Whether playing with Dizzy Gillespie (“52nd Street Theme”) or Slam Stewart (“I Got Rhythm”), tenor saxophonist Don Byas could dominate a track with his bumblebee-quick solos and oaky timbre. Born in Oklahoma in 1912 and raised as a student of classical music, Byas spent the ‘30s and ‘40s as a session player in L.A. and New York and went on to play liquid-smooth lines (“Harvard Blues”) and lightning-hot runs with the swing and bebop greats, including Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Bud Powell. He thrived in the fertile expat jazz community in Europe post-WWII and made many of his finest solo recordings there, such as “Anthropology”.
