MCRAE, CARMEN

SINGS LOVER MAN AND OTHER BILLIE HOLIDAY CLASSICS [LP]

Barcode: 8436569194027 / Cat: 29019 / 1 LP / Label: MATCHBALL RECORDS

“I met Billie Holiday when I was very young”, declared Carmen McRae in an interview with drummer Art Taylor in Cologne, Germany, on October 30, 1970, “and she was one of the most impressive women I have ever met in my life. She really scared me as far as singing was concerned. She seemed so utterly perfect to me that I felt anything after her would be anticlimactic. Consequently, I was afraid of becoming what I had hoped to become at an earlier stage in my life.” This edition presents the complete original LP Carmen McRae Sings Lover Man and other Billie Holiday Classics (Columbia CS8530), which as its title indicates, was McRae’s tribute to the great Billie Holiday. To the original twelve songs on the original album Carmen McRae Sings Lover Man, we have added two songs which complete the sessions that yielded the LP. “If the Moon Turns Green” would be recorded again by Carmen live in 1971, and again in 1989. The song had been waxed by Billie Holiday for Clef in May of 1952. “The Christmas Song”, obviously intended to be included on a Christmas compilation, was written in 1944 by singer Mel Tormé and Bob Wells, and was never recorded by Lady Day.