Billie Holiday: The Centennial Collection (Columbia) Cassandra Wilson: Coming Forth by Day (Sony) Ben Goldberg: Orphic Machine (Bag) How did a woman with a smallish voice and modest range come to be celebrated as one of the twentieth century’s greatest singers? It seems unthinkable in the era of TV talent…
John Shand Posts
The Studio, July 23 Although Louis Armstrong invented jazz singing and Sarah Vaughan made it soar to dizzy heights, Billie Holiday remains the pinnacle if understatement, emotional directness and rhythmic nous are allowed to outweigh power and vocal gymnastics. In the centenary year of Holiday’s birth – she died in…
The Studio, July 20 Four more diverse finalists are hard to imagine. MC Tim Richie referred to the judges’ difficulty in comparing apples with oranges, but this was more like comparing apples with fire-engines, churches and wombats. In the event the judges awarded the $15,000 Music Trust Freedman Jazz Fellowship…