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 Isn’t 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 Don’t 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
CD Reviews
Avid AMSC 1131
