I listened to Billie Holiday today and when I got to a song I like, My Man, I decided to try and start a discussion on her. I feel I learned from the interesting discussion on Louis Armstrong.

This is not the version I have but a much slower one:


One of the hardest thing for an orchestra to do is to play slow, and it takes a great conductor for it to work. I read lately, though I don't remember where, a pianist saying about Furtwangler how he could get the orchestra to play extremely slow for a concerto he played with him. I think a similar thing is true for singers. It's hard to sing fast songs in a slow way well, and in this song one feels every breathe.
We feel time slowing down, almost to a stop.

As I asked about Louis, I'll ask about Billie: What do you think of her? Which are your favorite songs of hers?
What do you find her particular characteristic?

I also by chance saw this nice video which I like by Ciara:



It's interesting to compare the songs. Opposite energy, opposite topic (or is it the same topic?).
For some reason if people want to say about a new Billie Holiday it always has to be the same kind of singing, but this is not the right way of looking at it. (For example, in a nice post on Bach's equivalent in painting Jerry Brody gives the surprising example of Picasso. I don't necessarily agree with him, but he gives an interesting argument.)

I can't say in what ways do I find the songs similar, but I somewhat do (even if I like Billie's more). Or at least, I find them an interesting opposition which can somehow reveal things to us.
Any ideas?