Product Description

The "Ladies" who created an art form and sang their way into legend… a bygone era is recaptured in this filmed salute to the women who started it all… whose turn of phrase made musical history.

ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME PERFORMANCES
Priceless footage of the great American divas (complete songs, not just tantalizing excerpts) Billie Holiday backed by the most extraordinary band ever formed-Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Benny Webster, Roy Eldridge, and Gerry Mulligan. The great Bessie Smith in her only film appearance...Dinah Washington from the stage of The Apollo Theatre…Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughan, Lena Horne, and others, singing their classics. For many of them, this was their only performance on camera…certainly some of their greatest performances! Performances thought to be lost to time!

MUSICAL SELECTIONS
1 St.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #50713 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-10-30
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 60 minutes

Amazon.com
Culled from rare black-and-white footage from the early to mid-20th century, this excellent anthology showcases a number of gems from the best and brightest female vocalists in America. There's the radiant "Empress of the Blues" Bessie Smith in her only recorded film appearance singing "St. Louis Blues." The gospel great Sister Rosetta Tharpe delivers a down-home version of "That Lonesome Road," which is contrasted by jazzy and sassy Dinah Washington's "Lean Baby." The immortal Billie Holliday's touching 1957 TV performance of "Fine and Mellow," recorded with saxophonists Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, and Gerry Mulligan two years before her death in 1959, is the finest clip in this collection. From Ethel Waters and Sarah Vaughan to Lena Horne, Ida Cox, and Peggy Lee, this set shows why women have been the standard bearers of the American vocal tradition. --Eugene Holley Jr.

Gene Seymour, Entertainment Weekly, March 2, 1990
Don’t expect exhaustive critical or historical analysis here, just a grand parade of American Miracles.

The Boston Phoenix- January 19, 1990
…a wonderful collection featuring Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Bessie Smith, Lena Horne, Peggy Lee, Ethel Waters, and more. …It’s wonderful

Customer Reviews

Buyer Sings the Blues
The songs may be "complete" as the DVD claims, but what isn't mentioned is the inane narration over the beginning of just about every clip on the disk, which spoiled much of the enjoyment for me. I bought the DVD for the Connee Boswell clip (love those Boswell Sisters), but after the narration there's just eighteen seconds of the song left. By the way, even accounting for the age/rarity of the clips, the quality of them often leaves something to be desired, as well.

Magnificent documentary featuring American legends of song.
This acclaimed compilation brings together full-length, rare performances from the great ladies of song: Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith, Peggy Lee, Lena Horne, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan and Ethel Waters. Hailed by Entertainment Weekly as "a grand parade of American miracles," Ladies captures the excitement of the most distinctive female vocalists in Jazz.

#1313 (60 min, B&W, Hi-Fi)

Good additional material for class
I have to agree with one of the earlier reviewers: the complete "videos" on this tape are fantastic, but the narrated voice-over (delivered in a near-monotone) during the opening bits isn't of much use. Still, I use portions of this tape in my Jazz History class, and at least the narration backs up the info that students are given in their textbooks. In all, I like certain clips in here better than the Burns "Jazz" anthology simply because they ARE complete.