurt Reher   Cello
Buck Clayton   Trumpet
Budd Johnson   Sax (Tenor)
George Duvivier   Bass
Buster Harding & His Orchestra   Featured Artist
Gordon Jenkins Singers   Vocals (Background)
Maurice Perlmutter   Viola
Mundell Lowe   Guitar
Sid Cooper   Sax (Alto)
Sonny White   Piano
Billy Butterfield   Trumpet
Billy Taylor   Bass
Rudy Powell   Sax (Alto)
Joe Guy   Trumpet
Carl Kress   Guitar
Eddie Heywood   Piano
Emmett Berry   Trumpet
Shadow Wilson   Drums
Toots Camarata   Guitar,Director,Conductor
Toots Camarata & His Orchestra   Orchestra
Joe Benjamin   Bass
Shad Collins   Trumpet
Nuncio "Toots" Mondello   Sax (Alto)
Doc Cheatham   Trumpet
Milt Yaner   Sax (Alto),Clarinet
Tony Faso   Trumpet
Tom Barney   Bass
Lou Butterman   Bass
Gordon Jenkins & His Orchestra   Strings,Director,Conductor
Leo Kruczek   Violin
Thomas Barney   Bass
Kelly Martin   Drums
Dave Bowman   Piano
John Williams   Bass
Bernard Kaufman   Sax (Tenor)
Dave McRae   Sax (Baritone)
Rostelle Reese   Trumpet
Haig Stephens   Bass
Jack Cressey   Sax (Alto)
Sol Moore   Sax (Baritone)
Teddy Walters   Guitar
Sy Oliver's Orchestra   Ensemble,Orchestra,Featured Artist
David Friscina   Violin
Bob Haggart & His Orchestra   Orchestra
Gordon Griffith   Trumpet
Lem Davis   Sax (Alto)
Hank Ross   Sax (Tenor)
Armand Camgros   Sax (Tenor)
Bernie Kaufman   Sax (Tenor)
Kenneth Hollon   Sax (Tenor)
John Fulton   Flute,Clarinet,Sax (Tenor)
Nick Fatool   Drums
The Stardusters   Ensemble,Featured Artist,Vocals (Background)
Tiny Grimes   Guitar
Buster Harding   Director,Conductor
Paul Ricci   Sax (Tenor)
Daniel Perry   Guitar
Pat Nizza   Sax (Tenor)
Morris Lefkowitz   Violin
Joe Springer   Piano
Dick "Dent" Eckles   Flute,Sax (Tenor)
Billy Taylor, Jr.   Bass
George Serloff   Violin
Louis Butterman   Bass
Freddie Williams   Sax (Tenor)
Frank Siefiels   Violin
Bob Dorsey   Sax (Tenor)
Larry Binyon   Sax (Tenor)
Henderson Chambers   Trombone
Stanley Payne   Sax (Tenor)
Charles Jaffe   Violin
Gordon Jenkins Orchestra   Featured Artist
John Levy   Bass
Dicky Wells   Trombone
Bernie Privin   Trumpet
Johnny Blowers   Drums,Guitar

Technical Credits

Spencer Williams   Composer
Toussaint Pope   Composer
Irving Kahal   Composer
Jerome Kern   Composer
Sy Oliver   Arranger
Andy McKaie   Compilation Producer
Steve Lasker   Sonic Restoration
Harold Arlen   Composer
Bix Reichner   Composer
Bob Haggart   Arranger
Bob Russell   Composer
Billie Holiday   Composer
Eddie DeLange   Composer
Irving Mills   Composer
Isham Jones   Composer
Jimmy Sherman   Composer
Irene Higginbotham   Composer
Arthur Herzog, Jr.   Composer
Irvin Graham   Composer
Cole Porter   Composer
Jack King   Composer
Duke Ellington   Composer
Ernest Schweikert   Composer
Frank Reardon   Composer
Doris Tauber   Composer
John W. Green   Composer
Doris Fisher   Composer
George Gershwin   Composer
Doug Schwartz   Mastering,Digital Assembly
Douglas Cross   Composer
Ira Gershwin   Composer
Leonard Feather   Composer
DuBose Heyward   Composer
Maceo Pinkard   Composer
Louis Armstrong   Duet
Leonard Bernstein   Composer
Lewis Allan   Composer
Rob Mounsey   Arranger
Sam Coslow   Composer
Sammy Gallop   Composer
Marty Symes   Composer
Neil Moret   Composer
Max Kortlander   Composer
Richard A. Whiting   Composer
Roy Turk   Composer
Ralph Rainger   Composer
Allan Roberts   Composer
Harry Akst   Composer
William Tracey   Composer
Arnold Clawson   Composer
Gus Kahn   Composer
Ashley Kahn   Liner Notes
Dan Fisher   Composer
Sigmund Romberg   Composer
Carl Sigman   Composer
Ted Koehler   Composer
Sidney Clare   Composer
Sonny Burke   Producer
Jimmy McHugh   Composer
Jacques Charles   Composer
Clarence Williams   Composer
Everett Robbins   Composer
Eddie Heywood   Arranger
Edward Heyman   Composer
Fred E. Ahlert   Composer
Porter Grainger   Composer
Dorothy Fields   Composer
Flournoy E. Miller   Composer
Jay Gorney   Composer
Douglass Cross   Composer
Channing Pollack   Composer
Oscar Hammerstein II   Composer
Toots Camarata   Arranger,Composer
Curtis Reginald Lewis   Composer
James P. Johnson   Composer
Morton Krouse   Composer
Tom Adair   Composer
Alan Roberts   Composer
Sammy Fain   Composer
Gordon Jenkins   Composer
Gordon Jenkins & His Orchestra   Arranger
Albert Willemetz   Composer
Herman Hupfeld   Composer
Charles Peterson   Photography,Photography
Curtis Lewis   Composer
Barry Hansen   Sleeve Art
Robert Graham   Composer
Don Peterson   Photo Courtesy
Sidney Keith Russell   Composer
Dorothy Parker   Composer
Billy Moore   Composer
Donna Ranieri   Photo Research
John Green   Composer
Michele Horie   Art Direction,Production Coordination
Otto Harbach   Composer
Milt Gabler   Producer
Arthur Johnston   Composer
George Cory   Composer
Albert Williametz   Composer
Ryan Null   Photo Coordination
James Davis   Composer
Andy Engel   Design
George C. Cory Jr.   Composer
Max Korlander   Composer
Rob Fahie   Musical Adaptation
George Douglas   Composer
Flourney E. Miller   Composer
Cory Cross   Composer
Wesley Sox Wilson   Composer
E.Y. "Yip" Harburg   Composer
Ervin Drake   Composer
Wesley Wilson   Composer
Johnny Green   Composer
Leo Robin   Composer
Louis Alter   Composer
Roger "Ram" Ramirez   Composer
Maurice Yvain   Composer
Ralph Blane   Composer