Billy Eckstine - Everything I Have Is Yours: The Best Of The MGM Years (2-Disc Set)

This two-CD set improves upon the original two-LP package by adding 14 more songs. The pop side of Billy Eckstine was emphasized during his period with MGM and many of these selections (including hit versions of "Everything I Have Is Yours," "Blue Moon," "Caravan," "My Foolish Heart," and "I Apologize") feature his warm baritone backed by string sections. There are some exceptions, including "Mr. B's Blues" (which gives Eckstine a chance to solo on valve trombone), dates with Woody Herman and George Shearing, eight numbers on which the singer is accompanied by the Bobby Tucker Quartet, and a pair of wonderful performances with the Metronome All-Stars in 1953 (a group that includes trumpeter Roy Eldridge, both Lester Young and Warne Marsh on tenors, and vibraphonist Terry Gibbs). Although not as essential from the jazz standpoint as Billy Eckstine's earlier big-band dates, this two-fer features the singer at the peak of his powers; five ballad duets with Sarah Vaughan are a highlight. ~Scott Yanow

Album: Everything I Have Is Yours: The Best Of The MGM Years (Disc 1)
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 58:08
Size: 133.1 MB
Styles: Standards, Vocal jazz
Year: 1994/2002

[3:12] 1. Everything I Have Is Yours
[2:58] 2. Fools Rush In
[3:09] 3. Blue Moon
[2:27] 4. Mr. B's Blues
[2:54] 5. Temptation
[3:12] 6. Somehow
[2:48] 7. Caravan
[3:12] 8. Bewildered
[2:53] 9. Body And Soul
[3:02] 10. My Foolish Heart
[2:56] 11. Ev'ry Day (I Fall In Love)
[2:38] 12. Fools Rush In
[2:43] 13. Dedicated To You
[3:04] 14. You're All I Need
[2:55] 15. I Wanna Be Loved
[2:37] 16. You've Got Me Crying Again
[3:00] 17. I've Never Been In Love Before
[2:51] 18. I Apologize
[2:47] 19. You're All I Need
[2:40] 20. I Left My Hat In Haiti

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Album: Everything I Have Is Yours: The Best Of The MGM Years (Disc 2)
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 74:25
Size: 170.4 MB
Styles: Standards, Vocal jazz
Year: 1994/2002
Art: Front

[3:08] 1. Here Comes The Blues
[2:41] 2. Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries
[2:52] 3. Wonder Why
[3:05] 4. Blue Moon
[2:37] 5. Taking A Chance On Love
[3:07] 6. You're Driving Me Crazy (What Did I Do )
[3:17] 7. Early Autumn
[3:40] 8. Temptation
[3:36] 9. One For My Baby (And One More For The Road)
[3:23] 10. If You Could See Me Now
[3:40] 11. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
[3:15] 12. Laura
[3:30] 13. Mister, You've Gone And Got The Blues
[3:37] 14. Ill Wind
[3:05] 15. April In Paris
[3:06] 16. Coquette
[2:55] 17. Send My Baby Back To Me
[5:19] 18. How High The Moon Pts. 1 & 2
[6:18] 19. St. Louis Blues, Pts. 1 & 2
[2:30] 20. Don't Get Around Much Anymore
[2:56] 21. Lost In Loveliness
[2:37] 22. Passing Strangers

Everything I Have Is Yours: The Best Of The MGM Years (Disc 1, Disc 2)

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Billy Eckstine - Broadway Bongos and Mr. B

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2014
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 32:26
Size: 75,8 MB
Art: Front

(2:22)  1. From This Moment On
(2:06)  2. I Could Write a Book
(2:49)  3. If Ever I Would Leave You
(2:57)  4. I've Got You Under My Skin
(3:06)  5. Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'
(2:45)  6. Tonight
(2:24)  7. Stranger in Paradise
(2:17)  8. Get Out of Town
(2:56)  9. Old Devil Moon
(2:45) 10. On the Street Where You Live
(2:44) 11. There's a Small Hotel
(3:09) 12. Something I Dreamed Last Night

Broadway, Bongos and Mr. B is a 1961 studio album by the American singer Billy Eckstine. It was arranged by Hal Mooney, and marked Eckstine's return to Roulette Records. The album features Latin tinged arrangements of popular Broadway show tunes, with a percussion section of xylophones, marimbas and bongos. In their July 1961 review of Broadway, Bongos and Mr. B, Billboard magazine wrote that "This is one of the best albums made by Billy Eckstine in many years", and that he was "singing with confidence again in his own style". The review concluded that it was "A strong new album that could help win back many of Mr. B's fans". This was the third of Eckstine's Mercury Records albums to use the same photograph of him. It had previously graced the covers of Billy's Best! (1958) and Billy Eckstine's Imagination (1958). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadway,_Bongos_and_Mr._B

Personnel:  Billy Eckstine - vocals; Hal Mooney - arranger, conductor

Broadway Bongos and Mr. B

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Billy Eckstine & Quincy Jones - At Basin Street East

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 31:55
Size: 73.1 MB
Styles: Big band, Jazz vocals
Year: 1961/2005
Art: Front

[ 2:46] 1. All Right Okay You Win
[ 8:00] 2. I'm Falling For You (Medley)
[ 3:49] 3. In The Still Of The Night
[10:35] 4. Don't Get Around Much Anymore (Medley)
[ 3:58] 5. Work Song
[ 2:45] 6. Ma (She's Making Eyes At Me)

At Basin Street East is a 1961 live album by Billy Eckstine, accompanied by a big band arranged and conducted by Quincy Jones. It was originally released on October 1, 1961 on the EmArcy label, but reissued in 1990 by Polygram. The album was recorded at the Basin Street East nightclub in New York City.

At Basin Street East mc
At Basin Street East zippy

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Billy Eckstine - Greatest Hits

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 48:08
Size: 110.2 MB
Styles: Vocal, Easy Listening
Year: 2011
Art: Front

[2:55] 1. I Apologise
[2:59] 2. Love Me Or Leave Me
[6:19] 3. St. Louis Blues, Pt. 1 & 2
[3:08] 4. Here Comes The Blues
[2:43] 5. Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries
[3:42] 6. Tenderly
[2:37] 7. Taking A Chance On Love
[3:14] 8. Everything I Have Is Yours
[5:22] 9. How High The Moon
[3:17] 10. Laura
[3:07] 11. You're Driving Me Crazy
[3:09] 12. No One But You
[2:41] 13. I Left My Hat In Haiti
[2:47] 14. As Long As I Live

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 straight-ahead 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). ~John Bush

Greatest Hits mc
Greatest Hits zippy

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Billy Eckstine - The Modern Sound Of Mr. B

Styles: Vocal
Year: 1964
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 34:56
Size: 81,8 MB
Art: Front

(2:28)  1. Mister Kicks
(3:40)  2. People
(3:12)  3. Satin Doll
(3:24)  4. A Beautiful Friendship
(2:29)  5. Wives and Lovers
(2:24)  6. What Are You Afraid Of
(1:55)  7. Sweet Georgia Brown
(2:46)  8. A Garden In The Rain
(4:05)  9. Wouldn't It Be Loverly
(3:00) 10. Poor Fool
(2:45) 11. Our Once Happy Love
(2:43) 12. Wanted

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 straight-ahead 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 straight-ahead 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 group, 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. ~ John Bush http://www.allmusic.com/artist/billy-eckstine-mn0000082584/biography

Thank You, Scoredaddy!

The Modern Sound Of Mr. B

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Count Basie & Friends - 100th Birthday Bash (2-Disc Set)

Count Basie, piano, with seven orchestras, three smaller groups (complete personnel in booklet) and special guests Tony Bennett, Benny Carter, Nat "King" Cole, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, "Wild Bill" Davis, Billy Eckstine, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Neal Hefti, Illinois Jacquet, Quincy Jones, Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, Irene Reid, Sarah Vaughan, Ben Webster, Joe Williams.

To honor the hundredth anniversary of the birth of the incomparable Count Basie (August 21, 1904), Roulette Records has gone to the vaults and unearthed recordings made by the Basie Orchestra and smaller groups spanning the years 1957-62 when the Count was working for Roulette. All of the material on the two-disc set was previously issued, either on albums or as singles, and there are guest artists on a number of tracks (hence the title Basie & Friends ).

Neal Hefti was Basie's right-hand man at the time, and he's well-represented with four of his classic tunes, "Whirly Bird," "Li'l Darlin'," "Cute" and "Splanky" (but not "The Kid from Red Bank"). The band's regular singer, Joe Williams, is heard from on half a dozen numbers (including one of his signatures, "Ev'ry Day I Have the Blues"), and there are other vocals by Lambert, Hendricks & Ross ("Jumpin'at the Woodside," with Williams on "Goin' to Chicago"), Nat King Cole ("I Want a Little Girl," "The Late Late Show"), Sarah Vaughan ("Until I Met You," dueting with Williams on "Teach Me Tonight" and "If I Were a Bell"), Billy Eckstine ("Lonesome Lover Blues," "Jelly Jelly"), Irene Reid ("Untouchable") and Tony Bennett ("I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face," "Jeepers Creepers"). Trumpeter Harry "Sweets" Edison is the guest soloist on "One O'Clock Jump," while tenor saxophonists Ben Webster (Basie's "Blue and Sentimental"), Illinois Jacquet ("She's Funny That Way") and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis ("Farouk," "Save Your Love for Me") are heard in small-group settings. Quincy Jones wrote the seductive blues "For Lena and Lennie," among the highlights on disc one.

Breaking it down, there are fifteen vocal tracks, thirteen instrumental. That may not suit everyone, but at least the singers are first-rate. The overall sound is satisfactory too, although it does vary slightly from track to track, while the playing times (51:01, 47:26) are on the lee side of generous. A fairly adequate mélange for those who may have missed these episodes the first time around. ~Jack Bowers

Album: 100th Birthday Bash (Disc 1)
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 50:54
Size: 116.6 MB
Styles: Big band
Year: 2004
Art: Front

[3:51] 1. Whirly-Bird
[4:12] 2. Goin' To Chicago Blues
[3:14] 3. Cute
[2:50] 4. I Want A Little Girl (Feat. Nat King Cole)
[2:51] 5. Teach Me Tonight
[2:52] 6. The Late, Late Show
[3:10] 7. Lonesome Lover Blues (Feat. Billy Eckstine)
[3:35] 8. Blue And Sentimental
[3:54] 9. Trav'lin' Light
[5:25] 10. Farouk (Feat. Eddie 'Lockjaw' Davis)
[3:50] 11. For Lena And Lennie
[3:17] 12. Untouchable
[4:44] 13. Every Day I Have The Blues
[3:03] 14. I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face (Feat. Tony Bennett)

100th Birthday Bash (Disc 1)

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Album: 100th Birthday Bash (Disc 2)
Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 47:18
Size: 108.3 MB
Styles: Big band
Year: 2004
Art: Front

[3:21] 1. Jumpin' At The Woodside
[4:50] 2. Li'l Darlin'
[2:44] 3. If I Were A Bell
[3:36] 4. Splanky
[2:57] 5. Ain't No Use
[2:52] 6. Until I Met You (Feat. Sarah Vaughan)
[3:16] 7. (I Got A Woman, Crazy For Me) She's Funny That Way
[2:34] 8. The Late, Late Show (Feat. Nat King Cole)
[2:09] 9. Jeepers Creepers
[3:04] 10. Jelly, Jelly (Feat. Billy Eckstine)
[4:24] 11. Katy-Do
[3:59] 12. Save Your Love For Me (Feat. Eddie 'Lockjaw' Davis)
[3:37] 13. April In Paris
[3:47] 14. One O'clock Jump

100th Birthday Bash (Disc 2)

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Various Artists - When Love Goes Wrong: Songs for the Broken-Hearted

Styles: Jazz, Vocal
Year: 2003
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 51:26
Size: 118,8 MB
Art: Front

(3:28)  1. Billie Holiday - Good Morning Heartache
(2:26)  2. Chet Baker - Born to Be Blue
(3:36)  3. Johnny Hartman - It Never Entered My Mind
(3:11) 4. Little Jimmy Scott - Everybody's Somebody's Fool
(3:15)  5. Peggy Lee - Woman Alone With the Blues
(3:30)  6. Beverly Kenney - A Woman's Intuition
(3:42)  7. Frank D'Rone - Everything Happens to Me
(5:38)  8. Shirley Horn - I Fall in Love Too Easily
(2:40)  9. Helen Merrill - Here's That Rainy Day
(3:40) 10. Arthur Prysock - I'm Through with Love
(2:40) 11. Dinah Washington - I'm a Fool to Want You
(2:41) 12. Billy Eckstine - What Will I Tell My Heart?
(3:25) 13. Sarah Vaughan - But Not for Me
(2:14) 14. Ella Fitzgerald - Reaching for the Moon
(5:13) 15. Mel Tormé - Gloomy Sunday

Bill Maher (as in Politically Incorrect) once stated that marriage is a lot like communism--it sounds great on paper, but in reality, it doesn't work. That's a very cynical view of romance; some marriages do work, and they work well. But at the same, one can certainly understand where Maher is coming from half of American marriages, after all, end in divorce, and many couples never even make it to the alter. Those unsuccessful relationships are the focus of When Love Goes Wrong: Songs for the Broken-Hearted, a thoughtfully assembled collection of vocal jazz and torch singing that spans 1950-1997. 

The front cover boasts an illustration that recalls the classic film noir and pulp fiction of the ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s an attractive blonde who just blew away her lover is led away in handcuffs, while a hat-wearing hard-boiled detective (à la Dana Andrews' character in Laura) nonchalantly puffs away on a cigarette. It's the perfect cover for a compilation that paints a dark, troubled picture of romance thanks to melancholy performances by heavyweights like Dinah Washington on "I'm a Fool to Want You," Chet Baker on "Born to Be Blue" and Jimmy Scott on "Everybody's Somebody's Fool". Shirley Horn's soulful version of "I Fall in Love Too Easily" is from 1997, although the rest of the selections are from the ‘50s and ‘60s. If one wanted to nit-pick, it would be easy to complain about the fact that Verve doesn't include any versions of Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life" (one of the darkest jazz pearls ever written). 

Also, Verve should have provided Billie Holiday's original 1946 recording of "Good Morning Heartache" instead of the 1956 version that opens this CD Lady Day sounded a lot better in 1946. Nonetheless, this generally rewarding, if imperfect, compilation is enthusiastically recommended to anyone who craves expressive, heartfelt torch singing. ~ Alex Henderson  http://www.allmusic.com/album/when-love-goes-wrong-songs-for-the-broken-hearted-mw0000663806

When Love Goes Wrong: Songs for the Broken-Hearted

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Stan Hasselgard - California Sessions

Styles: Vocal And Clarinet Jazz

Year: 2010

File: MP3@320K/s

Time: 76:46

Size: 176,8 MB

Art: Front

(2:53)  1. Gotta Have More Money

(3:13)  2. Hortense

(2:35)  3. Flying Foam

(2:34)  4. Gone After You

(3:02)  5. Swedish Pastry

(2:46)  6. Sweet And Hop Mop

(2:51)  7. Who Sleeps

(2:58)  8. I'll Never Be The Same

(4:26)  9. Indiana

(2:42) 10. Swedish Pastry

(1:07) 11. Greetings To Sweden

(0:55) 12. One O'clock Jump

(4:14) 13. C Jam Blues

(2:33) 14. I Never Loved Anyone

(3:37) 15. What Is This Thing Called Love

(6:16) 16. Jam Session At Jubilee

(1:35) 17. Who's Sorry Now

(1:30) 18. One O'clock Jump

(5:11) 19. Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone

(3:07) 20. Jelly

(5:42) 21. Blues For Billy

(4:54) 22. Just You, Just Me

(2:40) 23. Sweet And Hot Mop

(3:14) 24. I'll Never Be The Same

Greatly influenced by Benny Goodman, Stan Hasselgård was an ill-fated Swedish clarinetist who focused on swing in the late '30s and '40s, but started exploring bebop toward the end of his life. In fact, he was among the first musicians to play bop on the clarinet. The jazzman was born Ake Hasselgård in Sundsvall, Sweden, but grew up in the small town of Bollnas. Hasselgård was given a clarinet for his 16th birthday. At 19, while he was attending the University of Uppsala in Uppsala, Sweden, he joined a small group called the Royal Swingers. Hasselgård joined bassist Arthur Osterwall's quintet in 1945, which was also the year in which he helped form a new Royal Swingers lineup. By the mid-'40s, the clarinetist had become well-known in Swedish jazz circles, and 1946-1947 found him being featured prominently on recordings by the Swingers, as well as the sextet of bassist Simon Brehm.

By July 1947, Hasselgård was living in New York, where he sat in with Jack Teagarden at the Famous Door on the legendary 52nd Street not long after his arrival. Then in 1948, Hasselgård got a chance to play and record with his idol, Benny Goodman, who employed the Swede in a two-clarinet septet that also included Mary Lou Williams and Wardell Gray. It was also in 1948 that Hasselgård employed American musicians on some small-group recordings of his own and headlined the 52nd Street club called the Three Deuces, where he had a quintet that boasted Max Roach on drums. On the opening night of his Deuces engagement in October 1948, he was billed as "the Bebop King of Sweden" and found that none other than Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie were in the audience. Hasselgård's last recording sessions came on November 18, 1948. Four days later, on November 22, he was killed in an auto accident in Decatur, IL, at the age of 26. ~ Alex Henderson http://www.allmusic.com/artist/stan-hasselg%C3%A5rd-mn0000743950/biography

Personnel: Stan Hasselgard - clarinet & vocal #1;  Johnny White - vibraphone & piano;  Red Norvo - Vibraphone;   Arnold Ross, Jimmie Rowles Dodo Marmarosa - piano;   Wardell Gray - tenor sax;  Guy Scalisi, Barney Kessel, Al Hendrickson - guitar;   Rollo Garberg, Harry Babasin, Billy Hadnott - bass; Frank Bode, Jackie Mills, Don Lamond - drums; Frances Wayne & Billy Eckstine - vocal.

California Sessions

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Benny Carter, Billy Eckstine - Billy Eckstine Sings With Benny Carter

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s

Time: 50:32

Size: 115.7 MB

Styles: Vocal jazz, Standards

Year: 1988/2013

Art: Front

[5:22] 1. You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To

[3:32] 2. My Funny Valentine

[3:51] 3. Here's That Rainy Day

[3:52] 4. Summertime

[3:52] 5. A Kiss From You

[3:45] 6. Memories Of You

[4:40] 7. I've Got The World On A String

[3:51] 8. Now That I Need You

[4:39] 9. Over The Rainbow

[3:56] 10. September Song

[3:43] 11. My Name

[5:24] 12. Didn't We

Billy Eckstine's final recording (although he would live until 1993) finds the 72-year old singer showing his age. Mr. B's famous baritone voice at this late date only hints at his earlier greatness although his phrasing and enthusiasm uplift what could have been a depressing affair. Ironically altoist Benny Carter (who was 79) still sounds in his prime on alto and he takes an effective trumpet solo on "September Song." Singer Helen Merrill opens and closes the set by interacting vocally with Eckstine on "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To" and "Didn't We." Eckstine, backed by a trio headed by his longtime pianist Bobby Tucker, does his best on such songs as "My Funny Valentine," "Memories of You" and "Autumn Leaves" but his earlier recordings are the ones to get. ~Scott Yanow

Billy Eckstine Sings With Benny Carter    

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Billy Eckstine - Mr B & The Band: The Savoy Sessions

Styles: Jazz, Big Band
Year: 1995
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 77:39
Size: 178,8 MB
Art: Front

(2:45)  1. Lonesome Lover Blues
(3:06)  2. Long, Long Journey
(2:32)  3. I Only Have Eyes for You
(2:44)  4. You're My Everything
(2:53)  5. The Jitney Man
(2:58)  6. Blue
(2:55)  7. Second Balcony Jump
(2:54)  8. Tell Me, Pretty Baby
(2:20)  9. Love Is the Thing
(2:50) 10. Without a Song
(2:50) 11. Cool Breeze
(2:46) 12. A Cottage for Sale
(2:53) 13. Don't Take Your Love from Me
(3:01) 14. Oop Bop Sh'bam
(2:58) 15. Oop Bop Sh'bam - Alternate Version
(2:51) 16. In the Still of the Night
(3:16) 17. Jelly, Jelly
(2:48) 18. My Silent Love
(3:18) 19. Time On My Hands
(2:35) 20. All the Things You Are
(2:48) 21. I Love the Rhythm In a Riff
(3:02) 22. Last Night
(2:52) 23. Prisoner of Love
(2:50) 24. It Ain't Like That
(2:53) 25. I'm In the Mood for Love
(2:59) 26. You Call It Madness (But I Call It Love)
(2:48) 27. All I Sing Blues

Unlike other big-band singers who regarded the other musicians in the orchestra as little more than backup to their generally sugarcoated stylings, Billy Eckstine was a man with wide-ranging tastes and a musicality he brought to everything he lent his honeyed baritone voice to. When it was time for him to start his own band to capitalize on his growing fame, he didn't settle for hiring some hacks to read charts framed around his vocals. Instead, he put together what is now, in hindsight, the first big band to feature almost exclusively young, emerging bop players. Both "Bird" and "Diz" did time in the band and, at one time or another, Eckstine featured Sonny Stitt, Dexter Gordon, Wardell Gray, Lucky Thompson, Fats Navarro, Miles Davis, and Kenny Dorham on his bandstand. The band was far, far ahead of its time, appealing more to musicians than white America, but making extraordinary music nonetheless. 

This single-disc collection brings together a delightful batch of tunes that band recorded for the tiny National label between 1945 and the following year. With Art Blakey, Tommy Potter, and Leo Parker also in the lineup, this is no nostalgic "remember the big bands" anthology by any stretch of the imagination, and Eckstine's vocals on "A Cottage for Sale," "Prisoner of Love," and "I'm in the Mood for Love" are every bit as fine as the band's two takes of Gillespie's "Oo Bop Sh'Bam." Originally a 32-track, two-disc vinyl album set, the compact disc configuration lops off the last five tunes from that original collection due to time restrictions. ~ Cub Koda  http://www.allmusic.com/album/mister-b-and-the-band-the-savoy-sessions-mw0000197210

Mr B & The Band: The Savoy Sessions

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Billy Eckstine - Momento Brasileiro

Styles: Vocal
Year: 1979
File: MP3@224K/s
Time: 34:22
Size: 55,4 MB
Art: Front

(4:07)  1. Cidade Maravilhosa
(3:11)  2. I Apologize
(3:19)  3. Corcovado
(3:05)  4. Where Or When
(3:42)  5. Dindi
(4:25)  6. Dora
(4:41)  7. Vivo Sonhando
(4:50)  8. Você e  Eu
(2:58)  9. Insensatez

One of the most distinctive of all ballad singers, Eckstine was both a pivotal figure in the history of jazz (because of his commitment to bebop) and the first black singer to achieve lasting success in the pop mainstream. After winning a talent contest in 1930 by imitating Cab Calloway, Eckstine sang briefly with Tommy Myles’ band, before returning to college.  On the recommendation of composer and tenor saxophonist Buddy Johnson he joined Earl Hines’ band in 1939 as singer and  occasionally  playing  trumpet  and in turn  encouraged  Hines to sign up Charlie Parker and Sarah Vaughan. Eckstine’s recordings with the band include ‘Stormy Monday Blues’ and his own ‘Jelly Jelly’. In 1943, he quit to go solo but in 1944 formed his own big band, a modern swing band committed almost exclusively to bebop, to the point where Eckstine’s stylized vocals regularly took second place to the playing of Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Art Blakey, Charlie Parker, Fats Navarro, Gene Ammons and Kenny Dorham, among others. 

The band was badly recorded and badly managed and in 1947 Eckstine folded it to go solo. However, the support Eckstine gave bop musicians at that time was crucial. Even before folding his band, Eckstine had recorded solo to support it, scoring two million-sellers in 1945 with ‘Cottage for Sale’ and a revival of ‘Prisoner of Love’. Far more successful than his band recordings, though more mannered and pompously sung, these prefigured Eckstine’s future career. Where before black bands had played ballads, jazz and dance music, in the immediate post-war years they had to choose. Lacking an interest in the blues and frustrated by the failure of his big band, Eckstine, at first reluctantly, turned to ballads. Henceforth his successes would be in the pop charts. 

In 1947, he was one of the first signings to the newly established MGM Records and had immediate hits with revivals of ‘Everything I Have Is Yours’ (1947), Richard Rodgers’ and Lorenz Hart’s ‘Blue Moon’ (1948), and Duke Ellington’s, Irving Mills and Juan Tizol’s ‘Caravan’ (1949). He had further success in 1950 with Victor Young’s theme song to ‘My Foolish Heart’ and a revival of the 1931 Bing Crosby hit, ‘I Apologize’. However, unlike Nat ‘King’ Cole who followed him into the pop charts, Eckstine’s singing, especially his exaggerated vibrato, sounded increasingly mannered and he was unable to sustain his recording success throughout the decade. His best record of the fifties was the thrilling duet with Sarah Vaughan, ‘Passing Strangers’, a minor hit in 1957. Eckstine later concentrated on live appearances, regularly crossing the world, and recorded only intermittently. In 1967, he briefly joined Motown and in 1981 recorded the impressive ‘Something More’. ~ Bio  http://www.vervemusicgroup.com/billyeckstine

Momento Brasileiro

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Billy Eckstine - Prisoner Of Love

Bitrate: 320K/s

Time: 43:27

Size: 99.5 MB

Styles: Vocal

Year: 2006

Art: Front

[2:48] 1. One For My Baby (And One More For The Road)

[2:51] 2. Sophisticated Lady

[2:58] 3. She's Got The Blues For Sale

[3:15] 4. Jelly, Jelly

[2:45] 5. Lonesome Lover Blues

[2:54] 6. Tell Me Pretty Baby

[2:50] 7. Without A Song

[2:50] 8. Cool Breeze

[2:49] 9. Serenade In Blue

[3:01] 10. Oop Bop Sh'bam

[2:51] 11. Ev'ry Day (I Fall In Love)

[2:50] 12. Solitude

[2:50] 13. It Ain't Like That No More

[2:52] 14. Prisoner Of Love

[2:55] 15. Second Balcony Jump

This 15-track set puts together some amazing performances by Billy Eckstine's band from the early '40s when he was leading one of the more intense, smoking bands on the scene. Some of his players during these years included Fats Navarro, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Dexter Gordon, and Kenny Dorham, just to name a few. The Eckstine band was sophisticated, jumping, and they swung like mad no matter the tune. Here, of course, the emphasis is on Eckstine's vocals, his smooth as silk baritone that could sing a ballad like Duke Ellington's "Sophisticated Lady," or a deep swinging blues by Doc Pomus ("She Got the Blues for Sale"). There's scat, solid jazz balladry, and jumping, tough-hitting blues here. Highly recommended. ~Thom Jurek

Prisoner Of Love

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