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Recorded in five sessions over 1956/1957 and released in 1958, this twelve-track affair is loaded with the classic standards from Berlin, Ellington, & Gershwin and more. Though some claimed Holiday was beyond her peak at this point, it was Miles Davis that countered that this was actually her most effective time with her “deepest understanding and control” of the repertoire she was performing. Her supporting cast on this album contributes to that as well, which included Barney Kessel (Guitar), Ben Webster (Tenor Sax), “Sweets” Edison (Trumpet), and Jimmy Rowles (Piano).
 
Verve’s Acoustic Sounds Series features transfers from analog tapes and remastered 180-gram vinyl in deluxe gatefold packaging. — (via Label)

"Really took my breath away. ... Really, really highly recommended. It's such a classic album. One of Billy Holiday's best later period albums. And it sounds just so natural on this. ... Beautiful record. Beautifully presented as well." — Scott Wilson, The Pressing Matters, YouTube

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Billie Holiday's life was one fraught with both triumph and tragedy. At every turn the singer was faced with life's challenges - be it her troubled youth, addiction to narcotics or issues of race and gender. However, despite her world seemingly being against her, she was and still remains the quintessential jazz singer.

Frank Sinatra even once said that Billie was his biggest influence, yet she never truly fit the stereotype of a jazz vocalist: she didn't scat, she had a limited range and she wasn't particularly interested in the blues. Rather what made Holiday so enchanting was her ability to own a melody as if she had lived the experiences of the composers. Billie was a bright spark in the '30s, having equally absorbed the sounds of Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong, but in the '40s, she was imprisoned, and it was then that her hard life started to take its toll.

By the '50s, Billie could only manage a few octaves, and her tone was thinning out. And yet despite this, her later recordings remain as some of her most deep and heartfelt. Take, for example, the 1958 release All Or Nothing At All. Backed by the likes of Ben Webster and Barney Kessel - and captured at the famed Capitol Records in Hollywood, Billie showed us why she was and still is one of the greatest interpreters of song. — (via ABC)

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Some of Billie Holiday’s best late singing came with this sterling 1956/57 lineup, the best being the album Songs For Distingué Lovers. The combination of three moderns – Rowles, Kessel and Mitchell – and two fine horn players from an earlier era in Webster and Edison seemed to suit her down to the ground.

This vinyl reissue of All Or Nothing At All features 12 well-known standards plus Moonlight In Vermont from the same recording sessions but not on the original LP. The session finds Billie on top form, putting her personal stamp on the standards with her individualistic way of emphasising the lyrics.

At any rate, this issue offers good clear sound and presents Billie on great form even though she is lacking some voice but showing she could still do it almost as well as those early 1930s sets with Lester Young and yes, Ben Webster. — (via Jazz Journal)

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Label: Verve Records
Series: Acoustic Sounds series
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Mono, Gatefold, 180g
Reissued: 2025 / Originally Released: 1959
Genre: Jazz
Style: Female Vocals

File under: Audiophile Vocals
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