Everything I Have Is Yours

Product Description:

Personnel includes: Billy Eckstine (vocals, valve trombone); Sarah Vaughan (vocals); Lester Young, Jimmy Guiffre, Ted Nash (tenor saxophone); Harry "Sweets" Edison, Shorty Rodgers, Roy Eldridge (trumpet); Harry Betts, Kai Winding (trombone); John LaPorta (clarinet); Teddy Wilson, George Shearing (piano); Dick Evans, Barney Kessel (guitar); Al McKibbon, Red Callender (bass); Denzil Best, Lee Young, Max Roach, Louis Bellson (drums); Sonny Burke's Orchestra, Hugo Winterhalter's Orchestra, Buddy Baker's Orchestra, Russ Case's Orchestra, Joe Lipman's Orchestra, Peter Rugolo's Orchestra, Woody Herman's Orchestra, Nelson Riddle's Orhcestra, The Lee Gordon Singers, Lou Bring's Orchestra, Hal Mooney's Orchestra.

Compilation producers: Bob Porter, Richard Seidel.

Recorded between 1947 and 1957. Includes liner notes by Lee Jeske.

Digitally remastered by Suha Gur (Polygram Studios).

The singer Billy Eckstine has two distinct reputations, one within jazz, one in the world outside of it. The first is as leader of the innovative proto-bebop big band that boasted Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Art Blakey, Gene Ammons, Dexter Gordon, and others within its ranks at some time or other. The other, far greater distinction is as one of the most powerful vocalists in any genre. EVERYTHING I HAVE IS YOURS collects the early MGM popular recordings that first established Eckstine as a major star.

Billy Eckstine was once tagged "the sepia Sinatra." Apart from its slight condescension, the comparison is inaccurate in that Eckstine shared none of Sinatra's vocal frailties or his psychological complexities. As the jazz vocal expert Will Friedwald once noted, Eckstine "sang like a god." His instantly recognizable burnished baritone just drove the melody forward without hesitation or scruple, even to the point of undermining the lyric on his great hit "I Apologize." For a taste of Eckstine's pure romantic power, listen to his duets with the young Sarah Vaughan on the rhapsodic "Dedicated to You" or Cole Porter's "I Love You," as these two magnificent voices make beautiful music together.