Because of the Star System that rules much of jazz, many listeners know the most celebrated tenor saxophonists before 1960 to be Hawk, Lester, and Ben. More earnest diggers know Cecil Scott, Herschel Evans, Lucky Thompson, Buddy Tate, Happy Caldwell, Chu Berry, Wardell Gray, Bob Carroll, Dick Wilson. But I’d bet a Savoy 78 that if I went to a Jazz Studies class and asked, “Who’s Don Byas?” I would get sweetly blank stares. Let me do my little part to set the jazz cosmos on its proper axis.
Byas recorded from 1938 to 1971 — mostly as a sideman with Andy Kirk, Count Basie, Pete Johnson, Lips Page, Billie Holiday, Thelonious Monk, Helen Humes, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Christian, Albert Ammons, Coleman Hawkins, Eddie Heywood, Mary Lou Williams until 1944, then he began recording under his own name with a glorious series of quintets and sextets alongside Sidney Catlett, Erroll Garner, Buck Clayton, Charlie Shavers, Joe Thomas, Emmett Berry, Cozy Cole, Slam Stewart, Johnny Guarnieri, Teddy Wilson, and others. In 1946 he went to Europe with Don Redman’s big band and liked it so much that he stayed there, aside from one brief visit to the US in 1970, until his death, recording and performing prolifically in France, Spain, Denmark, and England — and with Americans Roy Eldridge, Earl Hines, Bill Coleman, Ben Webster, Johnny Hodges as well.
To my ears, Byas was a marvelous hybrid of Southwestern swing and bebop intensities. He had few equals as a ballad player, and he had three speeds: an aerodynamic glide at medium tempos — no roadblocks for miles; a caressing way with ballads that always reminds me of a giant cat’s purr; a ferocious, almost frightening surge at fast tempos that seemed indefatigable.
He appeared first on records with a marvelous pick-up group under the nominal leadership of his Danish friend and supporter, Baron Timme Rosenkrantz (it included Tyree Glenn, Rex Stewart, Billy Kyle, Jo Jones!). The Baron was also responsible for producing the 1945 concert where Byas and Slam appeared as a duo — creating memorable versions of INDIANA and I GOT RHYTHM that still astonish. And he had his own recording equipment, turning his apartment into a private studio / salon for many discs that, blessedly, survive.
Through the kindness of John L. Fell, I can share a good deal of private Byas, among friends, completely at his ease, with you. Here’s a long offering, beginning with piano solos by John Mehegan:
Recorded in the basement of 7 West 46th Street, New York City, Baron Timme Rosenkrantz’s apartment. Details and dating below subject to correction.
Mehegan, piano: I KNOW THAT YOU KNOW / BOULEVARD OF BROKEN DREAMS 9.2.44 //
Byas, Vic Dickenson, trombone*; possibly George Johnson, alto saxophone**; Slam Stewart, string bass: INDIANA / I GOT RHYTHM / ROSE ROOM (Johnson) / SOMETIMES I’M HAPPY (Vic) [NC] / DON’T BLAME ME [Inez Cavanaugh, vocal] / MY IDEAL 10.2.44 // [The famous concert performance of INDIANA and I GOT RHYTHM is from June 6, 1945 — so it wasn’t entirely impromptu! And we know Slam’s solo on SOMETIMES from the 1943 Lester Young Quartet for Keynote.]
Byas, Jimmy Jones, piano: SWEET LORRAINE (in two parts on this tape) / SWEET AND LOVELY / unidentified theme / DON’T BLAME ME 9.2.44 //
Byas, Sammy Benskin, piano; Harold McFadden, guitar: MOONGLOW / JUST YOU, JUST ME / HOW HIGH THE MOON 11.20.44 //
and, from 9.2.44, duets by Byas and Mehegan: STARDUST / MEMORIES OF YOU / I CAN’T GET STARTED / MY HEART STOOD STILL / SOPHISTICATED LADY:
To me, that’s ninety minutes of convincing evidence of Byas’ masteries (among masterful friends): he deserves his own pedestal and has always done so.
May your happiness increase!