Teddy Wilson (featuring Billie Holiday): I'll Get By

One of the high spots of recorded jazz is the Holiday-Young collaborations. Today these recordings are remembered for the brilliance of Holidays singing and the inspirational creativity she inspired in Young, but it is often overlooked that Youngs highly regarded work with Count Basies band, with whom he was then working, was based on half a dozen basic chord structures, mainly the blues and I Got Rhythm contrafacts. However, with Holiday he had the opportunity stretch his wings and address different chord structures in a variety of keys. Here, for example, is a 28-bar, rather than 32-bar, song form with an ABAC structure (instead of the more usual AABA form), where the B and C sections are six bars instead of the usual eight. Singer and saxophonist relish the challenge on this awkward vehicle for improvisation. Billie shines with one of her most economical vocals, essentially based on just six notes, with two forays to the bottom of her range. At one point she sings no fewer than twenty-six repeated As, which depend for their impact on her fantastic rhythmic placement. There was genius abroad in the air.