Byas was that underrated tenor man, the missing link between Coleman Hawkins’ swinging melodic tendencies and John Coltrane’s “sheets of sound” flurries and allegedly “angry” playing.
The first few measures of “Laura” encapsulate Byas’ playing: he used a Rico 3 reed on a Florida Otto Link 3* (for those who don’t play tenor sax or just don’t care that much, it’s a light, brash reed on a narrow, brash mouthpiece: normally you wouldn’t put the two “brash” elements together): the resulting sound was, in Byas’ hands and mouth at least, simultaneously loud and powerful, and whispering and tender.
Dig “Laura”: (more…)
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