After an impasse in which she mostly recorded with tightly arranged groups (for Commodore) and big bands with strings (for Decca), Billie Holiday signed her last long-term contract with Norman Granz. He tried to repeat the small group magic of her early days. Solitude included Billies first studio sessions for Granz, and features the singer backed by Charlie Shavers on trumpet, Flip Phillips on tenor sax, and the Oscar Peterson Trio plus drummers Alvin Stoller or J. C. Heard.