Billy Eckstine - In the Still of the Night
Product Information
Track List: In the Still of the Night
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Album Details: In the Still of the Night
- Release Date:
- 09/15/1998
- Label:
- Prism Platinum
- UPC:
- 5014293640725
Pro Reviews: In the Still of the Night
| EXPERT RATING: From AMG Reviews British budget reissue label Prism Leisure takes advantage of the 50year European copyright limit to assemble its own versions of vintage recordings drawn from transfers of old records. This collection, released in 1998 and therefore able to use recordings made up to 1947, collects some of Billy Eckstine's earliest recordings from the mid1940s for DeLuxe and especially National Records. This was a period when Eckstine was leading an innovative big band, though his recordings do not for the most part reflect its innovations. Still, some of his star sidemen do turn up. For example, on the RB hit recording of "I Stay in the Mood for You," trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie makes a strong impression as part of what was known on record as the DeLuxe All Star Band. Miles Davis is featured on the National Records version of Duke Ellington's "Sophisticated Lady" that was recorded in 1946 and became a pop chart entry in 1948. Still, jazz content is not what these tracks are really about. They are pop standards on which Eckstine exercises his bassbaritone effectively, with his band getting to make instrumental statements in the margins around him here and there. The tracks clearly have been transferred from old 78s, as surface noise is sometimes audible and the overall sound quality is only mediocre to good. Of course, there are no annotations to allow the customer to figure out the sources of the tracks. But the price is quite low, and there's more than 70 minutes of music on the disc. - William Ruhlmann , All Music Guide |
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Billy Eckstine Biography
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 develo...Full Billy Eckstine Biography
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