JSngry

"The Way You Look Tonight? Maybe? Maybe not?

Are those metric hours?

5 hours of content of what? The implication is that it's Blakey, but it could be cleverly worded so as to be any damn thing, from 5 more hours of Blakey to a 5 hour sampling of other items from the label to Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (Director's Cut), I mean, details please!!!!!!

hmmm... I just hear him singing the songs. And singing them quite well. a more salient point is how both Motown and Stax probably had an idea of breaking him into the "adult contemporary" market of the day like so SO many White artists of his generation - and failing. That's a complicated issue, because the labels themselves no doubt were as unfamiliar to that network as the network was with them. But it also raises the point - why did no other labels want to do with Eckstine what they were doing with all the White artists they were promoting? Did Eckstine want to work with black-owned and/or operated labels? Or did they have no interest in bringing him into their fold? Or maybe both? It's obvious to me that given a decent song (which was far from always on both the Motown & Enterprise offerings) and appropriate arrangements/productions (ditto), he was more than capable of delivering a spry and WONDERFULLY executed pop record that would have easily fit in on the same stations that were playing contemporary Sinatra and Andy Williams and Jack Jones and all that ilk of excellent singers making records for their contemporary marketplace. Maybe the R&B elements were a few years early for that audience? But maybe not? How would you know if you don't get it there for an airing? Programming Directors? A lack of mutual contacts? God knows, the possibilities are more than a few... When considering Billy Eckstine's ongoing erasure, it's not enough to end the story with his last Mercury record. No. He made SIX records LPs after that - three for Motown, three for Stax/Enterprise. The voice never deteriorated, it was always there. With the right promotion, he could have stayed visible/viable, as did Arthur Prysock. Hell, my dad constantly listened to an AM station that aggressively worked that format, so I know what that market was into. You give them a once-in-a-while thing like that "Living Like A Gypsy", it would fit right in, on the "groovy" end of their programming. But it seems like Billy Eckstine just got forgot. How can that happen? I'm sure the answers are many, but are "we today" being complicit? The model today seems to be for one person to do the homework, step up and just fucking OWN the publicizing of the legacy, like Ricci Riccardi is doing with Armstrong, and like Stanley Dance did with Ellington. Become the "official" voice of the product/artist in these wonderfully modern times of ours. Who's going to do that for/with Billy Eckstine? Probably not his biographer, because from what I've read of it, he has a total misunderstanding about what his last records were trying to achieve, and is outright scornful of his last record (the one with Benny Carter, which I find to be nothing but awesome, one of the great Old Guy On Their VERY Last Legs records). This should not be happening. KOCA (1240 AM, Kilgore) would have definitely played this, except for...what?

1972: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senior_Soul

The new rule sucks.

Guess I got my sealegs. Besides... Who is next on the list to be erased, Arthur Prysock?

Didn't bother me. It seemed a function of aging. The depth of the voice was still there, as was the pitch and the timing.

Your house, your rules.

They also did Mildred Bailey. Peggy Lee, and June Christy. And The Four Fucking Freshmen

Fusing and grafting are not the same thing

The Audition -.You Want A Gig? Play THIS!!! Complete with charts in all keys for all instruments in all styles and at every tempo.

When I notice his name, it's always for something I liked.

Still, that QR code thing, what is going to come with that?

Dad was of German heritage, Mom was of German/Irish/Native American. He was from Illinois, she fron Louisiana. They started married life in Illinois, then moved to Texas He hated rice and loved potatoes, she loved rice and made that adjustment. Just saying, I learned to take the world "traditional" with a grain or two of salt. But never pepper. Dad thought that pepper was spicy. I know, right?

RIP Surely this was a life well-lived!

This is a wonderful record too

Mom used bacon, but hey. America.

That record with Basie is STRONG. More flava than one might expect, fully frontally flatbed. Another record of the pairing that focused on ballads/standards.. lost opportunity...

Stitt/Baltimore is previously unreleased Left Bank stuff with , Kenny Barron. And the Bubba thing has Jaws and Sweets...

Hmmm...

And bacon?