Billie Holiday Remixed

The name Billie Holiday is synonymous with depth, sophistication and the golden age of 20th Century jazz, blues and swing. Born Eleanora Harris in 1915, Billie Holiday ascended to the summit of jazz as its quintessential auteur. The richness of Holiday's musical compositions were rivaled only by her, at times, bewitchingly frail vocal style and spellbinding throaty croon. Her music remains alive with a wealth of colorful emotions and moods (ranging from innocent, romantic, confident and blissfully existential to melancholic, disillusioned and bittersweet), and her voice still haunts with its dexterity and brutal sincerity. That's why Billie Holiday was such a natural choice to follow-up Nina Simone's series starting installment in this critically acclaimed series.

Simply put, Billie Holiday Remixed & Reimagined is a remix project that reawakens and reaffirms our fascination with the most beloved heroine in jazz. From the opening chords of Swingsett & Takuya's mid-tempo re-invention of Holiday's ecstatic juke joint romp "I Hear Music" you become seduced by the vocals interplay with the melodious grooves and raucous trumpet solos. Roland Richards and Ladybug Mecca (of Digable Planets fame) kick up the mood with their energized reinterpretation of "Spreadin’ Rhythm Around," which recasts the original as a surging hip-hop-meets-swing anthem that just might usher in the next wave of the Rebirth of Cool. "Trav'lin' All Alone" becomes a sinister urban affair at the hands of veteran hip hop/funk/modern soul mixmasters Nickodemus and Zeb, who inject the vintage swing tune with shuffling percussion and bottom-heavy dub undercurrents. Atlanta-based duo/couple Madison Park (aka James and DeAnna Cool) deliver a cocktailjazz remix of the inviting "You're So Desireable" aimed at sophisticated post-clubbers and the cosmopolitan jetset, while GXR reconstructs the misty ballad "Long Gone Blues" into a soundscape accentuated by electronic textures, dreamy layered vocals and soul-stirring Rhodes and sax solos. All in all, Billie Holiday Remixed & Reimagined is a lovingly assembled homage to the First Lady of Jazz's legacy.