Lady in Satin |
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Released: June 1958 Recorded: February 19-21,1958 Charted: -- Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Genre: vocal jazz |
Tracks:
Total Running Time: 44:36 |
Rating: 4.473 out of 5.00 (average of 14 ratings)
Quotable:“As heartbreaking and necessary as it is gorgeous.” – Olivia Abercrombie, Paste magazineAwards:(Click on award to learn more).
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About the Album:“Is Lady in Satin merely a voyeuristic portrait of an artist in decline or actually a seminal slice of soul baring from one of jazz’s most gifted interpreters of song?” RD “Pickled in gin, sharing a needle with her junkie Chihuahua and barely able to hold a note, Lady Day was in big trouble by 1958.” BL “Although not yet 43, she could have passed for 73.” AM “Her raspy singing reflected a lifetime riddled with abusive relationships, drug addiction and time spent in prison.” PM“The sweet tones of Holiday’s upper register were practically non-existent, but her voice remained an immovable force.” PM “Her croaking voice had become almost unbearable to hear.” AM Lady in Satin finds here “falling back on her peerless way with a lyric and mining the contrast between fat string arrangements and emaciated vocals.” BL “Lady in Satin is the penultimate album Billie Holiday released during her lifetime.” PM It is “a languid romp through the emotional life of one of jazz music’s most influential women.” PM “It’s as heartbreaking and necessary as it is gorgeous,” PM a “startling masterpiece rooted in tough times.” BL “With her vocals at the center of Lady in Satin and a soft, elegant string backing, you can hear every fragile crack – as she envelops you in her pain.” PM “Without Lady in Satin there would simply have been no divas like Nina Simone or Janis Joplin crying their hearts out so uncompromisingly in the decades to come.” RD “By consistently stripping down standards…to their emotional core, Holiday channels her junkie pride into some of the most naked blues ever recorded.” RD Her ability to “express the pain of life so effectively” AM meant that “many listeners have found her emotional versions of such songs as I’m a Fool to Want You, You Don't Know What Love Is, Glad to Be Unhappy, and particularly You’ve Changed to be quite touching,” AM “These are torch songs unlike anything jazz had heard before: love as distraction, despair, resignation, and above all else, brutal honesty…This was Holiday’s own favorite recording and it also proved a myth-making final will and testament.” RD “It’s also her most extensive production, complete with a 40-piece orchestra to craft a soundscape fit only for jazz royalty.” PM She is accompanied by the Ray Ellis Orchestra. AllMusic.com’s Scott Yanow asserts that “Ellis’ arrangements do not help, veering close to Muzak; most of Lady in Satin is very difficult to listen to.” AM However, another take is that hile his “string arrangements seem eager to airbrush out Holiday’s vocal scars, they actually result in accentuating her singular ability to swing no matter how corny her arrangement.” RD |
Reviews:
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First posted 11/7/2008; last updated 3/2/2026. |
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