Results for "Billy Eckstine"
About Billy Eckstine
Instrument: Voice / vocals
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Billy Eckstine
Born:
By the time he reached his peak popularity in 1950, he rivaled Frank Sinatra as the country's most popular vocalist. In fact he was dubbed "the sepia Sinatra," although he was known most often as "Mr. B." Billy Eckstine was a smooth singer also noted as a premier jazz bandleader in the 1940s, gathering many of the performers in the innovative bebop style into a unique large band. Born William Clarence Eckstein in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1914, Eckstine had the spelling of his name changed early in his career by a club owner. The family moved to Washington, D.C. Eckstine's parents stressed education, and he graduated from Washington's Armstrong High School
Kent Engelhardt & Stephen Enos: Madd For Tadd
by Jack Bowers
The masterworks on this second edition of Madd for Tadd are presented on two discs, one of which bears the name of one of composer/pianist Tadd Dameron's classic themes, “Our Delight." Oddly, the other is named for the only non-Dameronian item on the menu, “Central Avenue Swing," written by saxophonist and Dameron chronicler Kent Engelhardt who ...
The Jazz Education of Ian Shaw
by Mathew Bahl
A few notable exceptions aside, great jazz musicians are not born; they are created. Most young musicians start by absorbing the work of important influences and then, through practice and live performance, decide what to keep, what to modify and what to discard. Ultimately, originality is less a byproduct of inspiration and more the end result ...
Mary Stallings: Songs Were Made to Sing
by Dave Linn
One of eleven children, Mary Stallings was born in San Francisco in 1939. In her teens, she began singing in San Francisco night clubs and performed with Ben Webster, Earl Hines, Red Mitchell, Teddy Edwards, and Wes Montgomery. Before graduating from high school, she joined R&B singer Louis Jordan's Tympani Five. In the early '60s, she ...
Marjorie Barnes & Millennium Jazz Orchestra: Both Sides Now
by Jack Bowers
Marjorie Barnes, a native New Yorker who has been living in Europe for almost fifty years including several decades in the Netherlands, summons her many years of experience to brighten and embroider Both Sides Now, her impressive debut recording with the world-class Millennium Jazz Orchestra (MJO). Barnes sang in the mid-1970s with the multiple Grammy Award-winning ...
Matt Mitchell, Mark Murphy, Gregg Bendian and Others
by Jerome Wilson
This show features out-there music from Matt Mitchell and Janel Leppin, elastic vocals from Mark Murphy and June Tyson, and a tribute to comics creator Jack Kirby from percussionist Gregg Bendian. Playlist Henry Threadgill Sextett “I Can't Wait Till I Get Home" from The Complete Novus & Columbia Recordings of Henry Threadgill & Air ...
Ahmad Jamal: In his Own Sense of Time and Place
by Josef Woodard
This interview first appeared in the Santa Barbara News-Press on October 2005. The introduction has been updated. For the late, great and uniquely poetic pianist Ahmad Jamal, who passed on at age 92 on April 16, 2023, easy descriptors never sufficed in capturing his particular magic. He was a classicist, a modernist, a minimalist ...
Remembering Ahmad Jamal: Finished But Not Never
by Ian Patterson
Ahmad Jamal, the quiet pioneer of jazz piano has died aged 92, after a battle with prostate cancer. He passed away on Sunday, 16 April, according to a statement from his daughter, Sumayah Jamal. In a career that spanned the 1940s to the 2020s, Jamal always followed his own musical instincts. He was one ...
Ahmad Jamal: Forward Momentum
by Ian Patterson
In memory of the venerable Ahmad Jamal. This article was first published on All About Jazz on July 6, 2010. Ahmad Jamal, possibly the most influential of living jazz pianists, turned 80 years young on July 2, 2010. It is however, business as usual and instead of celebrating at home in his slippers, Jamal ...
Bob Perkins: The Art of Listening
by Victor L. Schermer
This article was first published in November 2009. Bob is without a doubt an NEA Jazz Master. Please nominate him for an NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship. “It's BP with the GM!" That's how the famed and venerable jazz disc jockey Bob Perkins signs on the air, with the code for “Bob Perkins with the ...
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