Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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BYRD, Charlie

(b 16 September 1925, Suffolk VA; d 30 November 1999, Annapolis MD) Spanish guitar. Prolific recording (about 40 LPs under his own name) placed him in the 'easy listening' category (Music To Dine By on Happy Hour is trio music recorded for the PBS-TV series Great Chefs) but apart from his first-class technique he was one of the most versatile on the instrument, playing jazz, classical and South American music in the same concerts. He studied with Segovia '54; played with Woody Herman '59, etc; toured South America with a combo for US State Department. On Stan Getz LP Jazz Samba '62 he suggested tunes by Antonio Carlos Jobim, helping to spark off much pretty music in the bossa nova era.

His own albums began on Savoy '57; also Riverside (Solo Flight '65), Offbeat, Milestone; Columbia from '65-9: Brazilian Byrd '65, Plays Villa-Lobos '67 (solo), many others. Great Guitars '74 was the first of five LPs on Concord Jazz with Herb Ellis, Barney Kessel and rhythm; other albums included Byrd By The Sea '74 and Top Hat with Nat Adderley '75 on Fantasy; on Concord Blue Byrd '78, Sugarloaf Suite '79, Isn't It Romantic '84 are trio sets with bass and drums; Brazilian Soul '80 a quartet with Laurindo Almeida; Brazilville '81 a quartet with Bud Shank; Latin Odyssey '83 a sextet with Almeida; The Bossa Nova Years '91 and Moments Like This '94 are quintet and quartet sets with Ken Peplowski. The Charlie Byrd Quintet: Du Hot Club de Concord '95 does not imitate Django but revives the flavour, with Michael Moore on bass, Johnny Frigo on violin, Frank Vignola on rhythm guitar and Hendrik Meurkens on harmonica, who sounds like a musette according to Cadence, describing it as Byrd's best album since the '60s. In 1998, Byrd released another trio album, Au Courant, featuring brother Joe on bass and vibraphonist Chuck Redd (Concord).

Charlie's brother, bassist Gene Herbert 'Joe' Byrd (b 21 May 1933, Chuckatuck VA; d 6 March 2012, Annapolis MD) also played on the famous Jazz Samba album with Stan Getz, and there were two bassists on that album: Getz and Charlie Byrd got all the credit for touching off the success of bossa nova in the USA, but see also Keter Betts.