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Billy Eckstine

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Billy Eckstine was an American jazz and pop singer and bandleader from the swing and bebop years. He was born on 8 July 1914 in Pittsburgh and grew up partly in Washington, D.C. In 1933 he left Howard University to become a musician, after winning an amateur contest at the Howard Theatre with an imitation of Cab Calloway. In 1939 he joined the orchestra of Earl Hines in Chicago, where until 1943 he was singer and trumpeter and had jukebox hits such as Stormy Monday Blues and his own Jelly, Jelly.

Music and breakthrough

In 1944 he founded his own big band. That group was regarded as the first bebop big band and became a training ground for young musicians who shaped the future of jazz: Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Fats Navarro and Sarah Vaughan. Dizzy Gillespie later wrote that no band sounded like Eckstine's. The orchestra reached the charts with A Cottage for Sale and Prisoner of Love. In 1947 Eckstine went solo, with lush orchestrations. His 1951 recording of I Apologize was given a place in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999, and in 2019 he received a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Influence

Eckstine had a rich, almost operatic bass-baritone. The New York Times wrote that his full, sweet way of singing inspired singers such as Johnny Hartman, Joe Williams and Lou Rawls. He belongs to the singers who joined jazz and popular music, and his orchestra brought bebop to a large audience.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to I Apologize from 1951 and notice his voice, which sounds deep and full. Try to hear how he lets long notes ring out, like an opera singer, without the song becoming heavy.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

See also

Categories: Artists