Mick Hartley

One of Billie Holiday's last recorded performances, and one of her greatest. A straight blues, this was part of the CBS Sound of Jazz program, which aired live on Sunday, December 8, 1957.

The show's performance of "Fine and Mellow" reunited Billie Holiday with her estranged long-time friend Lester Young for the final time. Jazz critic Nat Hentoff, who was involved in the show, recalled that during rehearsals, they kept to opposite sides of the room. Young was very weak, and Hentoff told him to skip the big band section of the show and that he could sit while performing in the group with Holiday.

During the performance of "Fine and Mellow", Webster played the first solo. "Then", Hentoff remembered:

Lester got up, and he played the purest blues I have ever heard, and [he and Holiday] were looking at each other, their eyes were sort of interlocked, and she was sort of nodding and half–smiling. It was as if they were both remembering what had been—whatever that was. And in the control room we were all crying. When the show was over, they went their separate ways.

Within two years, both Young and Holiday had died.

Personnel: Ben Webster — tenor saxophone, Lester Young — tenor saxophone, Vic Dickenson — trombone, Gerry Mulligan — baritone saxophone, Coleman Hawkins — tenor saxophone, Roy Eldridge — trumpet, Doc Cheatham — trumpet, Danny Barker — guitar, Milt Hinton — double bass, Mal Waldron — piano and Osie Johnson – drums.

This was a year after Lady Sings the Blues was published. In her (ghosted) autobiography, Holiday made no secret of her problems with heroin. As a result, the sponsors of the Sound of Jazz made it clear that they didn't want Billie Holiday on the show. "We must not put into America's homes, especially on a Sunday, someone who's been imprisoned for drug use." The producers, led by Robert Herridge, replied that if Holiday wasn't allowed to appear, they would all walk off the show. So she appeared.