Jaki Byard
Encyclopedia
Jaki Byard (June 15, 1922 in Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester is a city and the county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, as of the 2010 Census the city's population is 181,045, making it the second largest city in New England after Boston....

 – February 11, 1999 in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

) was an American jazz pianist
Jazz piano
Jazz piano is a collective term for the techniques pianists use when playing jazz. The piano has been an integral part of the jazz idiom since its inception, in both solo and ensemble settings. Its role is multifaceted due largely to the instrument's combined melodic and harmonic capabilities...

 and composer who also played trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...

 and saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...

, among several other instruments. He was noteworthy for his eclectic style, incorporating everything from ragtime
Ragtime
Ragtime is an original musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1897 and 1918. Its main characteristic trait is its syncopated, or "ragged," rhythm. It began as dance music in the red-light districts of American cities such as St. Louis and New Orleans years before being published...

 and stride
Stride piano
Harlem Stride Piano, Stride Piano, or just Stride, is a jazz piano style that was developed in the large cities of the East Coast, mainly in the New York, during 1920s and 1930s. The left hand may play a four-beat pulse with a single bass note, octave, seventh or tenth interval on the first and...

 to free jazz
Free jazz
Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s...

. In describing his contribution to the Phil Woods
Phil Woods
Philip Wells Woods is an American jazz bebop alto saxophonist, clarinetist, bandleader and composer.-Biography:...

 album Musique du Bois
Musique du Bois
Musique du Bois is a 1974 studio album by jazz musician Phil Woods. Originally released on the Muse Records, it has been multiply reissued on CD by 32 Jazz and Pony Canyon...

, National Public Radio described him as "one of the most compelling and versatile pianists in jazz".

Byard began playing professionally at the age of 15. After serving in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 he toured with Earl Bostic
Earl Bostic
Earl Bostic was an American jazz and rhythm and blues alto saxophonist, and a pioneer of the post-war American Rhythm and Blues style. He had a number of popular hits such as "Flamingo", "Harlem Nocturne", "Temptation", "Sleep", "Special Delivery Stomp", and "Where or When", which showed off his...

 in the late 1940s, and, by now based in Boston, made his recording debut with Charlie Mariano
Charlie Mariano
Carmine Ugo Mariano was an American jazz alto saxophonist. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts and died in Cologne, Germany.-Biography:Mariano was the son of Italian immigrants....

 in 1951. Later, he was a member of the bands of Herb Pomeroy
Herb Pomeroy
Irving Herbert "Herb" Pomeroy, III was an influential swing and bebop jazz trumpeter and educator...

 (1952-55, recording in 1957) and Maynard Ferguson
Maynard Ferguson
Maynard Ferguson was a Canadian jazz musician and bandleader. He came to prominence playing in Stan Kenton's orchestra, before forming his own band in 1957...

 (1959-62).

Moving to New York, Byard recorded extensively with Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...

 in the periods 1962 to 1964 and 1970, touring Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 with him in 1964. He also made important recordings as a sideman with Eric Dolphy
Eric Dolphy
Eric Allan Dolphy was an American jazz alto saxophonist, flutist, and bass clarinetist. On a few occasions he also played the clarinet and baritone saxophone. Dolphy was one of several multi-instrumentalists to gain prominence in the 1960s...

, Booker Ervin
Booker Ervin
Booker Telleferro Ervin II was an American tenor saxophone player. He was perhaps best known for his association with bassist Charles Mingus....

 and Sam Rivers
Sam Rivers
Samuel Carthorne Rivers , is an American jazz musician and composer. He performs on soprano and tenor saxophones, bass clarinet, flute, harmonica and piano....

. As a leader, he recorded a string of albums for the Prestige label during the 1960s. He fronted an occasional big band, the Apollo Stompers. He taught at the New England Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music
Manhattan School of Music
The Manhattan School of Music is a major music conservatory located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The school offers degrees on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition...

, Hartt School of Music and the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music.

Byard was shot dead in 1999. The circumstances surrounding his death have not been determined.

As leader

  • Blues for Smoke, solo piano, 1960
  • Here's Jaki, with Ron Carter
    Ron Carter
    Ron Carter is an American jazz double-bassist. His appearances on over 2,500 albums make him one of the most-recorded bassists in jazz history, along with Milt Hinton, Ray Brown and Leroy Vinnegar. Carter is also an acclaimed cellist who has recorded numerous times on that...

     and Roy Haynes
    Roy Haynes
    Roy Owen Haynes is an American jazz drummer and bandleader. Haynes is among the most recorded drummers in jazz, and in a career lasting more than 60 years has played in a wide range of styles ranging from swing and bebop to jazz fusion and avant-garde jazz...

    , 1961
  • Hi-Fly, with Ron Carter and Pete La Roca
    Pete La Roca
    Pete La Roca is an American jazz drummer. He adopted the name La Roca early in his musical career when he was a timbales player in Latin bands....

    , 1962
  • Out Front!, with Booker Ervin
    Booker Ervin
    Booker Telleferro Ervin II was an American tenor saxophone player. He was perhaps best known for his association with bassist Charles Mingus....

    , Ron Carter and Roy Haynes, 1964
  • The Jaki Byard Quartet Live!, 1965
  • Freedom Together!, with Richard Davis and Junior Parker
    Junior Parker
    Junior Parker was an American Memphis blues singer and musician. He is best remembered for his unique voice which has been described as "honeyed," and "velvet-smooth"...

    , 1966
  • On The Spot!, with Jimmy Owens
    Jimmy Owens
    Jimmy Owens may refer to:*Jimmy and Carol Owens, songwriting team*Jimmy Owens , jazz trumpet player*Jimmy Owens , race car driver...

    , Paul Chambers
    Paul Chambers
    Paul Laurence Dunbar Chambers, Jr. was a jazz bassist. A fixture of rhythm sections during the 1950s and 1960s, his importance in the development of jazz bass can be measured not only by the length and breadth of his work in this short period but also his impeccable time, intonation, and virtuosic...

    , Billy Higgins
    Billy Higgins
    Billy Higgins was an American jazz drummer. He played mainly free jazz and hard bop.Higgins was born in Los Angeles, California. Higgins played on Ornette Coleman's first records, beginning in 1958...

     and Alan Dawson, 1967
  • Sunshine Of My Soul, with Elvin Jones
    Elvin Jones
    Elvin Ray Jones was a jazz drummer of the post-bop era. He showed interest in drums at a young age, watching the circus bands march by his family's home in Pontiac, Michigan....

     and David Izenzon
    David Izenzon
    David Izenzon was an American jazz double bassist.Izenzon began playing double bass at age twenty-four. He played locally in his hometown of Pittsburgh before moving to New York City in 1961...

    , 1967
  • Jaki Byard With Strings, 1968
  • The Jaki Byard Experience
    The Jaki Byard Experience
    The Jaki Byard Experience is an album by jazz pianist Jaki Byard, originally released on the Prestige label in 1968, featuring performances by Byard with Roland Kirk, Richard Davis and Alan Dawson...

    , with Roland Kirk, Richard Davis und Alan Dawson
    Alan Dawson
    Alan Dawson was a respected jazz drummer and widely influential percussion teacher based in Boston. He was born in Marietta, Pennsylvania and raised in Roxbury, MA. Serving in the Army for Korean War duty, Dawson played with the Army Dance Band while stationed at Fort Dix from 1951-1953...

    , 1968
  • Solo Piano, 1969
  • Duet!, 1972 (MPS Records
    MPS Records
    MPS Records was a German jazz record label founded in 1968. MPS stands for "Musik Produktion Schwarzwald" .-History:...

    )
  • Family Man, 1978
  • Improvisations
    Improvisations (Ran Blake & Jaki Byard album)
    -Track listing:# "On Green Dolphin Street" - 6:06# "Prelude" - 4:09# "Chromatics" - 8:28# "Wende" - 3:42# "Tea for Two" - 6:57# "Victoria" - 4:41...

    with Ran Blake
    Ran Blake
    Ran Blake is an American pianist and composer from Springfield, Massachusetts. In a career that spans five decades, Blake has created a unique niche in improvised music as an artist and educator...

     (Soul Note, 1981)
  • To Them - To Us (Soul Note, 1981)
  • Phantasies
    Phantasies (album)
    Phantasies is an album by the American jazz pianist Jaki Byard with a big band recorded in 1984 and released on the Italian Soul Note label.-Reception:...

    with the Apollo Stompers (Soul Note, 1984)
  • Phantasies II
    Phantasies II
    Phantasies II is an album by the American jazz pianist Jaki Byard with a big band recorded in 1988 and released on the Italian Soul Note label...

    with the Apollo Stompers (Soul Note, 1988)
  • Foolin' Myself
    Foolin' Myself
    Foolin' Myself is an album of trio performances by the American jazz pianist Jaki Byard recorded in 1988 and released on the Italian Soul Note label.-Reception:...

    (Soul Note, 1988)
  • The Last From Lennie's, with Joe Farrell
    Joe Farrell
    Joseph Carl Firrantello , known as Joe Farrell, was an American jazz saxophonist and flutist. He is best known for a series of albums under his own name on the CTI record label and for playing in the initial incarnation of Chick Corea's Return to Forever.-Biography:Farrell was born in Chicago...

    , George Tucker
    George Tucker (musician)
    George Andrew Tucker was an American jazz double-bassist.Tucker attended the New York Conservatory of Modern Music, studying bass in the late 1940s. Early in his career he played with Earl Bostic, John Coltrane, and Jackie McLean...

     and Alan Dawson, 2003

As sideman

With Eric Dolphy
Eric Dolphy
Eric Allan Dolphy was an American jazz alto saxophonist, flutist, and bass clarinetist. On a few occasions he also played the clarinet and baritone saxophone. Dolphy was one of several multi-instrumentalists to gain prominence in the 1960s...

  • Far Cry
    Far Cry (album)
    Far Cry is a 1960 album by jazz musician Eric Dolphy. This album is one of several Dolphy recordings to feature trumpeter Booker Little. Dolphy and Little were backed by Jaki Byard on piano, Ron Carter on bass, and Roy Haynes on drums. Far Cry was recorded by engineer Rudy Van Gelder.-The...

    (1960)
  • Outward Bound
    Outward Bound
    Outward Bound is an international, non-profit, independent, outdoor educationorganization with approximately 40 schools around the world and 200,000 participants per year...

    (1960)

With Booker Ervin
Booker Ervin
Booker Telleferro Ervin II was an American tenor saxophone player. He was perhaps best known for his association with bassist Charles Mingus....

  • The Freedom Book
    The Freedom Book
    The Freedom Book is an album by American jazz saxophonist Booker Ervin featuring performances recorded in 1963 for the Prestige label.-Reception:...

    (1963)
  • The Space Book
    The Space Book
    The Space Book is an album by American jazz saxophonist Booker Ervin featuring performances recorded in 1964 for the Prestige label.-Reception:...

    (Prestige, 1964)
  • Groovin' High
    Groovin' High (Booker Ervin album)
    Groovin' High is an album by American jazz saxophonist Booker Ervin featuring performances recorded in 1963 and 1964 for the Prestige label.-Reception:...

    (Prestige, 1963-64)
  • The Trance
    The Trance
    The Trance is an album by American jazz saxophonist Booker Ervin featuring performances recorded in 1965 for the Prestige label.-Reception:...

    (Prestige, 1965)
  • Heavy!!!
    Heavy!!!
    Heavy!!! is an album by American jazz saxophonist Booker Ervin featuring performances recorded in 1966 for the Prestige label.-Reception:The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow awarded the album 4 stars and stated "The set matches Ervin with a remarkable rhythm section.....

    (Prestige, 1966)

With Roland Kirk
  • Rip Rig & Panic
    Rip, Rig and Panic (album)
    Rip, Rig and Panic is a 1965 jazz album by saxophonist Roland Kirk. It was recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's studio by a quartet that sees Kirk accompanied by Elvin Jones , Jaki Byard , and Richard Davis , who have been described as "the most awesome rhythm section he ever recorded with"...

    (1965)

With Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...

  • The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
    The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
    -Personnel:Musicians*Charles Mingus – bass, piano, composer*Jerome Richardson – soprano and baritone saxophone, flute*Charlie Mariano – alto saxophone*Dick Hafer – tenor saxophone, flute*Rolf Ericson – trumpet...

    (Impulse!, 1963)
  • Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus
    Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus
    Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus is a 1963 album by jazz composer and bassist Charles Mingus.- Historical Context :...

    (Impulse!, 1963)
  • Astral Weeks
    Astral Weeks (Charles Mingus album)
    Astral Weeks is an album by Charles Mingus.It is an unauthorized "bootleg" recorded live in Copenhagen, on April 14, 1964. during Mingus' European tour in that month. The performance was provided by a sextet of jazz musicians, led by bassist Charles Mingus, from the United States...

    (1964)
  • Charles Mingus Sextet with Eric Dolphy Cornell 1964
    Charles Mingus Sextet with Eric Dolphy Cornell 1964
    Cornell 1964 is a live concert recording of the Charles Mingus Sextet featuring Eric Dolphy recorded at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, on March 18, 1964...

    (2007, Blue Note)

With Danny Richmond
Danny Richmond
Danny Richmond is a professional ice hockey defenseman for the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League. He is the son of retired NHL defenseman, Steve Richmond.-Amateur career:...

  • "In" Jazz for the Culture Set
    "In" Jazz for the Culture Set
    "In" Jazz for the Culture Set is the debut album led by the American jazz drummer Dannie Richmond recorded in 1965 and released on the Impulse! label.-Reception:...

    (Impulse!, 1965)

With Sam Rivers
Sam Rivers
Samuel Carthorne Rivers , is an American jazz musician and composer. He performs on soprano and tenor saxophones, bass clarinet, flute, harmonica and piano....

  • Fuchsia Swing Song
    Fuchsia Swing Song
    Fuchsia Swing Song is the debut album by American saxophonist Sam Rivers recorded in 1964 and released on the Blue Note label. The CD reissue includes three alternate takes as bonus tracks.-Reception:...

    (Blue Note, 1964)
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