Annotation

Experience on disc the performance that won Audra McDonald her unprecedented sixth Tony Award. "One of the greatest performances I ever hope to see" is how New York Magazine described McDonald's portrayal of Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill, Lanie Robertson's award-winning play with music dramatizing one of the final concerts in the beloved singer's extraordinary, tragic life. Recorded live at Broadway's Circle in the Square Theatre, the two-disc set features McDonald's "spellbinding, tour-de-force" (NY Daily News) renditions of signature Holiday songs such as "God Bless the Child," "What a Little Moonlight Can Do," "Strange Fruit" and "Taint Nobody's Biz-ness." The Associated Press proclaimed Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill "one of the supreme honors of the Broadway season," while The New York Times delighted in "the pleasure of hearing Ms. McDonald breathe aching life into some of Holiday's greatest songs... with sensitive musicianship and rich seams of feeling that command rapt admiration." Now, "the best 90 minutes you'll ever witness" (NY1) have been preserved on disc by PS Classics, giving audiences the chance to savor "not just one but two of the most extraordinarily gifted dramatic vocalists America has produced" (Los Angeles Times).

Tracklist

1CD
2CD
#TitleLength
1“Nobody but me ever liked Sonny…”
6:56
2Foolin’ Myself/Somebody’s on My Mind
medley including a recording of:
Foolin’ Myself
writer:
Jack Lawrence and Peter Tinturin
publisher:
Chappell Music Co. Inc.
medley including a recording of:
Somebody's on My Mind
writer:
Arthur Herzog, Jr. and Billie Holiday
2:16
3Easy Living
recording of:
Easy Living
lyricist:
Leo Robin
writer:
Ralph Rainger (in 1937) and Leo Robin (in 1937)
composer:
Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin
publisher:
Famous Music Corporation (in 1937, in 1964)
2:32
4“I was singin’ with Artie’s band…”
7:24
5Strange Fruit2:57
6“It’s bad again, Jimmy…”
1:18
7Blues Break
recording of:
Blues Break
composer:
Lanie Robertson
2:31
8“Now I’ll take a little break right here…”
0:17
9’Tain’t Nobody’s Biz‐ness If I Do3:14
10“I want you all to meet Pepi…”
7:10
11“I was doin’ the bad drugs heavy…”
3:59
12Don’t Explain / What a Little Moonlight Can Do (reprise)2:31
13Deep Song
recording of:
Deep Song
lyricist:
Douglass Cross
composer:
George Cory
publisher:
Northern Music Company
4:22