Body and Soul—Billie Holiday/ Verve Acoustic Sounds Series/ 2024 vinyl reissue

This is the 2024 Ryan Smith 33RPM remaster of Billie Holiday’s 1957 mono classic Body and Soul. Norman Granz produced the original and is traditionally on the list of seminal Billie Holiday albums from the last years of her life (1915–1959), including All or Nothing at All and Songs for Distingué Lovers, both released in 1958. All three albums employ many of the same sidemen and feature intimate settings of classics from the Great American Songbook.

Other audiophile pressings of Body and Soul include George Marino’s 45 RPM Analogue Productions cut from 2011. Spoilt for choice, we also get the great Stan Ricker’s remaster for Mobile Fidelity from 1995. I have not heard either of the talented men’s remastered vinyl, but they’d have to work very hard to surpass this jewel of a recut by Ryan Smith of Sterling Sound.

Body and Soul features legendary musicians as accompanists; they do so with absolute precision, style and grace. Nobody overshadows the great lady but add superb solos to her vocal stylings and word painting (listen to the gentle accompaniment in the title track by Barney Kessel on guitar and Jimmy Rowles on piano). Later in the song sexy sax, Ben Webster is forward in the mix like Holiday, then Harry Edison’s muted trumpet noodles from just behind the leads. From the first note to the last, if a fan, like me, you’ll be entranced. Even though she died at 44 years old, by the time of the album her voice had been weathered by a very tough life of drug addiction, alcoholism, prostitution and poverty. This tragic life is encapsulated in her voice and how she phrases with such heartbreaking originality.

At times, on sustained notes in her upper register, there’s the slightest wobble. Let’s also blame it on the tragic circumstances of her short life. But then she phrases a Gershwin masterpiece “They Can't Take That Away From Me” with such style any slight blemish is forgiven. Harry Edison is pushed a little more forward in his solo here to excellent effect followed by Webster in the same place as Edison. Yes, the imaging is that precise in the “immediate” soundstage. Bass and drums add their stylish playing but it’s in the background—a satisfying presentation, nonetheless.

Billie Holiday during her final recording session.

Personnel

Billie Holiday – vocals

Ben Webster – Tenor Sax

Barney Kessel – Guitar

Harry "Sweets" Edison – Trumpet

Jimmy Rowles – Piano

Red Mitchell – Bass

Alvin Stoller or Larry Bunker

Tracks

A side

1. "Body and Soul" (Johnny Green, Edward Heyman, Robert Sour, and Frank Eyton)

2. "They Can't Take That Away From Me" (George and Ira Gershwin)

3. "Darn That Dream" (Jimmy Van Heusen and Eddie DeLange)

4. "Let's Call The Whole Thing Off" (George and Ira Gershwin)

B side

1. ."Comes Love" (Sam H. Stept, Lew Brown and Charles Tobias)

2. "Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You" (Andy Razafand Don Redman)

3. "Embraceable You" (George and Ira Gershwin)

4. "Moonlight in Vermont" (Karl Suessdorf and John Blackburn)

The remastering has an excellent balance between singer and instruments, with the mono format rich and detailed. Except for the immediacy of a “mono” feel, which I prefer on intimate jazz and chamber music, you’d be hard-pressed to tell this pressing apart from stereo (it never received a stereo release). Holiday’s voice is quite forward in the mix—no harm in that and instrumental solos are at times pushed to the fore, other times they take a secondary role. The word is the Stan Ricker cut is a little more laid back, more like the original. If that’s how you prefer Billie Holiday, maybe seek out a Mobile Fidelity (a NM copy on Discogs will run you over USD 200, which makes this USD 38.98 pressing something of a steal).

If you’re a fan of American standards, Billie Holiday sings them in a unique style, but musically as valid as Frank and Ella. On Body and Soul (and the other two members of the Billie Holiday Top Record Club), you get an almost perfect example of torch club singing.

The top remastering engineers continue to produce records of the highest quality, and though records from digital files are making huge improvements in quality thanks to the same wonderful engineers, a good old 1957 mono from analogue tapes is always welcome. Very highly recommended.

Billie Holiday Body And Soul (Mono)

Acoustic Sounds Series reissues from Verve/Universal Music Enterprises!

Mastered by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound from the original analog tapes

180-gram LPs pressed at Quality Record Pressings!

Stoughton Printing gatefold old-style tip-on jackets