Billie Holiday Centenary Album – The Very Best of Billie Holiday

a singular and unrepeatable talent, whose finest hours are remarkably revealing and often surprisingly – given her reputation – joyful … One of her innovations was to suggest a role for the singer which blended in with the musicians … While the most obvious characteristic of her singing is the lagging behind the beat, she seldom sounds tired or slow to respond … her best singing invests the words with shades of meaning that vocalists until that point had barely looked at’ (Penguin Guide to Jazz)