Mystery Lady: Songs of Billie Holiday

Its hard to think of two great singers who have less in common than Etta James and Billie Holiday. One possesses a voice as big as creation, the other made art from the limitations of hers. On <i>Mystery Lady</i>, her Grammy-winning 1994 tribute album, James makes all such distinctions moot as she illumines the essence of 11 Holiday-identified songs. With her roots in gutsy, often bawdy R&B, James brings her own qualities to the material: warmth rather than immaculate phrasing, immediacy rather than elegance. But both share an emotional intensity that puts lesser singers to shame. James sings man-trouble classics like Dont Explain and Lover Man like a woman whos lived the blues from the inside out, and her version of The Man I Love masks desperation with hope. Her simple, soulful vocal performance comes backed by solid playing from a seven-piece ensemble featuring sax great Red Holloway and the pianist Cedar Walton, whose arrangements tastefully update a traditional 50s jazz sound.