Henceforth, the argument goes, her tempos were slower, and her style became more mannered even as her voice deteriorated. Others find nothing to decry, preferring the later, more dramatic Holiday. Annotator Stuart Nicholson doesn't want to commit himself. Performances such as this, which are all we now have to go by, suggest that this absolute claim may not be very wide of the mark. On the Commodore sides we hear a more sober singer with considerably less brilliant bands behind her.
Holiday becomes the show.
Her tempos are generally slower. She sounds exposed, vulnerable, not quite as buoyant. The two discs of this collection show that the slower tempo, at least in this case, wasn't inevitable. When she does become dramatic, she is stunning in a new way. Although it is certainly true that these Commodore sides don't have the perfect balance between singer and accompanist, or the illuminating solos, of the Columbia recordings, these sessions throw the emphasis on Holiday as an expressive singer at a time when her voice and her manner could still handle the attention.