Billie Holiday Discography Site guide - introduction

The studio recordings (MT) CD- studio discography

The studio tracks were made in recording sessions in which several songs were taken to be comercially issued in disc. There are 330 tracks recorded by the labels she was under contract. These tracks represent, in general, the best of her work as the recording companies gathered the most talented musicians and used the most modern recording techniques. Generally in each session several takes of each song were made in search of the best technical performance. The selected ones were issued in disc, initially in 78 rpm and later, with the technology development, in compacts 45 rpm and long-plays 331/3 rpm. These are called the MT - Master Takes, being the other takes stored in the original tapes. Some of these takes are incomplete, where the recording was interrupted by any technical problem; other are complete, but not selected in the final edition. I will come back to those below.

All these tracks are described and commented individually in the site in the section Studio Songs. All of them are available in CD. A complete list with the complete collection can be found in the section CD-discography.

The live recordings (LR) CD- live discography

Along her career, 229 live tracks are known. They were made during presentations in theaters, festivals, clubs or radio and Tv programs. Most of them are private or amateur recordings with low musical and sound quality. However, some shows and festivals were professionally recorded by the labels and later issued in discs, a few yet in her lifetime.

These tracks are described and commented in this site in the section Live Recordings. Each session is classified according its origin, for example: LR (live recording) were made in public presentations; BC (broadcast) were live recordings from radio or television presentations and FILM - songs recorded for movies (Billie took part in three).

There are dozens of Cds and compilations that contains these live recordings. In the section CD-discography I present a selected list of discs with all the existing tracks. some of them are, unfortunately, hard to find.

The alternate takes (AT) CD-alternate takes discography

119 tracks. As mentioned before, they are also product of studio takes, recorded in the same day and same musicians, although not selected to be issued in the original disc. They were produced in search of best musical quality and also for security reasons as the recording midia at the time - normally wax - was quite damage sensitive. Some of these alternate takes were licensed later to smaller or foreign labels.

In some excepcional cases, I considered some alternate takes as MT. The reason being the recording company sometimes produced several takes, in other dates and with different bands. These tracks were neglected as alternate, but they have enough differences to be considered practically a master take. This is particular true in the Decca days.

Incomplete tracks (INC)

39 tracks are known, resulting from interrupted studio recordings. Most of these tracks can be found in the box The Complete BH on Verve and also in  The Complete on Columbia

Rehearsals (REH)

38 tracks recorded in two sessions whose tapes were preserved. Most of these tracks are in the box The Complete BH on Verve

Dialogues

52 dialogue registers (with no music) result from several factors: show presentations, interviews, studio conversation, etc. Many issued CDs and compilations reproduce the original tapes of such sessions  with the complete sequence, mixing up original tracks, conversations and incomplete tracks. Most of these tracks can be found in the box The Complete BH on Verve and also in  The Complete on Columbia

For chronological purpose, the recordings could be grouped in three periods:

Columbia years (1933-1942) – recording for the labels Columbia, Brunswick, Vocalion, Okeh e Harmony besides one session for RCA in 1938 and one for Commodore in 1939;

Intermediary years (1942-1951) – recordings for the labels Capitol, Commodore, Decca and Aladdin;

Verve years (1952-1959) – recordings for the labels Clef and Verve, besides one session for Columbia in 1958 and the last one for MGM.

Each session will be described as follows:

Session #(number) Recording Place and Date, Orchestra (recording label)

Band musicians (t or tp: trumpet; ss: soprano sax; as: alto sax; ts:tenor sax; bs: baritone sax; fl: flute; cl: clarinet; tb: trombone; p: piano; g: guitar; b: bass; d: drums; v or vcl: vocal)

Session comments:

(MT #track) Song ÅÅ (stars) – song comments (for the studio tracks, Master Take)

(LR #track) Song ÅÅ (stars) – song comments (for the live recordings)

version 14.3 - January 2008

© 2008 Billie Holiday Songs

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