Billy Eckstine - "In the still of the night"

From "The Ultimate Jazz Archive"

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Billy
• In
• the
• still

[wgfinley]

I agree a lot of arrangements for Billy came up short, until he hooked up with a very young Quincy Jones. I like the fantastic arrangement Quincy did for this song that's on a live album.

[joeasmythe]

Mr B was our hero back in the "greatest era" We all tried to copy his ties and mannerisms.

[adoreslaurel]

The break for black entertainers [and when it came to "true' color,they did not come any blacker than Nat "King" Cole} was Nat getting his own show,how he did it at a time of such prejudice [pre "bussing"] I dont know,but it was of great significance and those people who were born much later dont always have full appreciation of what a significant milestone Nat's show was.

[MILEGULLY]

Sorry, it was not about bands or arrangements that held Eckstine back. It was nothing other than racism at the time. The politicos did not like the fact that white women were doing wildly sexy things when listening to a black man, and they knew that, to the extent these women could not get Eckstine, they would want to find some other black man to live out their fantasy. This was it plain and simple. Things have changed dramatically, just about every NBA player has a white trophy.

[DrGolf4]

The more I hear Mr B. the more I enjoy his unique style.....One of the greatest...

[mymusicdaze]

So smooth and so handsome

[MrSandamiani]

Oh no, Mr.kofthebaskervilles. The problem was that B.E. was an Afroamerican singer/musician. And intellectual! Too much for american society of 50/60/70th!

American society of that time loves (eventually) a "negro" artist, possibility whitout a political things, as Armstrong, Ella, Nat King Cole; not Eckstine or Paul Robeson...

[adoreslaurel]

What a shame as a coloured entertainer he was held back by prejudice from having his own tv show,he had a voice that was a cut above so many of the white entertainers of the day and he stuck to good songs unlike so many others who sang a lot of that post war froth and bubble stuff that we got a gutfull of then.

[kofthebaskervilles]

If billy would have had better arranging he would have been a bigger star.