“Without question, my favorite Billie Holiday song is Autumn in New York. When I hear her sing that, I’m ready to cry. It’s the most beautiful rendition of Autumn in New York I’ve ever heard in my life. I told my wife, ‘When I die, I want you to play that.’ Her version of Autumn in New York is just beautiful.
Her voice was already diminished, but it hadn’t diminished to the point where she couldn’t sing anymore. She had lived inside her voice long enough and experienced so much that at this point her limitations turn out to make her the greatest kind of virtuoso. I mean, it was just, it’s unbelievable. And she’s able to capture in this song this great sense of what jazz is about, this kind of yearning and loneliness and the sense of community, but also this sense, and particularly singing about New York, autumn in New York, that sculpting, creating, shaping meaning out of something that seems meaningless, and out of, you know, I guess, what many people would consider just a kind of a standard pop song. But she’s able to change that into exquisite art. And Billie Holiday, at her best, was able to do that with a number of songs.”
-Gerald Early