Jaki Byard was one of those pianists who had history in their hands. Was he “the best”? No, but like Hank Jones, Tommy Flanagan, Gene Harris, George Cables and Mal Waldron, when he plays, you can feel the authority coming from each carpal to the ivory which passes on the years of playing blues, bop and ballads with the makers of modern jazz. Byard spent many a year under the baton of Charles Mingus, as well as with Roland Kirk and Eric Dolphy, and his sense of melody going inside and outside is encyclopedic in its knowledge here, at a 1979 set of gigs in San Francisco’s Keystone Korner. He’s all by himself, so he’s fronting a big band of piano keys, and he can go flowingly melodious and romantic as on “Hello Young Lovers” and “All The Things You Are” or can deliver some wildly creative modern sounds that flow with joy as on “Family Suite” and “GEB Piano Roll.” His touch is like Midas on his own “European Episode” and he can make bubbles pop like Lawrence Welk on “For All We Know.” His distinctive and inquisitive touch makes every piece both an adventure and an education in music history. Who is out there under 50 even remotely like this guy nowadays?
High Note Records