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’t Worry ’Bout Me,” with altoist Gene Quill shadowing her vocal shapings, is also wonderful. Last Recording, by the way, can also be bought as a single disc.

The more recently issued Complete Verve Studio Master Takes is a six-CD set, far less expensive than the older collection but also less comprehensive. The alternate takes and concerts have been eliminated. Her five concerts at Jazz at the Philharmonic from 1945 to 1947 and her 1957 Newport Jazz Festival set are available on the single disc Billie Holiday: Jazz at the Philharmonic. The priceless studio jewels are intact in the six-CD collection, but the packaging is literally tinny. I far prefer the graphic lyricism and archival sensitivity of the original ten-CD box.

Finally, Legacy has reissued Lady in Satin with four bonus tracks and with notes by Ray Ellis and producer/scholar Phil Schaap, who, reversing his first impression, calls it a “treasure.”

In its own way, every reissued Billie CD is a treasure. Ninety-one years after her birth, her work is celebrated the world over. Her music has defied time and fashion. Her records are immortal. Whichever ones you choose will be your favorites—until you buy the next one, and the one after that. The more you listen to Billie, the more you appreciate her, the more you love her.

RELEASES RECOMMENDED ABOVE

Lady in Satin (Legacy)

Billie Holiday Gold (Universal)

Billie Holiday: The Ultimate Collection (Universal)

Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia, 1933–1944 (Legacy)

Lady Day: The Master Takes and Singles (Legacy)

The Quintessential Billie Holiday, volumes 1 through 9 (Legacy)

Billie Holiday: The Complete Commodore Sessions (GRP)

Billie Holiday: The Commodore Master Tapes (GRP)

Billie Holiday: The Complete Decca Recordings (GRP)

Billie Holiday’s Greatest Hits (GRP)

Music for Torching (Verve)

Lady Sings the Blues (Verve)

Lady in Autumn: The Best of the Verve Years (Verve)

The Complete Billie Holiday on Verve (Verve)

Last Recording (Verve)

The Complete Verve Studio Master Takes (Verve)

Billie Holiday: Jazz at the Philharmonic (Verve)

OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS

Billie’s Blues (Blue Note)

A Musical Romance (with Lester Young) (Sony)

Holiday for Lovers (Verve)

Recital by Billie Holiday (Verve)

Solitude: Songs by Billie Holiday (Verve)

All or Nothing at All (Verve)

OTHER HARLEM MOON CLASSICS

Voices in the Mirror by Gordon Parks

The Colonel’s Dream by Charles W. Chesnutt

The Heart of Happy Hollow by Paul Lawrence Dunbar

Pride of Family by Carole Ione

The Quest of the Silver Fleece by W.E.B. Du Bois

Soulscript edited by June Jordan

White Rat by Gayl Jones