Billy Eckstine is a mostly forgotten pop vocalist of the 1940s and 1950s. You listen to this double disc set now and it’s easy to see why. He has the same basic aesthetic of someone like Nat King Cole, very smooth, somewhat jazzy. The problem is that he’s not the talent Cole was either vocally or instrumentally, so the material here is mainly forgettable. His voice is a pretty deep baritone and he has a kind of odd style of enunciation that I didn’t care for at all. There are a few songs here and there that work, like a really hot jazz take on Elvis Presley’s Love Me, a slow, string-drenched Blue Christmas and a jazzy tune called Grapevine that has the surprising line “I hear it through the grapevine.” Interesting to catch some of these early influences; he predates Elvis, so you reckon Elvis was hearing some of this music himself. Still, at two jam-packed discs, both over seventy-five minutes, things are eventually just really dull and wearying. Eckstine’s faded from the consciousness of even most music lovers; it should stay that way. 1 star.
tl;dr – bland, forgettable music from a bland, forgotten singer of the 40s and 50s; two jam-packed discs end up being wearying. 1 star.