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Billy Eckstine, 1914-1993
Billy Eckstine's seductive bass-baritone made him America's most popular singer at the start of the 1950s. Eckstine launched his career by winning an amateur contest at Washington, D.C.'s Howard Theater in 1933, and later served as the lead vocalist with Earl Hines's orchestra (1939–43). At a time when record producers balked at allowing African American singers to record anything but the blues, Eckstine achieved a breakthrough with "Skylark" (1942), which outsold Bing Crosby's version of the song. In 1944 he assembled a groundbreaking band whose changing roster of stellar jazz musicians included Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Fats Navarro, Miles Davis, Dexter Gordon, Sonny Stitt, Art Blakey, and vocalist Sarah Vaughan. Credited as "the cradle of bebop," the ensemble was not commercially successful and disbanded in 1947. Eckstine transitioned to a successful career as a solo performer and recording artist, and became actively involved in the civil rights movement. |