jazz musician; singer; bandleader
Personal Information
Born William Clarence Eckstein on July 8, 1914, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; died March 8, 1993; son of William and Charlotte Eckstein; married, 1942; children: seven.
Education: Attended St. Paul Normal and Industrial School, suburban Washington, D.C., and Howard University, Washington, D.C.
Career
Jazz vocalist and bandleader. Began performing as a singer after winning talent contest, 1934; featured vocalist, Earl Hines Orchestra, 1939-43; first substantial hit, "Jelly, Jelly," 1940; founder and leader, Billy Eckstine Band, 1944-46; solo vocalist, 1946-93; top-selling performer in MGM company catalog, 1950; recorded jazz-oriented material for Mercury label, late 1950s.
Life's Work
Before the black pop male sex symbol was a seemingly permanent fixture of American culture, long before Teddy Pendergrass, Prince, and R. Kelly, there was Billy Eckstine. In the early years of Eckstine's career it was still a novelty for black and white performers to share the same stage, but by the time he reached his peak popularity around 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." Eckstine was also noted as a 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, on July 8, 1914, Eckstine had the spelling of his name changed early in his career by a club owner who thought, ironically enough, that the original spelling held unfavorable Jewish connotations. Later the family moved to Washington, D.C. Eckstine's parents stressed education, and he graduated from Washington's Armstrong High School. He began to sing when he was 11, but was a gifted football player in high school and aspired to a sports career for a time.
Won Talent Contest
Eckstine went on to college, first at a vocational school outside Washington, D.C. and then at the city's Howard University. A first-place finish in a talent contest at a Washington theater put an end to his educational career, however; he dropped out of school to sing full time. At first he appeared in and around Washington, D.C., but had moved to Chicago by 1937. Pianist and bandleader Earl Hines, whose band was second only to that of Duke Ellington among African American dance ensembles of the day, hired Eckstine as his lead vocalist in 1939. During a four-year stint with Hines, Eckstine broadened his vocal skills, learned to play the trumpet, and met many of the jazz players who were experimenting with wildly new styles in the unsettled commercial environment during World War II.
All this made for ideal training as Eckstine dreamed of starting a band of his own. He notched several hits with Hines, the first of which was the bluesy "Jelly, Jelly" of 1940. When he introduced the song "Skylark" on a network radio program, he was the first African American vocalist to premiere a mainstream pop song on the radio. In 1943 Eckstine was ready to launch his own group, the Billy Eckstine Band. He put together a group of the most talented young players he encountered, and the roster would read like an account of the performers who would dominate jazz over the next two decades. Among those who passed through Eckstine's band were Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Navarro, Gene Ammons, Dexter Gordon, and Art Blakey.
Formed Bebop Big Band
Eckstine's initial intention was simply to gather a backing group for his own vocal numbers, but he had the experience and insight to realize the unique opportunities his ensemble offered. Many of them had participated in the formation of the radical new style that became known as bebop; the style replaced the controlled smoothness of swing with harmonic experimentation, irregular rhythms, and increasingly free treatment of songs' basic melodic materials. Eckstine was able to adapt this sound to a big-band format and is generally credited with forming the first bebop big band.
In the hands of Gillespie and other followers, big-band bebop would become a durable jazz style. At the time, however, Eckstine's experiments enjoyed only limited commercial success. He had more luck with the romantic ballad style he had been cultivating under Hines; a harbinger of his crossover success came when the band toured the South in 1944 and several promoters dropped the prevalent requirement that the audience be segregated by race. That tour grossed over $100,000 in ten weeks, a figure that made music-industry figures sit up and take notice.
After World War II Eckstine, like other bandleaders, found it difficult to meet his large payroll, and in 1946 he disbanded his ensemble. Unlike some of his contemporaries, though, he was now ideally positioned to succeed as a solo star. He toured with the Count Basie Orchestra and the middle-of-the-road George Shearing Quintet, and was signed to a recording contract by the MGM label. Eckstine's recordings for MGM were mostly backed by a lush string orchestra, and over the late 1940s they became steadily more successful. Two of his biggest hits were "Everything I Have Is Yours" (1947) and "I Apologize" (1951). By 1950 he was MGM's top-selling artist and was selling out major venues like New York's Paramount Theater.
Set Fashion Trends
Eckstine's appeal began with his baritone vocals, so well crafted that he considered a move into classical music for a time. But equally central to his success was his image. Eckstine's narrow ties and loose-fitting, relaxed jackets became fashion trendsetters, and the singer became a romantic icon whose audiences over time grew to include a substantial proportion of European-American listeners. Like Frank Sinatra, Eckstine was the object of adulation among the "bobby soxers," the knee-sock-wearing teen female music enthusiasts of the day.
Unquestionably Eckstine crossed racial barriers in an important way, but the racism of the postwar era nevertheless held him back. The romantic movie leads that would have been the natural next step for his career never came his way, and in one of the few films in which he did appear he was instructed not to make eye contact with the white actresses with whom he was sharing a scene. "They weren't ready for Black singers singing love songs," Eckstine was quoted as saying in Jet. "It sounds ridiculous but it's true. We weren't supposed to sing about love, we were supposed to sing about work or blues." The decline of bebop swing, and the rise of the nexus of blues and country styles that produced rock and roll finally diminished Eckstine's popularity somewhat, although he continued to be much sought-after as a top nightclub attraction through the 1950s and 1960s
Eckstine performed into old age, and in 1986 he appeared in the Richard Pryor film Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling. Two of his seven children became important music-industry executives, and an illustration of the regard in which he was held in the industry in general is offered by the recollections of the durably influential producer Quincy Jones, quoted in Billboard: "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." Though he had lived in California in a luxurious house that had its own nine-hole golf course, Eckstine died in his hometown of Pittsburgh on March 8, 1993.
Awards
Named top male vocalist, Metronome magazine, 1949 and 1950; voted most popular singer, Down Beat readers' poll, 1949 and 1950.
Works
Selected discography
- Billy Eckstine Sings, National, 1949.
- Songs by Billy Eckstine, MGM, 1951.
- Favorites, MGM, 1951.
- The Great Mr. B, King, 1953.
- Tenderly, MGM, 1953.
- Blues for Sale, EmArcy, 1954.
- Mr. B with a Beat, MGM, 1955.
- Sarah Vaughan and Billy Eckstine Sing the Best of Irving Berlin, Mercury, 1958.
- Billy's Best, Mercury, 1958.
- No Cover No Minimum, Mercury, 1961.
- The Golden Hits of Billy Eckstine, Mercury, 1963.
- Greatest Hits, Polydor, 1984.
- Mr. B and the Band, Savoy Sessions, Savoy, 1986 (includes band bebop sides).
Further Reading
Books
- Carr, Ian, Digby Fairweather, and Brian Priestley, Jazz; The Essential Companion, Prentice Hall, 1987.
- Contemporary Musicians, volume 1, Gale, 1989.
- Erlewine, Michael, et al., eds., All Music Guide to Jazz, 3rd ed., Miller Freeman, 1998.
- Kernfeld, Barry, ed., The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, Macmillan, 1988.
- Larkin, Colin, ed., The Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Muze UK, 1998.
- Lyons, Len and Don Perlo, Jazz Portraits, William Morrow, 1989.
- Billboard, March 20, 1993, p. 10.
- Jet, March 22, 1993, p. 14; March 29, 1993, p. 16.
— James M. Manheim
