The Complete Billie Holiday On Verve, 1945-1959
That's right: Ten CDs with everything Billie Holiday recorded on Verve  Records between 1945 and her death in 1959--not only the songs, but concert  introductions, some of the rehearsals, and between-take studio chatter, too.   All of which makes for a definitive portrait of Lady Day in her final years.   For a long time these recordings were disparaged because it was said her voice  was no longer fine and mellow,  "ravaged" by hard living, jail time,  booze, and drugs.  And there's no question that her later tone is darker, more  brittle and unstable than it had been in the '30s--but somehow I find myself  listening to this music more often than those Brunswick/Columbia or Decca sides,  anyway.  Like Frank Sinatra, who so often paid tribute to her influence,  Holiday's artistry was never based on virtuosity; it was about interpretation,  bringing out the emotions in a song and giving a personal reading.  She never  stopped doing that, and for all the "strange fruit" you'll find in  this collection, it's a gold mine.--Jim Emerson