Charlie Byrd
Tasteful, low-key, and ingratiatingly melodic, Charlie Byrd had two notable accomplishments to his credit -- applying acoustic classical guitar techniques to jazz and popular music and helping to introduce Brazilian music to mass North American audiences. Born into a musical family, Byrd experienced his first brush with greatness while a teenager in France during World War II, playing with his idol Django Reinhardt. After some postwar gigs with Sol Yaged, Joe Marsala and Freddie Slack, Byrd temporarily abandoned jazz to study classical guitar with Sophocles Papas in 1950 and Andrés Segovia in 1954. However he re-emerged later in the decade gigging around the Washington D.C. area in jazz settings, often splitting his sets into distinct jazz and classical segments. He started recording for Savoy as a leader in 1957, and also recorded with the Woody Herman Band in 1958-59. A tour of South America under the aegis of the U.S. State Department in 1961, proved to be a revelation, for it was in Brazil that Byrd discovered the emerging bossa nova movement. Once back in D.C., he played some bossa nova tapes to Stan Getz, who then convinced Verve's Creed Taylor to record an album of Brazilian music with himself and Byrd. That album, Jazz Samba, became a pop hit in 1962 on the strength of the single "Desafinado" and launched the bossa nova wave in North America. Thanks to the bossa nova, several albums for Riverside followed, including the defining Bossa Nova Pelos Passaros, and he was able to land a major contract with Columbia, though the records from that association often consisted of watered-down easy listening pop. In 1973, he formed the group Great Guitars with Herb Ellis and Barney Kessel and also that year, wrote an instruction manual for the guitar that has become widely used. From 1974 onward, Byrd recorded for the Concord Jazz label in a variety of settings, including sessions with Laurindo Almeida and Bud Shank. He died December 2, 1999 after a long bout with cancer.
© Richard S. Ginell /TiVo
Similar artists
-
-
-
Great Guitars (Live At The Concord Summer Festival, Concord, CA / June 28, 1974)
Charlie Byrd, Barney Kessel, Herb Ellis
Jazz - Released by Concord Jazz on 4 Aug 1988
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Best of Charlie Byrd
Jazz - Released by Dotted Eighth Records on 1 Aug 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
All That Jazz, Vol. 106: "Ring Them Harmonics" - Charlie Byrd & Friends (Feat. Stan Getz)
Charlie Byrd, Keter Betts, Stan Getz, Buddy Deppenschmidt
Jazz - Released by Jube Legends on 7 Sep 2018
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Byrd Song
Jazz - Released by Original Jazz Classics on 1 Jan 1965
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Jazz Samba
Latin America - Released by Latin Beat Records on 13 Feb 1962
The Qobuz Essential Discography16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Byrd's Word
Jazz - Released by Original Jazz Classics on 1 Jan 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Jazz Samba (Bossa Nova Jazz)
Latin America - Released by White on 25 Apr 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Guitar Artistry of Charlie Byrd (Remastered)
Jazz - Released by Avid Entertainment on 7 Feb 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Onda Nueva / The New Wave
Jazz - Released by Columbia - Legacy on 17 Nov 1971
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
-
-
-
Hollywood Byrd
Jazz - Released by Columbia - Legacy on 1 Feb 1967
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Charlie Byrd Trio & Woodwinds
Jazz - Released by Black Sheep Music on 27 Nov 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
-
On Riverside: Charlie Byrd
Jazz - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on 14 Sep 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Guitar Artistry of Charlie Byrd (Original Album - Digitally Remastered)
Latin America - Released by Jazz Roots Records on 7 Feb 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
All That Jazz, Vol. 55: "Blues Sonata at the Showboat" – Charlie Byrd (Remastered 2015)
Charlie Byrd, Ginny Byrd, Keter Betts
Contemporary Jazz - Released by Jube Legends on 5 Feb 2016
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo