Billie Holiday – All Or Nothing At All (Mono)

Familiar songs, individual decisions

A familiar standard gives you something useful when listening to Billie Holiday: a melody against which to follow her decisions. All or Nothing at All brings together songs associated with Ellington, Gershwin, Irving Berlin and Kurt Weill. Listen for the beginning of a phrase, the space after it and the way the accompaniment carries the music while the singer waits. Knowing a tune can make those details easier to notice.

Recorded in Los Angeles during 1956 and 1957 with Norman Granz, the album places Holiday within a small ensemble. Harry “Sweets” Edison plays trumpet, Ben Webster tenor saxophone, Barney Kessel guitar, Jimmy Rowles piano and Alvin Stoller drums. Joe Mondragon and Red Mitchell share the bass duties across different sessions. Each player offers a different kind of response to the voice. The interest lies as much in those exchanges as in the individual solos.

Five sessions behind one sleeve

Two recording dates took place at Radio Recorders in August 1956, followed by three at Capitol Studios in January 1957. This is a collection drawn from several months of work, rather than the document of one imagined late-night gathering.

The first session, on 14 August, produced “Do Nothin’ Till You Hear from Me”, “Cheek to Cheek”, “Ill Wind” and “Speak Low”. Mondragon plays bass on those four performances; Mitchell appears on the others. Try moving between the dance-song origins of “Cheek to Cheek” and Weill’s “Speak Low”. First follow Holiday alone, then return to the accompaniment. Notice where the rhythm is stated directly and where the players leave room around it.

A songwriter hiding in plain sight

The lyricist of “I Wished on the Moon” is Dorothy Parker, working with composer Ralph Rainger. Elsewhere, “Sophisticated Lady” connects the programme to Duke Ellington, while “April in Paris” leads to Vernon Duke. Theatre songs and popular songwriting meet within a jazz ensemble whose size and personnel give the album continuity.

Webster and Edison provide two contrasting horn voices, with Kessel’s guitar offering another way to answer a sung phrase. Follow the handover from singer to instrumentalist: the musical conversation often starts before a formal solo does. It is a rewarding way to hear the album as an ensemble recording, alongside the attention naturally drawn by Holiday herself. The names in the credits become participants you can follow from one song to the next.

This Acoustic Sounds Series edition

The Verve Acoustic Sounds Series release is a single 180-gram record at 33⅓ RPM, pressed at Quality Record Pressings and housed in a gatefold sleeve. It contains twelve tracks, with the publisher identifying the original master tape as its source. Catalogue number AVER 68452 identifies this edition; the separate double-LP release at 45 RPM has different specifications. In the published running order for this reissue, the title song opens the second side.

Michael 45 holds the record in Germany and dispatches it from Hilden, so customers can obtain it without arranging a personal US import or waiting for customs processing.

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Musicians

Documented selection of participating musicians. Personnel may vary by track; this list does not claim to be complete.