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BILLY ECKSTINE

Four Classic Albums Plus

Avid AMSC 1131

 

 

CD1

Sarah Vaughan and Billy Eckstine Sing The Best Of Irving Berlin

1. Alexander’s Ragtime Band

2. Isn’t This A Lovely Day( To Be Caught In The Rain)

3. I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm

4. All Of My Life

5. Cheek To Cheek

6. You’re Just In Love

7. Remember

8. Always

9. Easter Parade

Sarah Vaughan, Billy Eckstine - Vocals

Orchestra conducted and arrangements by Hal Mooney featuring Harry “Sweets” Edison

Billy Eckstine & Quincy Jones At Basin Street East

10. All Right, Okay, You Win

11. Introduction

12. Medley: I’m Falling For You/Fool That I Am/Everything I Have Is Yours

13. In The Still Of The Night

14. Introduction

15. Medley: Don’t Get Around Much Any More/I’m Just A Lucky So And So/Caravan/Sophisticated Lady

16. Work Song

17. Ma (She’s Making Eyes At Me)

Billy Eckstine - Vocals

Joe Newman, John Bellow, Jimmy Maxwell, Jimmy Nottingham - Trumpets

Curtis Fuller, Britt Woodman, Melba Liston, Paul Faulise - Trombones

Joe Lopes, Phil Woods, Jerome Richardson, Eric Dixon - Saxophones

Julius Watkins - French horn

Patti Brown - Piano

Les Spann - Guitar, flute

Art Davis - Bass

Stu Martin - Drums

No Cover, No Minimum

18. Have A Song On Me

19. I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face

20. Lady Luck

21. Lush Life

22. Without A song

23. Moonlight In Vermont

Billy Eckstine - Vocals

Bobby Tucker And His Orchestra

CD2

Basie/Eckstine Incorporated

1. Stormy Monday Blues

2. Lonesome Lover Blues

3. Blues, The Mother Of Sin

4. Jelly, Jelly

5. Don’t Cry Baby

6. Trav’lin All Alone

7. Little Mama

8. I Want A Little Girl

9. Drifting

10. Song Of The Wanderer

11. Piano Man

Billy Eckstine - Vocals

Thad Jones, Snooky Young, Wendell Culley, Joe Newman - Trumpets

Henry Coker, Al Grey, Benny Powell - Trombones

Marshall Royal, Frank Wess, Billy Mitchell, Frank Foster, Charlie Fowlkes - Saxes

Count Basie - Piano

Freddie Green - Guitar

George Duvivier - Bass

Sonny Payne - Drums

Once More With Feeling

12. Once More With Feeling

13. Stormy Weather

14. Cottage For Sale

15. Blues In The Night

16. I Hear a Rhapsody

17. As Time Goes By

18. That Old Black Magic

19. I Apologise

20. I Love You

21. With Every Breath I Take

22. Secret Love

23. I’m Beginning To See The Light

Billy Eckstine - Vocals

Orchestra conducted and arrangements by Billy May

Tracks 12, 14, 17, 19, 21, 22

Buddy Collette, Jules Jacob, Ronnie Lang - Reeds

Arthur Gleghorn - Flute

Vince De Rosa, Jack Cave, Jim Decker - French horns

Phil Stephens - Tuba

Bobby Gibbons - Guitar

Milt Raskin - Piano

Mike Rubin - Bass

Irv Cottler - Drums

Tracks 13, 15, 16, 18, 20, 23

Conrad Gozzo, Pete Candoli, Uan Rasey, Joe Triscari - Trumpets

Dick Noel, Lloyd Ulyate, Bill Schaefer, Ed Kusby - Trombones

Benny Carter, Wilbur Schwartz, Fred Falensby, Justin Gordon, Chuck Gentry - Reeds

Bobby Gibbons - Guitar

Jimmy Rowles - Piano

Red Callender - Bass

Irv Cottler - Drums

No Cover, No Minimum

24. ‘Deed I Do

Billy Eckstine - Vocals

Bobby Tucker And His Orchestra

From the mid-1940s to the mid-1950s, there may not have been a more popular male vocalist than Billy Eckstine. Hollywood handsome, with a rakish pencil-thin moustache, he possessed a gorgeous deep baritone voice coupled with a rich vibrato. He also had an impeccable fashion style and popularized the ubiquitous “Mr.B” collar which presented a rolled collar that formed a “B” over a Windsor-knotted tie. This Avid Jazz re-issue covers a period from the late 50s and early 60s when Billy Eckstine was somewhat out of fashion, but who nevertheless still possessed a dramatic voice and remained a skilled song stylist.

Sarah Vaughan and Billy Eckstine Sing The Best Of Irving Berlin

Billy Eckstine and Sarah Vaughan eventually did five albums together and this was one of the early ones. While it may have over-played the part of it being “the best” of Irving Berlin, and this edition only covers some of the original album, the session did have a number worthwhile highlights. In this period, Vaughan’s vocalizing was still straight-forward. She had yet to move into the style which characterized the latter part of her career that produced the overly dramatic vocal interpretations. Eckstine still had his creamy tone, and so together they were a well suited duet. Continuously integrating their voices, they are most effective on the more up-tempo tracks such as Isnt This A Lovely Day, I ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm and Cheek To Cheek where the arrangements don’t clog up the vocal interpretations. When the charts turn lugubrious on such items as Remember and Always, Vaughan and Eckstine sound as if they are wading through a bog.

Billy Eckstine & Quincy Jones At Basin Street East

This live session was recorded in October 1961 at Basin Street East which now exists only in the memory banks of New Yorkers. Then, however, it was one of the top night spots in NYC and Eckstine was in full voice backed by a fifteen-piece band led by Quincy Jones, who also arranged the charts. All of the tracks are pure Eckstine but there are several that really epitomize his vocal style. Firstly there is a medley of ballads that includes I m Falling For You, Fool That I Am, and Everything I Have Is Yours . Here he milks the lyrics with his rich baritone, which surely must have made hearts flutter. The other is a set of Duke Ellington tunes which were made all the more interesting because the Duke was in the audience for the performance. Included were Dont Get Around Much Anymore, I m Just A Lucky So And So, Caravan and Sophisticated Lady. Each one was done with taste and affection but the swinging Latin-flavoured version of Caravan was quite special. In fact, in his autobiography Music Is My Mistress Duke Ellington wrote this about Eckstine: ”when he made a recording of Caravan I was happy and honoured to watch one of our tunes help take him into the stratosphere of universal acclaim.”

No Cover, No Minimum

This was another live recording from a Las Vegas performance in 1960. This version includes only part of the original album and is the Plus of Four Classic Albums of this reissue. Trying to corral the interest of a casino-full of high rollers is no easy task, but Eckstine does his best by offering material that was a combination of sentimental ballads and up-tempo numbers. Two of note are Lady Luck and Deed I Do where Eckstine rips off a couple of choruses of his trumpet style. He was, of course, a highly regarded trumpeter in the Earl Hines Band of the early 40s, and in his own bop-infused band of 1944 to 1947.

Basie/Eckstine Incorporated

This is a one-off Billy Eckstine session from mid-1959 that featured the Count Basie New Statement band using charts from Quincy Jones, Budd Johnson and Bobby Tucker, who was Eckstine’s everyday musical director. With this first-rate band for support, Eckstine delves into a couple of tunes from his time with the Earl Hines Band, namely Stormy Monday Blues and his own Jelly Jelly. While certainly not a singer in the classic blues tradition, Eckstine still had a feel for the genre and, with his marvellous baritone, he is a compelling story-teller. An interesting side note to Stormy Monday Blues in that it has neither stormy nor Monday in the lyrics. All in all, this was probably one of the best albums that Eckstine recorded in his career and is the gem of this collection.

Once More With Feeling

Trying to recapture the person you used to be, is often like trying to trap lightning in a bottle. In this album, the Eckstine voice is still there with all its warmth and honeyed vibrato; regrettably the audience for nostalgia may have moved on. In this bifurcated offering, Eckstine is burdened by Billy May’s arrangements which on half the tunes are so laden with string fills that he has to work doubly hard to overcome their mushiness. So despite the fact that Eckstine reprises some of his biggest hits such as Cottage For Sale, I Hear A Rhapsody, and I Apologise, the arrangements do him in. However, when the band uses the May arrangements that do not have the strings, Eckstine doesn’t have to strain his voice and is on solid footing with songs like Stormy Weather, Blues In The Night and especially That Old Black Magic.

In an interview with Billboard magazine, Quincy Jones offered the following citation about Billy Eckstine that captures what he represented to the music business: ”I looked up to Mr. B as an idol. I wanted to dress like him, talk like him, pattern my whole life as a musician, and as a complete person, in the image of dignity that he projected.”

Pierre Giroux

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