Billie Holiday – Fine And Mellow

An evening pause: Hat tip Judd Clark, who gives this background, “Written by Billie Holiday, who first recorded it on April 20, 1939 on the Commodore label. Performed by Billie Holiday in 1957 in a television special, The Sound of Jazz.

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Salomé’s Dance

An evening pause: Music by Charles Barber. This comes from the 1913 silent film, Salomé, based on an Oscar Wilde play. Rarely seen, the movie represents a very early attempt to do something “edgy”. It succeeds about as well as modern “edgy” films, showing us a very shallow representation of human existence. But the visuals give us a glimpse into that early film world, when sets and costume were usually the only way to show something strange and striking.

Hat tip Judd Clark.

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