I love a great female singer. When I was young, I liked Debbie Harry, Pat Benatar and Madonna. As I got older, I also grew to appreciate Dusty Springfield and Diana Krall (and a slew of others) However, long before any of these singers were even around, one of the most beautiful voices outside of opera had already died. If you have listened to any blues or jazz, you should know the name Billie Holiday. She was THE VOICE in the 1930s, touring with the likes of Benny Goodman and Count Basie. Once you have heard her voice, you won't forget it. Born Eleanora Fagan Gough, she adopted the stage name "Billie Holiday". She is still regarded as one of the finest jazz singers that ever lived. She died at age 44 on July 17th, 1959. Five years later, I was born, and nearly another 40 years before I heard her.

This particular album Lady in Satin was Billie Holiday's last studio album; recorded 17 months before she died. It was an excellent choice to re - release on Super Audio Compact Disc. Although this album does not capture the golden voice that made her famous, it does capture such a heartfelt emotional performance, that it is almost hard to listen to at times. Holiday's voice is so wistful, so melancholy, so expressive, you can't help but be moved by listening.

Why is this a must have in anyones SACD collection? (or CD collection if you don't have an SACD player).

The songs

I'm a Fool To Want You Lush instrumentals swell up from the left and rights, and then center stage, the haunting melancholy voice of Billie Holiday I'm a fool to want you, I'm a fool to want you, to want a love that can't be true, a love that's there for others too. When she sings it, you believe it, her voice just aches with pain. Her emotions are seconded by the mournful string section that wells up between verses. Time and time again I said I'd leave you, time and time again, I went away. A mournful trombone plays at the end.

For Heaven's Sake is also hauntingly beautiful and features incredibly lush arrangments that highlight Holiday's voice. Even though her voice almost cracks on occasion, it actually only adds to the emotional weight of the song. I really can't think of any singer today that matches the emotional depth of Holiday's voice on this album.

You Don't Know What Love Is until you've learned the meaning of the blues, until you've loved a Love, you've had to lose, you don't know what love is Again, if anyone can sing a song like this with emotion and feeling like you've never heard before, it's Billie Holiday. A full horn section (3 trumpets, a trombone and an alto sax), a full string section and a choir add to the melancholy sound.

I could go on and on, but I'd just be repeating myself. Every song has lush arrangments, and every song has Billie pouring her heart out for the last studio album of her all too short life. The other 8 songs on the album are:

I Get Along without you very well
For All We Know
Violets for your Furs
You've Changed (another one of my favorites on this album)
It's Easy to Remember
But Beautiful
Glad to Be Unhappy
I'll Be Around

It is a sad emotional, but beautiful album that you will remember long after you've heard it.

Sound Quality I don't have this particular album on CD, but comparing it to some other releases on CD by Holiday, the SACD did clearly wring out all the music and tonal quality of Holiday's voice possible. The SACD is in stereo or multichannel, but the multichannel mix doesn't make a lot of use of the rear surrounds. Holiday's voice is assigned pretty much to the center channel, with the orchestration filling the right and left with a little ambiance of the orchestral arrangments overflow to the surrounds. The bass is a little deeper due to the LFE channel. However, this was one SACD that I really liked the stereo mix about the same as the multichannel mix. The imaging on the stereo mix makes Holiday sound like she's right in the middle of the room even without the center channel. Good full range stereo speakers capture most of the bass as well, and most of the orchestrations here don't really require a subwoofer. There is a very slight noise floor (Nick1326 knows what I'm talking about here), but it's really forgivable on this album because it was recorded back in 1958. Moreover, the noise floor is only noticable when you turn it up fairly loud, and then only mildly so. In fact, considering the age of this album, I was very pleased with the beautiful sound of the recording. The strings, all the trumpets, trombone and saxaphone sound clear and natural. Holiday's voice is so well rendered here, I use this SACD played in Multichannel mode as my test disc for center channel speakers. If you have a good center channel speaker, Holiday's voice just has the most emotive melancholy sound I have heard. If you use this disc to test a center channel speaker, and can't hear the sheer emotion in Billie Holiday's voice, DON'T buy that Center Channel speaker!

Test Equipment I played the SACD on a Pioneer Elite 47A Universal DVD player. I use a Yamaha 5280 Surround Sound Receiver (my very first epinions review) with the front right and left channels separately amplified with a Rotel RB 991 Power Amplifier. Front speakers are Polk Audio Monitor 70s, Center channel is a Polk Audio CSi40 and surrounds are Polk Audio R20s. LFE channel was routed to a Velodyne SPL 1000 series II subwoofer.



Recommend this product?