Jaki Byard NYT article
Michael Fitzgerald
Jazz Artist Jaki Byard Died of Bullet Wound
by Andrew Jacobs
A jazz musician who was found dead in his Queens home on Thursday
night was killed by a gunshot wound to the head, police said.
Jaki Byard, 76, a prolific pianist who once toured Europe with Charles
Mingus, was killed by a single bullet that entered through his nose,
the New York City Medical Examiner said on Friday.
Paramedics, responding to a 911 call, found Mr. Byard dead at 11:45 PM
at the home on Hollis Avenue that he shared with two of his daughters,
the police said.
Investigators said he was last seen by his family at 6 PM on Thursday
and that he was killed about four hours later.
Detective Joseph Pentangelo, a Police Department spokesman, said no
weapon had been recovered and that investigators had no motive or
suspects in the slaying. There were no signs of robbery, forced entry
or a struggle, Detective Pentangelo said.
One of the jazz world's most enduring and eclectic musicians, Mr.
Byard played as recently as two weeks ago at a club in Boston. He was
best known for his unabashed mixing of styles and a witty stage
presence that charmed audiences. He recently recorded a compact disc
with the musician Michael Marcus, to be released in March.
Writing in The New York Times in 1989, Peter Watrous called Mr. Byard
"one of jazz's great surrealists, a comic who hasn't a moment's fear
of disturbing the sanity of the performance." Mr. Byard could
carelessly switch from bebop to swing to funk.
In the 1960's, he frequently collaborated with Charles Mingus, Charlie
Mariano, Booker Ervin and Don Ellis. In the 1970's his big band, the
Apollo Stompers, was a regular on the Greenwich Village jazz circuit.
A woman who answered the phone at Mr. Byard's home last night said
that the family was too upset to talk. "We're all just in a state of
shock right now," she said.
----------
Mike
Charles Martin in Seattle
>
>Jazz Artist Jaki Byard Died of Bullet Wound
What insanity and tragedy. To discover Jaki Byard, as I did,
playing incandescently on Mingus's European Concert
recordings, to search out his other works, to see him live
and have the privilege of chatting with him once between
sets (we talked a little bit of pianists like Clyde Hart and
Billy Kyle) ...
and then to see his life end like this. What I feel is
shock, shame and something beyond words.
o-------= Charles Martin =--o
Richard G. Wright
I just saw this jazz documentary about him last month... (And prior to that
I didn't know anything about him)....
It feels like we constantly lose the good ones....
Last month Michel Petrucciani & know Jaki....
I have no records by either...
Could someone recommend CD's for both men???? (I saw a live double CD by
Petrucciani in Borders last week and almost bought it... Does anyone have
this record????)
Matthieu Jouan
>
> >Jazz Artist Jaki Byard Died of Bullet Wound
>
Wasn't he one of the last greatest pianist ?
Men, it's too sad.
J'ai toujours du mal à le croire.
Et franchement, j'ai plus les boules que quand Petrucciani est mort, pas
vous ?
>
>
--
Matthieu regarde les Hommes tomber...
mailto:jo...@easynet.fr
So What,
the case of the three sided dream in audio-color.
Mark Zaborney
What a tragedy.
I know of his work with Mingus. I'd appreciate any suggestions in re his
best work otherwise. (All I have is his duo piano session with Earl Hines
from the 1970s.)
Many thanks.
Jack Woker
(Concord) is a great start, and I'd also recommend Eric Dolphy's
"Outward Bound" and "Far Cry", anything with Mingus is also good.
Personally, my favorites are the solo piano albums he made for Prestige
and Xanadu, as well as the Maybeck.
jack
Douglas Norwood
section which backed many fine soloists in the 60s and 70s, most notably
Booker Ervin and Roland Kirk. Bass was usually Richard Davis.
-
DOUGLAS NORWOOD LNB...@prodigy.com
Charles Martin in Seattle
>Personally, my favorites are the solo piano albums he made for Prestige
>and Xanadu, as well as the Maybeck.
Those are indeed fine. The man had superb quality control.
I'll always remember listening to "Parkeriana" on the Mingus
European Concert (billed as the "Great Concert" on my old
LP, quite appropriately) and hearing, in the midst of all
the intense, progressive, and very serious jazz, Jaki
breaking out into a stride piano solo. More than anyone I
can think of, he encompassed the entire history of jazz in
his playing.
o-------= Charles Martin =--o
jrei...@my-dejanews.com
How about the session with Rahsaan Roland Kirk? It's _The Jaki Byard
Experience_ (OJC 1913)from 1968. With Richard Davis (bass) and Alan Dawson
(drums).
John
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tst...@businessobjects.com
"Mark Zaborney" <mzab...@wcnet.org> wrote:
> RIP, Jaki Byard.
> What a tragedy.
> I know of his work with Mingus. I'd appreciate any suggestions in re his
> best work otherwise. (All I have is his duo piano session with Earl Hines
> from the 1970s.)
Wow! Tell me about that record with Earl Hines!!
In the 60's, Byard played on a series of great records by tenor saxophonist
Booker Ervin, also featuring Richard Davis on bass and Alan Dawson on drums.
It was the "Book" series: "The Freedom Book," "The Space Book" and a couple
of others. I believe the personnel was the same on all of them. Wonderful
music.
- Tom Storer
"When you're swinging, swing some more." - Thelonious Monk
Jean-Etienne Doucet
With Joe Farrell, George Tucker and Alan Dawson;
on some tracks Farrell plays drums while Dawson takes vibes.
Jaki can be heard in his chasracteristic style, ranging from
stride to free piano evocations.
This originally was on 3 Prestige LPs: I actually have the
first two; missed the 3rd due to lack of cash (it was 30 years ago,
and I was a student then, with not much money :-(
OJC has reissued one CD with whole of the 1st Lp and 3/4 of
the second (three tracks out of four). I wish OJC (or Fantasy
or anyone else) would reissue all the 3 LPs on a 2 CDs pack:
that would be a nice reissue IMHO...
Bye.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Jean-Etienne Doucet / LAAS-CNRS / Toulouse, France E-mail: dou...@laas.fr
Douglas Norwood
>
, ...Jaki breaking out into a stride piano solo. More than anyone I
>can think of, he encompassed the entire history of jazz in
>his playing.
>
>
>o-------= Charles Martin =--o
I can't recall where I heard it, perhaps on one of Byard's appearances on
the Marian McPartland NPR series, but someone once suggested that Jaki's
use of stride and other classic styles might be satiric. He made it
clear that this was NOT the case.
-
DOUGLAS NORWOOD LNB...@prodigy.com
Jack Woker
>
> How about Live at Lennie's on the Turnpike ?
> With Joe Farrell, George Tucker and Alan Dawson;
> on some tracks Farrell plays drums while Dawson takes vibes.
> Jaki can be heard in his chasracteristic style, ranging from
> stride to free piano evocations.
>
> This originally was on 3 Prestige LPs: I actually have the
> first two; missed the 3rd due to lack of cash (it was 30 years ago,
> and I was a student then, with not much money :-(
I was at one of the nights they recorded at Lennie's. The LP's are
great mementos, and this was a hell of a great band. There are only two
LP's from this gig:
Prestige 7419 - Volume 1
Prestige 7477 - Volume 2
The CD of these two albums is missing the track "Shiny Stockings". One
additional track from these sessions is on Prestige 7524, "On the Spot",
but the rest of the LP is from a later studio date with a different
lineup. According to the Prestige session files, there is a whole lot
of unissued material from these two nights. Wouldn't a boxed set of the
complete Lennie's recordings make a nice memorial to Jaki? Probably
never happen.
jack
SwingJ2
Tom, this was recorded Feb. 14, 1972, produced by Don Schlitten for MPS
records.
There is one solo each and duet on the following A Toodle-Oo,Toodle-Oo- This is
always, Rosetta, Sweet Georgia Brown,As long as I live,La Rosita. Original
release (1975): MPS 15376 "Duet". Mike Hennessey
wrote the liner notes.
E.Thompson
TJ Bernard
is what the Toronto Star said:Jazz Pianist Shot dead: Jazz pianist
Jackie Byard, who recorded with major stars, was shot dead Thursday in
the Queen's NY home he shared with his daughters........The rest of the
story deals with his playing achievements.
Is that all there is to the story? Is this an everyday occurence in
Queens NY ? .... does getting shot dead in your own apartment in Queens
NY equal dying of natural causes elsewhere ?
This is not intended as a slur on Queens Ny but it is a comment on the
terrible quality of reporting that is normal for the Toronto Star.....
Canada's biggest, dumbest and most politically correct newspaper ! What
was the gist of the NYT's article? Why did JB get shot? Was it just a
break-in that went wrong ?
TJ
--
To reply please remove the word NOSPAM from my E Mail address.
Thank you
Matt Snyder
I posted the NY Times obituary yesterday, which gives all the
information currently available.
Matt Snyder
http://msnyder.dragonfire.net
To email me, remove NOSPAM from my address.
Charles Martin in Seattle
>the Marian McPartland NPR series, but someone once suggested that Jaki's
>use of stride and other classic styles might be satiric. He made it
>clear that this was NOT the case.
Certainly. He played it with too much love and respect --
and technique. When I first heard it, on the Mingus Great
Concert album, I was 18 or so, and didn't know what to
think. But even then one could tell he meant it.
o-------= Charles Martin =--o
tst...@businessobjects.com
tjbe...@NOSPAM.sympatico.ca wrote:
> Not wanting to sound ghoulish but what happened to Jackie Byard ? This
> is what the Toronto Star said:Jazz Pianist Shot dead: Jazz pianist
> Jackie Byard, who recorded with major stars, was shot dead Thursday in
> the Queen's NY home he shared with his daughters........The rest of the
> story deals with his playing achievements.
>
> Is that all there is to the story? Is this an everyday occurence in
> Queens NY ? .... does getting shot dead in your own apartment in Queens
> NY equal dying of natural causes elsewhere ?
The reporting only reflects the mysterious circumstances. Family members were
in the house with Byard at the time he died and report hearing nothing. No
murder weapon was found and there was no evidence of a break-in or struggle.
jb...@or219a.e1.iit.edu
Byard is on an unlikely album: the Nino Rota Amacourd project by Hal
Wilner. This is a project from the early 80s of different artists doing
some of Rota's music from Felini films.
Byard's contributions consist of a long solo covering several Rota themes,
as well as a song from the film La Strada.
I think the Byard's stride stylings work great with these themes.
Jeff
Bill Hery
TJ Bernard <tjbe...@NOSPAM.sympatico.ca> wrote:
>Is that all there is to the story? Is this an everyday occurence in
>Queens NY ? .... does getting shot dead in your own apartment in Queens
>NY equal dying of natural causes elsewhere ?
>
>terrible quality of reporting that is normal for the Toronto Star.....
Well, it might not be intended as a slur, but it looks like you are
using the same tactics as the Toronto Star!
First, relevant facts: (paraphrased form the first NYT report
you werer replying to): other members of his family were home,
there was no sign of forced entry, robbery, a struggle, or other
crime. The police are investigating, but to me that sounds like he was
murdered by someone he knew. (Has suicide been ruled out?)
(The rest of this has no jazz content, so feel free to skip it.)
Second, for those who do not know Queens, NY. It is one of the five
boroughs of New York City, and is primarily a middle class region of
over a million people. Many of the residents commute to Manhattan to
work. There are many different named towns/neighborhoods in Queens,
including Astoria, Corona, Flushing, Kew Gardens, Forest Hills, Jackson
Heights, Rockaway, Jamaica, and St. ALbans, to name a few
that are well known under their own name. There are many ethnic
neighborhhods, including European, Latin, Asian, and African American.
Although mostly middle class, there are some poor sections and some
very upscale sections (when US TV was centered in NY in the 50s and
60s, many of the producers/directors/stars lived in Forest Hills).
I haven't looked at the crime rates lately, but it used to be
one of the "safest" parts of NYC. Like any place in the world, though,
it is not immune from crime. There have been two notorious murders
that I can recall: Kitty Genovese was murdered at night in a street in
an upscale neighborhood in the 1960s, and in spite of much screaming
and people looking out windows and seeing a crime take place, no one
called the police. In the 1980, was the "Howard Beach" murder, when an
African American stopped at a fast food restuarant in a very white
middle class neighborhood (Howard Beach), and was chased by a gang. He
was cornerd and ran onto a highway to try to escape, where he was run
down by a car and killed. Several members of that gang went to jail.
I'm not sure where Jaki lived, but I belive it was in or near St.
Albans. I haven't been in the area for several years, but this used to
be an upper middle class, primarily African American area that over
the years has been the home to many successful jazz musicians,
including Louis Armstrong.
Many famous people have come from Queens, although since it is part of
NYC, their place of birth is ususally listed as New York. I can't
think of any major jazz musicians (New York probably sounds better to
the jazz community), but Tony Bennett (Astoria), Paul Simon and ARt
Garfunkel (Forest Hills), are certianly well known mucians. Nobel
Laureate physicist Feynman (and possible Murray Gell-Mann--I'm not
positive about him), and tennis stars John McEnroe, Vitas Geralitis,
and Mary Carillo are a few others.
Yes, I grew up in Queens (Glendale), but I haven't lived there for 25
years :-). And I don't know why I bothered to post thie either :-)
Bill Hery
email: my surname at bell-labs.com
TJ Bernard
< snip >
> Well, it might not be intended as a slur, but it looks like you are
> using the same tactics as the Toronto Star!>>>>>>
That was not my intention and if you got that message then I apologize
for that because it was not intended to be read that way !I was trying
to say that the Toronto Star gave you the impression that a great artist
was shot dead in his house in Queens and the newspaper made no attempt
to clarify the nature of the crime as if it was not necessary. As if to
say this is NYC.... people get shot everyday ......even in their
houses...so what.....So the guy was a Jazz musician...what do you
expect?....he probably lived in a seedy and sleezy part of NYC
and...drugs were involved...the usual stuff.......etc etc ad nauseum I
believe that they were cavalier and basically ignorant in dealing with
JB's obituary. I also didn't know anything about Queen's until I read
your post and I was actually hoping that someone would really say as you
have.....this is a city like any other place..it is not a crime infested
area where anarchy is the order of the day..a serious crime has been
committed and it is a significant event not an everyday occurence to be
lightly dismissed...........something is being done about it !.....
It is evident from your post and the NYT's accounting that this
occurence is not being treated lightly and that a rigorous investigation
is subsequently occuring.
(Through this NG I was later able to get the actual story from the NYT.
What a difference in the telling of the event. )
I want to thank you for taking the time to explain what Queens is all
about. I for one really appreciated your account and the detail that you
have included helps to clarify and make understandable what this huge
city is all about. It's not easy to know what it really is like living
in such a city when you don't go there very often and you are dependant
on local newspapers for information on what is happening there.
John Monroe
> First, relevant facts: (paraphrased form the first NYT report
> you werer replying to): other members of his family were home,
> there was no sign of forced entry, robbery, a struggle, or other
> crime. The police are investigating, but to me that sounds like he was
> murdered by someone he knew. (Has suicide been ruled out?)
Since I've been watching too much "Law and Order" on TV, my immediate
thought was that Mr. Byard's death was some kind of complicated plot, but
I'll bet it will turn out to be something simple, and therefore all the
more depressing. What a senseless loss. I've been listening to some of
my favorite Byard performances; he left a beautiful legacy, at least.
Those records with Booker Ervin and that "magic" rhythm section of Dawson
and Davis -- wow.
Strangely, none of his family members heard anything, but this is
probably explained by the thickness of the walls, if it's an old house; he
could well have had a sound-proofed studio, too.
John Monroe
Steve Smith
> I'm not sure where Jaki lived, but I belive it was in or near St. Albans.
Jaki lived in Hollis, which does have a reputation for being a bit rough...
the rap group Run-DMC also hailed from there.
> Many famous people have come from Queens, although since it is part of
> NYC, their place of birth is ususally listed as New York. I can't think of
> any major jazz musicians [snip]
Well, here is a partial (!) list of the stops on the "Queens Jazz Trail"
tour organized by Flushing Town Hall (the most active jazz performance venue
in Queens), which features "Homes of Jazz Legends - Past and Present," not
all of whom "hailed from " Queens but all of whom lived here at some point
or another:
Astoria: Tony Bennett
Bayside: Clark Terry
Cambria Heights: Paul Gonzalves, Chick Corea
Corona: Louis Armstrong (this will open to the public as an Armstrong museum
next year), Cannonball and Nat Adderley, Dizzy Gillespie, Jimmy Heath, Jimmy
Rushing, Charlie Shavers, Clark Terry
East Elmhurst: Ray Bryant, Honi Coles, Junior Mance
Elmhurst: Mose Allison
Flushing: Bill Doggett, Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holiday
Flushing Cemetary: Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Johnny Hodges, Charlie
Shavers
Forest Hills: Mildred Bailey, Red Nichols, Red Norvo, Buddy Rich, Tony
Spargo
Hollis: Jaki Byard, Roy Eldridge, Roy Haynes, Milt Jackson, Phil Schaap,
Lennie Tristano, Benny Waters
Jackson Heights: Benny Goodman, Woody Herman, Mezz Mezrow, Glenn Miller,
Charlie Spivak
Jamaica: Perry Bradford, Buck Clayton, Budd Johnson, James P. Johnson,
Charles Mingus, Big Nick Nicholas, Al Sears, Eva Taylor, Ben Webster, Cootie
Williams, Clarence Williams, Fess Williams
St. Albans: Joe Banjamin, John Coltrane, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Osie
Johnson, Wendell Marshall, Mal Waldron, Lester Young
St. Albans (Addisleigh Park): Count Basie, Brook Benton, Earl Bostic, James
Brown, "Wild Bill" Davis, Mercer Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Milt Hinton,
Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, Illinois Jacquet, Russell Jacquet, Rose Murphy,
Oliver Nelson, Slam Stewart, Fats Waller, Cootie Williams
St. Michael's Cemetary: Scott Joplin
Springfield Gardens: Albert "Tootie" Heath, Percy Heath, Jimmy Jones
Sunnyside: Bix Beiderbecke
Also, not included in the above exhaustive tour, I know that Ravi Coltrane
lives quite near where I live, in Astoria. Incidentally, nowadays I know
far more jazz musicians living in Brooklyn than in Queens, but I've no doubt
they're still here as well.
Steve Smith
ssmi...@sprynet.com
(currently residing in Long Island City, borough of Queens, NYC, NY)
NP - Haino Keiji with Greg Cohen and Joey Baron, _An Unclear Trial: More
Than This_
Helge Gundersen
> In addition to the work with Mingus and Dolphy, some of my favorite
> Byard is on an unlikely album:
A recording from the 90's where Jaki Byard sounds very inspired, relaxed,
and liberated (as the liner note writer also points out) is Chuck
Florence: Home on the Range (Cadence Jazz Records). The relative unknowns
he's playing with (including the leader) are in good form, too, and
everything clicks, as they say. I always get elevated when listening to
this CD. One of the highpoints is a jaunty solo by Byard on one of the
tracks that can make one shout with joy.
-- Helge
Matt Snyder
wrote:
>Well, here is a partial (!) list of the stops on the "Queens Jazz Trail"
>tour organized by Flushing Town Hall (the most active jazz performance venue
>in Queens), which features "Homes of Jazz Legends - Past and Present," not
>all of whom "hailed from " Queens but all of whom lived here at some point
>or another:
>
>Flushing: Bill Doggett, Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holiday
Add reedman Danny Bank to the list of Flushing residents.
greg pavlov
>
>In the 60's, Byard played on a series of great records by tenor saxophonist
>Booker Ervin, also featuring Richard Davis on bass and Alan Dawson on drums.
>It was the "Book" series: "The Freedom Book," "The Space Book" and a couple
>of others. I believe the personnel was the same on all of them. Wonderful
>music.
>
- but not "The Blues Book"; the pianist on that one was Gildo
Mahones. [I'm not into nitpicking, but I don't want someone
to pick this one up because they assume Byard is on it].
greg pavlov
[not affiliated with DFCI or Harvard]
Mike Zimbouski
<ssmi...@sprynet.com> wrote:
> Steve Smith
> ssmi...@sprynet.com
> (currently residing in Long Island City, borough of Queens, NYC, NY)
> NP - Haino Keiji with Greg Cohen and Joey Baron, _An Unclear Trial: More
> Than This_
Ooh! How is that? Is it similar to Haino's Fushitsusha stuff, or is it a
whole new thing?
Mike Z
Steve Voce
into the next room and there was Jackie shot dead through the nose (it
was not suicide). The daughters hadn't heard any sound.
In article <36C9BC...@NOSPAM.sympatico.ca>, TJ Bernard <tjbernard@NO
SPAM.sympatico.ca> writes
>Not wanting to sound ghoulish but what happened to Jackie Byard ? This
>is what the Toronto Star said:Jazz Pianist Shot dead: Jazz pianist
>Jackie Byard, who recorded with major stars, was shot dead Thursday in
>the Queen's NY home he shared with his daughters........The rest of the
>story deals with his playing achievements.
>
>Is that all there is to the story? Is this an everyday occurence in
>Queens NY ? .... does getting shot dead in your own apartment in Queens
>NY equal dying of natural causes elsewhere ?
>
>This is not intended as a slur on Queens Ny but it is a comment on the
>terrible quality of reporting that is normal for the Toronto Star.....
>Canada's biggest, dumbest and most politically correct newspaper ! What
>was the gist of the NYT's article? Why did JB get shot? Was it just a
>break-in that went wrong ?
>
>TJ
--
Steve Voce
Steve Smith
> > NP - Haino Keiji with Greg Cohen and Joey Baron, _An Unclear Trial: More
> > Than This_
>
> Ooh! How is that? Is it similar to Haino's Fushitsusha stuff, or is it a
> whole new thing?
I'm inclined to say "whole new thing," though I am far from an expert in
Haino's ouevre. Think of this as Haino's "jazz" record... the Masada rhythm
section helping him realize his fantasy of playing a big, open-bodied Wes
Montgomery kind of sound but with Haino still hewing to his own kind of
metaphysical fussing about with insistently repeated figures and the like. It
definitely stands apart. The average jazz guitar fan might not find much
here, but for the Haino fan it's a refreshing departure. Joey and Greg are
excellent as usual. One of the tracks seems to apply Derek Bailey's crab claw
sound to an almost conventional bluesy structure. Odd, to say the least.
I understand that this month Tzadik will be issuing a "power trio" recording
by Haino, Bill Laswell and Rashied Ali...
Steve Smith
ssmi...@sprynet.com
NP - Henry Threadgill Sextet, "This," _Subject to Change_ (About Time LP 1007)
(having just attended the mostly memorable Fred Hopkins Memorial concert in
Harlem, including the finest little World Saxophone Quartet performance it's
ever been my pleasure to experience, not to mention a transcendent set by
Lester Bowie's Brass Fantasy... review to be posted soon...)