Billie Holiday - The Incomparable Volume 2 (2002)

The second of five volumes on the obscure British label Acrobat, The Incomparable, Vol. 2 concentrates on the series of sides recorded by Billie Holiday at the dawn of her career, usually in front of a studio band and released on discount subsidiaries of Columbia such as Brunswick and Vocalion. Similar to Fats Waller and a handful of other musical greats occasionally forced to record subpar material, Holiday did surprisingly well considering the compositional sources, and certainly wasn't harmed by the addition of recording partners like Buck Clayton, Benny Goodman, Ben Webster, Lester Young, Johnny Hodges, and Teddy Wilson. This disc has 20 tracks, including a few of Holiday's best performances ("This Year's Kisses," "They Can't Take That Away from Me," "Mean to Me") as well as a few standards ("I Must Have That Man," "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off," "I Can't Give You Anything But Love"). Too much of this material, however, consists of dated pleasantries that even Holiday has trouble rejuvenating -- check out "I Don't Know if I'm Comin' or Goin'" or "If My Heart Could Only Talk." Though everything she recorded will obviously be of interest to real fans, Columbia itself has collected these songs several times, with better notes and better sound.