Jazz Library

Gwyneth Herbert joins Alyn Shipton to select the high points of Nat King Cole's work as a hugely influential pianist, charismatic vocalist, and one of the most combative of all jam session players. Music includes Straighten Up and Fly Right, Nature Boy and the legendary After Midnight sessions.

Singer Christine Tobin guides Alyn Shipton through the best work from Billie Holiday's early and late career. Widely acknowledged as one of the finest singers in jazz history, Billie Holiday's short life produced a remarkable recorded legacy, in which anguish blended with ecstasy as she sang of unrequited love. Her voice changed with age and hard living, and among the highlights are Good Morning Heartache, My Man and the emotional wasteland of Strange Fruit, a song about a Southern lynching.