Andres Segovia, Charlie Byrd and Me...

The guitar chose me. I played other instruments at times, but none of them suited me like the guitar. It's something done with the hands, and I'm oriented that way. If I weren't a guitarist, I'd be an artisan or cabinetmaker or sculptor.
Charlie Byrd
Classical music encompasses just about everything that can be done on the guitar. And the instrument has all kinds of color within itself, so you can play its colors against each other to a much higher degree than you can the regular guitar. Besides that, I like the sound.
Charlie Byrd

Jazz Recital (1957) signed by Charlie

I think the first time I heard it [bossa nova] anywhere – Felix Grant (WMAL DJ) played a few João Gilberto records. On my way to Brazil (in 1961), I stopped in Caracas and I met a man named Jacques Bernstein (an aficionado of jazz and all kinds of music) and he had an extensive collection of Bossa Nova. He had everything that had been recorded up to that time. And a few days later we went down to Brazil – started in the north – in Recife. I went out and played with some guys in a café, whose names I don’t remember. So that was my first exposure to playing it live.
Charlie Byrd
Bossa nova was invented by the Brazilians, but it was already an amalgamation because they liked jazz so much. They had brought in many elements of American music, and it made it much easier for us to grasp it and identify with it.
Charlie Byrd

Charlie’s Choice (1960) signed by Charlie, Keter Betts

An innovative and prolific jazz guitarist, Charlie Byrd recorded over one hundred albums. Born in rural, southern Virginia, Charlie studied music at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute before he was drafted into World War II where he saw combat. When he was discharged, he returned to the United States and eventually to New York City where he studied jazz theory and composition at the Hartnett National Music School. In 1950, Charlie moved to Washington, DC where he was classically trained by Sophocles Papas. Papas, a founder of the Columbia Music Company, was a noted guitar instructor and one of the first publishers of arrangements and original compositions for the Guitar. Papas was also a close friend of the renowned Spanish classical guitarist Andres Segovia (since Segovia's initial US recital in 1928), and he introduced Byrd to Segovia.

In the summer of 1954, Charlie studied with His Eminence in Siena, Italy. As he said of his time with Segovia, "It was like playing with God. It was a great deal more than adulation. He knew all the secrets of the acoustic guitar. I was one of several charmed souls to be in special circumstances to allow us to meet one of the world's greatest guitarists, and to learn a fraction of what he spent a lifetime learning."

Bossa Nova Pelos Passaros (1962) signed by Charlie, Keter Betts

I saw Andres Segovia perform at three recitals: Symphony Hall in Boston in 1980 and 1982, and again at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC in the mid-1980s. Each time, Segovia would make his way to the center of the cavernous stage clutching his nylon stringed classical guitar. Amid thunderous applause, he would sit down on a small bench, prop his foot on a stool and the wondrous sounds of Bach, Haydn and Villa-Lobos would envelope the hushed room. Rapt and spellbound, we watched a master deliver an impressive classical program. Though Segovia was in his late eighties, his technique was flawless and his sound luminous. Certainly, I will not challenge Charlie's assertion that Segovia was "the greatest guitarist ever on the face of the earth.” As a fitting tribute, one of his guitars (1937-1962), designed by luthier Hermann Hauser of the esteemed Hauser Guitar family, is installed at the Metropolitan Museum Of Art in New York City. Sadly, I never met Segovia, nor do I have any signed albums, but donations are warmly accepted!

Bach: Chaconne (1969) signed by Carlos Barbosa Lima

Charlie Byrd's biggest influence in jazz, however, was the fleet, three fingered Gypsy maestro Django Reinhardt. Charlie had the good fortune to see Django perform in Paris in the 1940s during the war and he was instantly changed. As fellow guitar sage Jerry Garcia once said of Django, ""His technique is awesome! Even today, nobody has really come to the state that he was playing at. As good as players are, they haven’t gotten to where he is. There’s a lot of guys that play fast and a lot of guys that play clean, and the guitar has come a long way as far as speed and clarity go, but nobody plays with the whole fullness of expression that Django has. I mean, the combination of incredible speed – all the speed you could possibly want – but also the thing of every note has a specific personality. You don’t hear it. I really haven’t heard it anywhere but with Django." Charlie's genius was to apply the nylon string classical virtuosity of Segovia and wed it to the improvisatory jazz fury of Reinhardt. The results were extraordinary.

Byrd At The Gate (1963) signed by Charlie, Keter Betts, Clark Terry

In 1961 as a substitute for Dave Brubeck, Charlie took a State Department sponsored tour of Central and South America (eighteen countries in twelve weeks!), and he fell in love with the Brazilian rhythms and melodies. Upon returning, Charlie and Stan Getz recorded Jazz Samba at Pierce Hall, All Souls Unitarian Church, in Washington, DC on February 13, 1962. As drummer Buddy Deppenschmidt recalled, "It looked like a basketball court in there. It didn't have fixed seating, just folding chairs. It almost gave me the feeling of a junior high school stage, like if you were going to see your kid in a play. There were no baffles on the walls, no glass window... (it) was like playing a concert to no people."

At The Maryland Inn (1977) signed by Charlie and Joe Byrd, Chuck Redd

A three to four studio session would change music forever. Jazz Samba became an enormous hit, selling over 1,00,000 records and it is the only jazz album ever to hit Number 1 on the Billboard Pop Charts. Almost as soon as Stan Getz won a Grammy Award in 1963 for Best Solo Jazz Performance, the fighting and bickering began. Charlie Byrd sued Getz and MGM for royalties, eventually settling with MGM for $100,000 and royalties going forward, and Byrd and Getz never recorded together again. Getz, mercurial and a bit of a misanthrope, especially when drinking, was famously described by fellow saxophone great Zoot Sims as "a nice bunch of guys." Nevertheless, the Bossa Nova craze was launched from this inauspicious and unexpected beginning, and everyone started recording and performing the songs of Antonio Carlos Jobim, Joao Gilberto, and Luiz Bonfa. Stan Getz's sublime treatment of Jobim's "The Girl From Ipanema" in 1964 engendered countless versions, and it became the second most recorded popular song after The Beatles' "Yesterday." Sammy Davis, Jr., Ella Fitzgerald, Lou Rawls, Frank Sinatra, and, even Amy Winehouse have all sung about the wiles and virtues of "The Girl From Ipanema."

Great Guitars (1976) signed by Charlie

Erin and I saw Charlie Byrd perform many times through the years. From 1980-1985, he was a part owner of Charlie's Georgetown in Washington, DC. Charlie's Georgetown was a swank supper club for jazz sophisticates and swells. Seating maybe 150 patrons, the intimate club hosted top jazz artists like Sarah Vaughan, Benny Golson, Art Farmer, Mel Torme and Joe Williams, and Charlie Byrd would perform there quite often with his trio and special guests. One memorable gig, he was playing with a group called The Great Guitars, featuring Barney Kessel and Herb Ellis. The show was a guitarist's dream as the trio traded furious guitar runs, each skilled player pushing the others on jazz standards from the Great American Songbook. Charlie's playing was so precise and lyrical while exploring the rhythms of the wonderful songs of Irving Berlin, Hoagy Carmichael, Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers, Jobim and Gilberto.

After each show, Charlie was kind and gracious. His drawl was a Southern drawl and he seemed to be every bit the laconic, Southern gentleman he was. He enjoyed looking through his catalog, especially his first album Jazz Recital, in which he looked as resplendent in formal attire as his hero Andres Segovia. He smiled when he saw The Great Guitars' albums, "That was a great group and we had a lot of fun." Yes, indeed, I felt very blessed to see them perform.

Charlie Byrd, influential across musical genres and a singularly great guitar.