Mister B. and the Band: The Savoy Sessions

Mister B. and the Band: The Savoy Sessions

Editorial Reviews
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This CD collects 27 of Billy Eckstine's Savoy recordings from 1945 and 1946, a period when the singer's band was a major employer of young boppers. Most of the material focuses on Eckstine's distinctive way with popular ballads. His deep, full voice, subtle pitch sense, and distinctive legato phrasing put a personal stamp on standards like "Cottage for Sale," Prisoner of Love," and "In the Still of the Night," while up-tempo tunes such as "I Love the Rhythm in a Riff" offer some forays into scat. Eckstine had been devoted to the advancement of jazz since bringing Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie into the Earl Hines band; when he assembled his own orchestra, it was a revolving door for the most talented of the modernist players, stretching the harmonic and rhythmic language of big band jazz. Fats Navarro and Miles Davis in the trumpet section, Sonny Stitt and Dexter Gordon among the reeds, and drummer Art Blakey would contribute incendiary solos, and they put a harder edge on everything the band played, even the ballads. Bop appears in its pure form on two takes of Gillespie's "Oop Bop Sh'Bam." Eckstine's band was a remarkable achievement while it lasted, though it was undoubtedly doomed from the start by popular taste and the economic realities of the music business. --Stuart Broomer

Mister B. and the Band: The Savoy Sessions, Music, Billy Eckstine, Big Band, Bop, Jazz, Jazz Music, Jazz Vocals, Pop, Standards, Traditional Pop, Vocal Jazz

Mister B. and the Band: The Savoy Sessions

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