Tag Archives: Billie Holiday

Blood, Sweat & Tears: Same

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On December 11, 1968, “Columbia” label released self titled, second Blood, Sweet & Tears album. It was recorded October 1968, at “CBS Studios” in New York,  and was produced by James William Guercio. The album was certified 4 x Platinum in the US by the RIAA. The album received “Grammy Award” for “Album of the Year” in 1970.

Personnel:

  • David Clayton-Thomas– lead vocals
  • Steve Katz– lead and backing vocals, guitar, harmonica
  • Dick Halligan– organ, piano, flute, trombone, vocals
  • Jim Fielder– bass
  • Bobby Colomby– vocals, drums, percussion
  • Lew Soloff– trumpet, flugelhorn
  • Fred Lipsius– alto saxophone, piano
  • Chuck Winfield– trumpet, flugelhorn
  • Jerry Hyman– trombone, recorder
  • Dick Halligan, Fred Lipsius, Al Kooper – arrangements
  • Timothy Quay, Bob Cato – cover art
  • John Berg – design
  • Harrie George – photography

Track listing:

  1. Variations on a theme by Erik Satie (1st and 2nd Movements)
  2. Adapted from “Trois Gymnopédies”; arr. by Dick Halligan
  3. Smiling Phases –  Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, Chris Wood
  4. Sometimes in Winter – Steve Katz
  5. More and More – Vee Pee Smith, Don Juan
  6. And When I Die – Laura Nyro
  7. God Bless the Child – Billie Holiday, Arthur Herzog Jr.
  8. Spinning Wheel -David Clayton-Thomas
  9. You’ve Made Me So Very Happy – Berry Gordy Jr., Brenda Holloway, Patrice Holloway, Frank Wilson
  10. Blues – Part II – Blood, Sweat & Tears
  11. Interpolating Sunshine of Your Love (Jack Bruce, Pete Brown,  Eric Clapton), Spoonful – Willie Dixon, Somethin’ Goin’ On – Al Kooper
  12. Variations on a theme by Erik Satie” (1st Movement)

 

Billie Holiday

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On July 17, 1959, Eleonora Fagan aka Billie Holiday, died aged 44. Nicknamed “Lady Day” by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday is one of the true jazz icons and one of the most influential singers of all time.  Famous jazz critics Leonard Feather, said about her: “Billie Holiday’s voice was the living intensity of soul in the true sense of that greatly abused word. As a human being, she was sweet, sour, kind, mean, generous, profane, lovable and impossible, and nobody who knew her expects to see anyone quite like her again.”

Benny Carter

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On July 12, 2003, Bennett Lester “Benny” Carter, died aged 96. He was musician (alto saxophone, clarinet, trumpet), composer, arranger, and bandleader,  regarded a major figure in jazz from the 1930s to the 1990s. In his career the “King” performed with Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Coleman Hawkins, Peggy Lee, Carmen McRae, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, Miles Davis,  Django Reinhardt, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Lena Horne, Glenn Miller, Gene Krupa, Tommy Dorsey, Phil Woods, Dizzy Gillespie, Earl Hines, Ben Webster, Billy Eckstine, Pearl Bailey, Lou Rawls, Louis Armstrong, Freddie Slack and Mel Torme.

For his work Benny Carter received big number of awards including: “The NEA Jazz Masters Award by The National Endowment for the Arts”, “Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award” , “Grammy Award” for his solo “Prelude to a Kiss”, “A Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame”, “National Endowment for the Arts”, “National Medal of Arts”.