Listening, Party For Two: Billie Holiday With Lester Young

by Patrick Jarenwattananon

My boss readily admits that she doesn't know a whole lot about jazz. But she lets me write all this nonsense on the Internet, so I'm not complaining. And at least she's willing to learn. So every week -- or at least as often as possible -- she and I get together to listen to and Instant Message about a different great jazz song.

We at NPR Music recently launched a project we're calling 50 Great Voices, and I've been thinking about which jazz singers I'd put in that list. The last Listening Party we had spotlighted a great vocalist in Ella Fitzgerald; this week, I thought I might feature another pantheon-level talent in Billie Holiday. Specifically, I wanted to feature one of the many great recordings she made with musical soulmate Lester Young.

"Without Your Love," from Billie Holiday, Lady Day: The Master Takes And Singles (Columbia/Legacy). Billie Holiday, vocals; Buck Clayton, trumpet; Lester Young, tenor saxophone; Edmond Hall, clarinet; James Sherman, piano; Freddie Green, guitar; Walter Page, bass; Jo Jones, drums. New York, N.Y.: Jun. 15, 1937.

Purchase: Amazon.com / Amazon MP3 / iTunes

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Boss Lady: Another singer!

me: And a voice I'm sure you recognize too.

Boss Lady: Well, her voice sounds very familiar, and I happened to see her name on the CD jacket...

me: Well, right. Billie Holiday, ladies and gentlemen.
But I want to start this at the very beginning. What's the first thing you hear?

Boss Lady: A trio? Piano, horn and drums.

me: What happens to that horn when Billie starts singing? That tenor saxophone.

Boss Lady: It seems to be providing a running commentary on the melody as it flows by. She sings a phrase, then the sax riffs off of it a bit. Kind of a duet, but the sax is letting the singer have center stage.
The sax has a kind of wistful, mournful sound...

me: Whoever it is is a very active accompanist, right? Always adding to the vocals, but never stepping over them.
Notice that after the piano solo and trumpet solo, he's back again, playing backup to Billie.

Boss Lady: Should I be surprised? I mean, she IS the main event.

me: No, not really. It's just that we've encountered this guy before.

Boss Lady: oh no

me: The very first of these listening parties, in fact -- he was a lot bolder and out in front.
His name is Lester Young, and though he could be full of energy and bounce and life, he was a magnificent accompanist too.

Boss Lady: Oh now I remember!
I can see how having Lester Young there makes it easier for her to sing long notes and keep the music moving forward.

me: Sure. That melding of textures is just so seamless -- he with the most tasteful of statements, she with the languid, held phrasing.
His recordings with Billie Holiday are really showcases for how to back up a singer.

Boss Lady: It's funny, her vibrato is sometimes very similar to the vibrato on the sax

me: There's a lot in common about Lester Young and Billie Holiday -- they were responsible for each others nicknames, by the way. "Pres" and "Lady Day."

Boss Lady: Really? How did that happen?

me: Billie Holiday sang for the Count Basie band for some time, which Lester was a star in. That, and the record producer here knew of both talents, and thought to bring Lester into several recording sessions of Billie's. So they were friends for a long time.
But anyway, as you said: she is the main event.
What of it? How do you characterize her voice?

Boss Lady: I'm always surprised by the timbre of her voice.

me: How so?

Boss Lady: You could describe it in ways that would seem unflattering, but are actually part of her charm. For instance, she sounds kind of nasal and tight to me when she's up high, but it also pierces and is full of emotion.

me: It's totally her own, right? A very jazz idea, having your own "sound" -- and perhaps even with physical limitations, but you always work around those.
Miles wasn't as fast a trumpeter as Dizzy; Duke Ellington wasn't as good at piano as Art Tatum. That just meant they had to figure out something different to do -- and they did.
For instance, compare this to what we listened to last week. Is there any vocal improvising?

Boss Lady: Doesn't sound like it ...

me: Right, there's no scat singing. Lots of vocal embellishment to the melody, but not in the same way as Ella, right?

Boss Lady: What strikes me about this song, is that there's this persistent note that she sings, pretty high ... it sounds like a complaint! The whole song hangs on that note that she sings over and over again. When she's on that note, her voice is very piercing and thin, but there's no vibrato on it.
The words on that note are "Without Your Love..." Do you hear what I'm talking about?

me: I do. That note speaks volumes, I think.

Boss Lady: Do tell.

me: Well, only in what you make of it. Some people hear pain, abuse, suffering in her voice. Later in her life, with her biography in mind, that's a possible interpretation.

Boss Lady: So you could say she's meeting the pain very directly, and that's one of the things that makes her so compelling.

me: Yea, sure. But this whole suffering artist thing, while relevant, is overplayed.
I only know that she takes what was probably a pretty generic arrangement of a popular song and stylizes it heavily.

Boss Lady: Right, but her singing is not about being silky smooth. I'm impressed by how honest she sounds. How what she sings seems true.

me: Well, it's not as if she's not true to herself and how she feels like expressing the words.

Boss Lady: Well it's got to be more than that. A lot of people are true to themselves but they're not as good at making other people believe what they're saying.

me: I don't know the mystery of what makes some great voices more compelling than others. I just know that what she does here works for me, and has for so many other people.
What you're wondering seems like the science question of How vs. Why.
Science answers How. Why is a bigger question, much more mysterious.
If you asked me How Billie Holiday is compelling, I'd tell you that it's some blend of phrasing, certain overtones, rock-solid accompanists and some hazily understood mythology.
She's forcing the issue: with that high note you mentioned, and with all her creative use of time -- it seems like the tempo is slower for her than everyone else.

Boss Lady: That's an interesting way to put it ... she packs more into each moment than most? It's true that almost no moment seems tossed off or thrown away.

me: Technically, she's starting earlier, holding longer and ending later than the original melody calls for. One phrase thus seems to flow into the next.
Why that gets us? Why she hits us as ringing so true? Good question.

Boss Lady: Well, some day maybe you'll aspire to answer life's mysteries!

me: Doubt it.

6:26 PM ET | 11- 4-2009 | permalink

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