Friday, June 18, 2010

Billie Holiday - The Man I Love

I love good music. I listen to pretty much everything, well, except trance, techno and heavy metal. Give me reggae, new age, soul and jazz anytime. I like reggae when I wanna dance (strange I know - that's me), new age when I'm alone and feel like doing nothing, soul and jazz when I'm chilling with a book and a wine. A couple of years ago, I was obsessed with bossa nova (a type of jazz) until I got sick of listening to "Girl from Ipanema". Nowadays, I prefer contemporay jazz pieces still with a hint of bossa style and are great for chilling out. And on late nights when the 2 boys in my life are sleeping and I'm enjoying peace infront of the computer and surfing the web, I like to listen to classic american jazz.

Amongst all american jazz singers, Billie Holiday got to be my favourite. She came from the same generation as Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, and was often compared with the latter. But I like Billie Holiday for her distinct, jazzy and bluey vocals. That to me represents the classic American jazz from the 30s. Her most iconic song got to be "Summertime" (although she wasn't the first jazz singer to sing that) but my personal favourite is her version of "The Man I Love"that she recorded in the late 30s. Enjoy.

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