Lady In Satin

Description

If one could afford this irreverence towards the great Billie Holiday, one might say that Lady in Satin smells of pine as much as satin. It is the second-to-last album she recorded, and the last released during her lifetime. At that time, Billie Holiday dreamed of languid and over-orchestrated music, like that of Frank Sinatra in the same era. Conductor Ray Ellis would provide her with just that, tailored with forty musicians and Claus Ogerman, the arranger known for his expansive orchestral landscapes. A very luxurious and delicate setting for Billie Holiday's singing, which, however, seems to tremble with cold every second. Her voice is recognizable, but it is worn, dried out, having lost its soft purring. The fragile shadow of what she once was. This indecently elegant and grand music only heightens the contrast with a decayed and solitary voice. It is beautiful, but it is sad.