Customer Reviews

Mister B. & The Band

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have listened to this CD back-to-back four times! I own several Billy Eckstine CDs, albums and a plethora of "Mr. B" 78's. Yes, I am a Billy Eckstine fan. The re-mastering engineers who put together this ancient Savoy material have done a marvelous job. One can almost imagine himself in the recording studio standing next to Billy Eckstine as his melodious voice croons ballads like "A Cottage for Sale", "Prisoner of Love" and "Time on My Hands". Or if you like good old jump be-bop, you are certian to like Mr. B's treatment of "The Jitney Man", "I Love That Rhythm Riff" and "Jelly Jelly". Like Billy Eckstine's voice, his band is both swinging and melodious. Listen to the 1945 recording of "I Only Have Eyes For You", and you will understand what I mean. As the band begins wrapping up the recording during the final minute, you'll hear an almost heart-pounding subtly escalating crescendo under Mr. B' voice. Although the later material that Billy Eckstine recorded with strings and studio orhestras on the MGM label is good, the recordings he made with his own band are TOPS! Noteable jazz performers on these recordings include Fats Navarro, Sonny Stitt, Gene Ammons, Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon and Miles Davis. My only criticism is that the cd is over too soon, and unless one has more than perfect vision, the liner notes are quite difficult to read. Add "Billy Eckstine, Mister B. And the Band" to your collection. It's an appreciable listening investment.

This is a lovely release, taken on its own merits. Eckstine is a legendary crooner of first quality and his band is quite accomplished.

Unfortunately for my tastes, the instruments remain too much in support of Mr. B's popular vocals on nearly every song such that the musicians and arrangements threaten to become almost an afterthought. The songs for the most part last only three minutes in a necessary concession to the commercial exigencies of records, jukeboxes and radio play of the time, leaving still less room for the instrumentalists to stretch out.

Further, there is minimal display of the bebop innovations underway in this 1945 recording (noted members of the band like Diz and Bird had departed by the time of this studio session, though others like Dexter Gordon, Fats Navarro, Kenny Dorham and Art Blakey still remained)-- it's mostly straight forward big band arrangements, albeit tastefuly done, reflective of the period.

As previously mentioned, the liner notes are so small to be unreadable, even with a magnifying glass, thus much of the historic perspective is lost. Finally, the last five cuts from the original two album release were omitted from this pressing due to time constraints. As those five were from the Ellington songbook, it is a serious and unfortunate omission to say the least.

Though flawed, this is still a beautiful release as a feature for Mr. Eckstine's timeless standards', swing and blues vocals. As a historical documentation of a groundbreaking band bridging the big band-swing and bebop eras, it's disappointing. That having been said, for its virtues it is still worth owning, and a bargain at the used price. When the band gets a chance to play, they wail, groove and swing with the best of them, and Mr. B CAN really sing.

Gene Ammons used to love telling stories about his days with the Billy Eckstein Band, going through the line-up of the musicians who would shape the course of jazz history--once they got tired of holding whole notes for Mr. B on ballads such as "I Apologize." Surprisingly, the actual recordings reveal far more of the musical genius of the accompanying instrumentalists than one might have imagined. Billy was hardly unaware of the talent and musical needs of the men behind him. In fact, the solo space he insisted on giving Ammons, Dexter Gordon, Sonny Stitt, Fats Navarro, Miles Davis may be one of the reasons the band's success with the public, which frankly had come to see Billy, was so limited and brief. This would be a 5-star collection had it included "I Want to Talk About You," the lovely original Eckstein ballad that later was to become recorded on at least 3 occasions by John Coltrane. Because of that omission, I would refer listeners to the Eckstein collection called "Boppin' with Mr. B".

I guess this would be a 3.5 tilting to 4.I guess I have preferred other tenor-baritone singers (Hartman,Bill Henderson,Joe Williams et. al. ) but both of the previous reviewers are right.Yes it could have been better worked out in charts and arrangements ,especially for the band, but what a band.When guys like Blakey or Duzzy tgot5 together in the 60's or 70's and would reminisce about
"The Band" nobody had to ask about which.Billy Ecktein had the greatest line up of inventor bebop talent and future stars ever during 1944-1947.Unfortunately this band was not documented enough or in quality because this bands launch was smack dab AFM musicians strike/recording ban of 1942-1944.But the line up in the this line up which included Dizzy Gillespie,Charlie Parker,Gene Ammons,Fats Navarro,Leo Parker (the ignored Baritone great I believe was in a line up),Wardell Grey,Dexter Gordon,Kenny Dorham, with a "girl singer" named Sarah Vaughn.Need I go on?No exactly ho-hum.Mr.B played Trumpet,Valve, Trombone and Guitar to boot.The Hot House incubator of Bop was like Minton's organized and on the road and you can imagine the attack these young turks had.Highly influential on post was BB Quincy Jones work with Basie was highly influenced by what was going on.

But in addition to the strike Eckstein was not the most charged businessman who got these crazy kids together not for sales but because he dug them.So after the strike he might have pushed for more sessions but it was just as BB went into tail spin with a tax on club venues and a change in taste to smaller unit stuff.Which must have been OK as again he just hired these guys because he ws a musicians singer-band leader.

But if you leave aside what these Savoy sides could have done with more prep time (the arrangers were Tadd Dammeron and Gil Fuller!!!) it is the S#%@#u sound quality that mires this LP/CD.Maybe it was not going to be released because of the bnd or because Savoy was not the perfectionist label that latter ones were in production and engineering do not expect to hear what could have been production values or engineering wise.If you can ignore this and really are into hearing what must have been one of the most incredible live acts ever and was to have full education in post war jazz hearing this LP is as indispensable a BB recording in the history of the genre one can get.You just think "If only everybody knew" and had given us more and better quality sound it would be a masterpiece.If yo here this,the Herman 2nd/3rd Hers,the Krupa- O'Day band and few choice others who knew what was coming in jazz your were hearing the future as it was being made.
Cheers
Chazz