First recordings with the Count Basie Orchestra, including key swing‑era standards.
On 12 February 1938, Billie Holiday made her first recordings with the Count Basie Orchestra, committing to wax a collaboration that had already been electrifying dance halls.
In this session, she recorded titles including "I Can’t Get Started" and "They Can’t Take That Away from Me," bringing her intimate, behind‑the‑beat phrasing to songs associated with the Great American Songbook. Working with Basie’s rhythmically buoyant, riff‑driven band, Holiday treated the orchestra as an equal partner, weaving in and out of its pulse rather than simply riding on top of it.
These recordings are historically important because they showcase Holiday at a pivotal moment: bridging the world of small‑group swing dates with Teddy Wilson and the big‑band dance circuit that dominated American popular music. For a Black woman singer in 1930s America, recording with Basie’s nationally known orchestra also meant claiming a prominent place in a male‑dominated, segregated industry. The February 1938 session helped solidify her reputation as a major jazz vocalist and demonstrated how her interpretive approach could reshape even the most familiar standards, influencing later vocalists who sought to balance individuality with big‑band power.