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Billy Eckstine's smooth baritone and distinctive vibrato broke down barriers throughout the 1940s, first as leader of the original bop big-band, then as the first romantic black male in popular music. An influence looming large in the cultural development of soul and R&B singers from Sam Cooke to Prince, Eckstine was able to play it straight on his pop hits "Prisoner of Love," "My Foolish Heart" and "I Apologize." Born in Pittsburgh but raised in Washington, D.C., Eckstine began singing at the age of seven and entered many amateur talent shows. He had also planned on a football career, though after breaking his collar bone he made music his focus. After working his way west to Chicago during the late '30s, Eckstine was hired by Earl Hines to join his Grand Terrace Orchestra in 1939. Though white bands of the era featured males singing straightahead romantic ballads, black bands were forced to stick to novelty or blues vocal numbers until the advent of Eckstine and Herb Jeffries (from Duke Ellington's Orchestra).
Though several of Eckstine's first hits with Hines were novelties like "Jelly, Jelly" and "The Jitney Man," he also recorded several straightahead songs, including the hit "Stormy Monday." By 1943, he gained a trio of stellar bandmates — Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Sarah Vaughan. After forming his own big band that year, he hired all three and gradually recruited still more modernist figures and future stars: Wardell Gray, Dexter Gordon, Miles Davis, Kenny Dorham, Fats Navarro, and Art Blakey as well as arrangers Tadd Dameron and Gil Fuller. The Billy Eckstine Orchestra was the first bop big-band, and its leader reflected bop innovations by stretching his vocal harmonics into his normal ballads. Despite the group's modernist slant, Eckstine hit the charts often during the mid-'40s, with Top Ten entries including "A Cottage for Sale" and "Prisoner of Love." On the group's frequent European and American tours, Eckstine also played trumpet, valve trombone and guitar.
Though he was forced to give up the band in 1947 (Gillespie formed his own bop big-band that same year), Eckstine made the transition to string-filled balladry with ease. He recorded more than a dozen hits during the late '40s, including "My Foolish Heart" and "I Apologize." He was also quite popular in Britain, hitting the Top Ten there twice during the '50s — "No One But You" and "Gigi" — as well as several duet entries with Sarah Vaughan. Eckstine returned to his jazz roots occasionally as well, recording with Vaughan, Count Basie, and Quincy Jones for separate LPs, and the 1960 live LP No Cover, No Minimum featured him taking a few trumpet solos as well. He recorded several albums for Mercury and Roulette during the early '60s (his son Ed was the president of Mercury), and he appeared on Motown for a few standards albums during the mid-'60s. After recording very sparingly during the '70s, Eckstine made his last recording (Billy Eckstine Sings with Benny Carter) in 1986. He died of a heart attack in 1993.
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Discography:
1950 Billy Eckstine Sings
1952 Tenderly
1954 Blues for Sale
1954 Favorites
1954 I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart
1954 Songs by Billy Eckstine
1954 The Great Mr. B King
1954 The Love Songs of Mr. B
1955 I Surrender, Dear
1955 Mister B with a Beat
1955 Rendezvous
1955 That Old Feeling
1958 Billy Eckstine's Imagination
1958 Imagination
1958 Billy's Best!
1959 Basie and Eckstine, Inc.
1959 Billy and Sarah
1960 No Cover, No Minimum
1960 Once More With Feeling
1961 At Basin St. East [live]
1961 Billy Eckstine and Quincy Jones
1961 Broadway, Bongos and Mr. B
1962 Don't Worry 'bout Me
1964 12 Great Movies
1964 Modern Sound of Mr. B
1965 Prime of My Life Motown
1966 My Way Motown
1969 For Love of Ivy Motown
1970 Stormy
1971 Feel the Warm
1971 Moment Capitol
1972 Senior Soul
1974 If She Walked into My Life
1986 Billy Eckstine Sings with Benny Carter
1995 I Apologize
2002 How High the Moon
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