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CDs
Biography
Byrd,
whose birth date is Sep. 16, 1925, hailed from the town of
Chuckatuck in the southeastern corner of Virginia, about 15
miles west of Norfolk. He learned how to play the guitar from
his father, growing up absorbing the soulful sounds of Southern
bluesicians who would frequent his dad's general store during
the Great Depression. While stationed in Paris in 1945, Byrd
has his first brush with greatness by meeting and actually
playing with Django Reinhardt, an experience that inspired
him to study jazz theory and composition at the Harnett National
Music School in New York City. By the late 1940s, Byrd had
started to play jazz with his fingers instead of the usual
pick, and he was carving out a life on the jazz scene playing
in the bands of Sol Yaged, Joe Marsala and Freddie Slack.
Yet
by 1950, noting the lack of opportunities for jazz players,
Byrd became absorbed in something else, the notion of becoming
a classical guitarist. In 1954, he traveled to Italy for six
weeks of study with Andres Segovia, the reigning classical
guitar master of the century.
Byrd
re-emerged in the DC area, often dividing his sets into jazz
and classical portions, settling in at the Showboat Lounge
cellar club in the latter part of the 1950s and 1960s. A recorded
trio engagement at New York's famous Village Vanguard in Jan.
1961 found him edging toward the use of Brazilian rhythms
in his music. At the time, Byrd was preparing for a 12-week
tour of South America sponsored by the State Department --
and that tour turned out to be a watershed in his life, for
it immersed him in Brazil's rapidly developing bossa nova
movement.
Byrd
returned to America convinced that this was incredibly beautiful
music and soon began playing bossa nova at the Showboat. He
played some of his bossa nova tapes for Stan Getz, who flipped
over the new seductive sounds and convinced his record label
Verve to make a bossa nova album with himself and Byrd. That
album, Jazz Samba, led by a tune called "Desafinado"
on the B-side of a single, became a runaway hit and had the
effect of launching the bossa nova as an international force.
Thanks to the bossa nova, Byrd's own solo career soared, and
he was able to record a dozen albums for Riverside and several
more for Columbia. Yet like Getz, Byrd would not be bound
completely to the bossa nova for the rest of his career.
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| Charlie
Byrd |
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Charlie
Byrd was an innovator of Bossa Nova, especially with
the form it took in the US in the early 60's. And while
his long career produced dozens of memorable Brazilian
recordings (both as a leader and with saxophonist Stan
Getz), this year, our 'Brazilian Guitar Month salute
takes a look at his final Brazilian CD.
On
'My Inspiration', guitarist Charlie Byrd returned to
his Brazilian roots for a final time with an inspiring,
penultimate recording. Call it a territorial preference,
but we'll go on record to say that the 73 year-old acoustic
master delivered his best album in more thanthirty years.
While
Byrd's playing retains its understated style, it's the
choice of musicians that raises the CD's level of artistic
intensity. The bedrock of this session is the wonderful,
Brazilian group Trio De Paz: Guitarist Romero Lubambo,
bass player Nilson Matta and drummer Duduka de Fonseca.
They're joined on various tracks by veteran tenor saxophonist
Scott Hamilton and Brazilian vocalist Maucha Adnet.
Adnet,
who built her reputation as a background singer with
Antonio Carlos Jobim's New Band, shines brightly here.
For those who've never heard the Elis Regina-inspired
vocalist, this album will be a revelation. Somehow she
takes those Jobim chestnuts that we've all heard a million
times, like "Fotografia" or "Someone
To Light Up My Life" and makes them totally original.
And
Hamilton (filling a Stan Getz-like role) comes off as
a completely original voice, particularly when he reaches
for the bottom of the range of his instrument as he
improvises over the title track samba on and the classic
"So Danço Samba." So effective is his
work here that, after several albums where he's never
dipped into the Brazilian waters, we wouldn't be surprised
if Hamilton takes a musical turn down south again in
the future.
Byrd's
legendary understanding of the elasticity of Brazilian
music provides surprises: Frederic Chopin's Prelude
in E Minor is playfully rearranged as "Freddie's
Tune." But the decision to adopt the album's title
track, a 1930's Bob Crosby & The Bobcats tune was
pure genius; a beautiful tune turned upside down and
given a Brazilian treatment as testimony to Bossa Nova's
endearing charm.
With
Brazilian music's popularity at its biggest peak since
the Stan Getz/Charlie Byrd glory days of the 60's, Charlie
Byrd's 'My Inspiration' makes its statement to once
again remind Bossa lovers of his long-lived musical
legacy.
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