Jaki Byard

Jaki Byard, who passed away some years ago, stands out as perhaps jazz’s most adaptable keyboardist, though he also took up the trombone and displayed notable skill on tenor saxophone. Born in 1922, he came of age amid the music’s classic period and, despite being younger than Duke Ellington, absorbed every phase of its evolution from the earliest New Orleans roots to the advent of free improvisation. In any given solo recital he could demonstrate commanding command of those idioms along with R&B, stride, swing, funk, blues, honky tonk, and the lightning-fast arpeggios associated with Art Tatum. Yet Byard’s approach remained entirely personal, shaped during his initial professional years alongside Earl Bostic in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Once he left that ensemble he worked with Herb Pomeroy and Maynard Ferguson before securing a place in the celebrated Charles Mingus group that operated from 1962 to 1964 and featured Eric Dolphy. He also appeared on recordings with Dolphy and Booker Ervin, as well as with Charlie Mariano and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. One especially memorable chapter found him serving as pianist in the Mingus unit that electrified audiences across Europe in 1964. From 1961 through 1972 he released a succession of albums under his own name on Prestige—among them Hi-Fly, Here's Jaki, and Out Front!—and on additional imprints; these sessions represent his strongest output and benefited from the rhythm-section support of Richard Davis and Alan Dawson, though he never produced a substandard date. Byard turned to teaching in the early 1970s, following one more stint with Mingus in 1970, and gave instruction at Harvard, the Hartt School of Music, and the New England Conservatory while continuing to record and perform sporadically around the globe until his death from a gunshot wound in 1999.