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An exceptionally brilliant eclecticism
Chris Searle on Jazz

Jaki Byard
Sunshine of My Soul (High Note) 
A Matter of Black and White (High Note) 
The Late Show (High Note)

 

THE most eclectically brilliant and versatile pianist of a century of jazz, Jaki Byard — born in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1922 — could play everything, in every piano style or genre, from blues, gospel and stride to post-bop and the avant garde.

As a young man, and later in the US army, he played a host of instruments — piano, trumpet, guitar, drums, trombone, as well as tenor saxophone on which he was excellent.

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