Description
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.Con su seductora voz de bajo-barítono, Billy Eckstine fue el cantante más famoso de Estados Unidos a principios de la década de 1950. Su carrera despegó en 1933 al ganar un concurso de aficionados en el Howard Theater de Washington, D.C., y poco después pasó a ser cantante principal de la orquesta de Earl Hines (1939–43). En tiempos en que los productores discográficos se resistían a que los cantantes afroamericanos grabaran algo que no fuera blues, Eckstine logró romper esquemas con su versión de “Skylark” (1942), que desbancó a la de Bing Crosby. En 1944 reunió una banda que sentó precedentes, con un...
Image
Selenium Toned Gelatin Silver Print
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
