Wintertijd

Bertje, that's Jazz X

No Jazz compilation could exist without some Billie Holiday in it. What Edith Piaf did for the Chanson, she did for Jazz standards. I guess many people that don't listen to jazz still might have a Billie Holiday album floating around. Although I never thought she was on par with Ella Fitzgerald, I do see the point. She expresses a lot with her singing, from misery to joy to a sense of being browbeaten by life, it's all there.

So in spite of the fact that I'm not the greatest fan, I still think she deserves a slot in the compilation. Luckily I have an old favourite song that she sings very well. Back in the early nineties there was a commercial for a life-insurance company in the Netherlands, where this grizzly looking Dutch singer would start the commercial by singing a piece of Stormy Weather, and then he'd go on to say that that would be the song, recorded by Billie Holiday, he'd want to play at his funeral.

That always stuck in my memory, so when I came across the tune he mentioned a couple years later, I payed extra attention. Technically it's a blues tune, but I've always loved it. Please enjoy Billie Holiday's Stormy Weather.

Don't know why
ain't no sun up in the sky
Stormy weather
since my man and I
ain't together
Keeps raining all the time

Posted by Chris at July 24, 2007 05:19 PM