Like Billie Holiday, Lee Wiley spent most of her career surrounded by good jazz musicians, and the simple elegance of her singing is at its best with a jazz accompaniment. She recorded prolifically in the 1930s, 40s (Hemingway was a big fan) and 50s. This double-CD set opens with her masterpiece, the 1950 album Night in Manhattan, in which she is shadowed by the gorgeous cornet of Bobby Hackett. Like Holiday's, her voice gradually coarsened with age but the essential spark is still there in the later albums.