BILLY ECKSTINE

Billy Eckstine was a black African American singer and bandleader from the 1930s to the 1990s. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1914. He left college in 1933, after winning first place in a singing talent contest imitating Cab Calloway. He went to Chicago and joined Earl Hines' Grand Terrace Orchestra in 1939, and was a vocalist and trumpeter in the band until 1943. In 1944, he formed his own big band and hired many of the up and coming greats, including Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Miles Davis, Sarah Vaughan, Pearl Bailey, Lena Horne, and many others. In 1947, he became a solo performer, and had far greater success than with his band. In 1950, he was profiled by Life magazine in New York City, but one of the photos showed him with white female fans touching him, and it caused outrage among bigoted white readers, but it helped to increase the discussion of race relations in America. He continued performing through the 1980s and passed away in 1993 at the age of 78.