Billie Holiday: Rare Live Recordings 1934-1959 landed in our office some time ago. Produced by ESP-Disk Ltd. in Brooklyn, the five-CD set is exhaustive, covering 25 years of Holiday’s career—from her 1935 cameo in the film Symphony in Black, in which the 20-year old Billie, backed by the Duke Ellington Orchestra, sings “Lost My Man Blues” to her final appearance at the Storyville Club in Boston, a little less than three months before her July 1959 death at 44.

We’re not talking crystal clear recordings here—this was back when, and the magic of these disks does not lie in the remastering, but the content. The crackle and pop sound of a radio transmission live from Clark Monroe’s Uptown House in Harlem, complete with shouts of encouragement and enthusiastic applause take the listener back to a boozy, smoky room with Lady Day (she earned her famous nickname in 1937 from the great saxophonist Lester Young) front and center, torching the audience

Billie sang a sublime version of “I Cover the Waterfront” at the Esquire All Star Jazz Concert in 1945. The song pops up three more times, sung at various times later in her career, giving us the chance to hear how Holiday’s performance of the same song evolved. For instance, a later Storyville Club appearance reinforce the sad fact that the vicissitudes of life had left their mark: There is less of the starry-eyed girl in Holiday’s voice and tempo, and more of the experienced, if jaded, woman.

I think the most interesting of the live disks are a series of rehearsals that likely took place in 1958. In them we hear not only a master at her craft, but also a person with a sharp sense of humor and an unexpurgated tongue (the Lady sure could cuss). We love the idea of Billie the woman, who could turn a salty phrase while wearing a gardenia in her hair.

For more information or to order the set, visit ESP-Disk here.

Credit: Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.