Lara Downes - A Billie Holiday Songbook (2015)

The title A Billie Holiday Songbook on this release by the unconventional American pianist Lara Downes may refer to that of George Gershwin's Song-Book for piano composed (or abstracted from his live improvisations) by George Gershwin in 1932. The Gershwin work is probably the nearest point of reference for this collection of piano arrangements of Billie Holiday's hit songs: the textures of most of the pieces are dense, and they depart considerably from the melodies of the originals. Some of them circle back to Holiday by including little details that evoke characteristics of her singing. Really, though, the most significant presence on this album is not Holiday or Downes but the composer Jed Distler, who arranged most of the music (one piece is by jazzman Teddy Wilson and another by Marian McPartland). Distler takes the scope of the music beyond what Gershwin did, aligning the arrangements with various classical models according to the mood of the text and of Holiday's singing in each individual piece. The result, perhaps, is what might have occurred if someone had challenged Gershwin to update the so-called "ragging the classics" contests for the Jazz Age, but as things stand it's quite unusual, and it offers a lens on Holiday's achievement different from what anybody else has accomplished. A typically intriguing release from Downes.

Tracklist:

01. Yesterdays
02. God Bless the Child
03. Blue Moon
04. Willow Weep For Me
05. Don't Explain
06. Body and Soul
07. I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You
08. I Wished On the Moon
09. Them There Eyes
10. Billie's Blues
11. Good Morning Heartache
12. The End of a Love Affair
13. What a Little Moonlight Can Do
14. Ain't Nobody's Business
15. Strange Fruit
16. I'll Be Seeing You
17. Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?)
18. I'm a Fool to Want You
19. I'll Be Around
20. I Cover the Waterfront
21. (In My) Solitude
22. But Beautiful