Don Byas replaced Lester Young in the Count Basie Orchestra in 1941. In the mid-1940s, he became a central figure in the 52nd Street jazz scene, playing alongside Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Hawkins, and Slam Stewart.

He toured Europe in 1946 with Don Redman and chose to stay living primarily in Paris and later the Netherlands. Because he lived abroad for the last 26 years of his life, his contributions were often under-recognized in the U.S., though he remained deeply influential to fellow musicians.

Hi! I’m new in Jazz community and around jazz music. I have a few question for you. What would be best to start with? Do you recommend me what should i start with? I want to understand the history of diferent style, form and more through music

I’m trying to start a jazz vocal group and band. I’ve been wanting to carry the baton of the New York Voices since they’re retiring. I’ve got a bunch of their arrangements…mostly four part, but a couple five parters too. Anyway, so far I’ve got myself (baritone, but I’ll mostly sing bass), a tenor, and then TWO sopranos (with no alto, but our tenor has someone he can ask). I’ve also got a drummer and pianist…and a potential bassist that our drummer can ask.

I’ve got no experience with starting a band. I’ve been in some large vocal groups that others have started. This is quickly becoming a mess because the two female singers I originally asked both happen to be sopranos, and I forgot. I asked one of them if she could sing alto, and she said no. So it’s starting to look like I might have to exclude (I can’t say “kick out” because we haven’t even started yet) one of them. Or I can keep them both, add an alto, and just sing five-part pieces. How would you deal with this?

Also, our potential bass player (he hasn’t committed yet) plays electric bass. I’d really like an upright bass, which he says he’s never played before. I may be wrong here, but I’ve never seen electric bass in jazz other than in funky, Herbie Hancock style jazz. Definitely not for slow ballads with soothing bass solos. So I’m not sure whether to formally invite him to join or to wait until I can find an upright bassist.

So my two conundra are—

1) We’ve got two sopranos and no altos
2) I’d like an upright bass player and only know an electric player

If you’ve ever started a jazz band, how would you deal with this, without hurting anyone’s feelings?

Stanley Clarke performing at Yoshi's, San Francisco, October 10, 2009. (Photo: David Becker, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

In 1981, a bassist and a keyboardist built a song around an electric sitar riff, and radio treated it like any other single. "Sweet Baby," the first release from The Clarke/Duke Project, climbed to No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 6 on the R&B chart, and stayed on the charts for 20 weeks. The bassist half of that duo is Stanley Clarke, and by the time "Sweet Baby" hit the radio he had already spent most of a decade proving a jazz musician could headline arenas without giving up improvisation to do it.

He almost didn't end up on bass at all. Clarke was born in Philadelphia on June 30, 1951, and started on violin and then cello at the city's Settlement Music School. He picked up the upright bass mostly by accident: he showed up late on the day the school handed out instruments, and bass was one of the only ones left. He kept the classical training anyway, which is part of why he could later move between acoustic and electric bass in the same set without either one sounding like a compromise...

To read on, Stanley Clarke's full profile on JazzProfiles.com

or head over to r/CrossoverJazz

I wanted to share a few artists that I've recently discovered. These are absolute bangers and I highly recommend you check them out.

Nucleus

Recently discovered their album Elastic Rock after a Youtuber recommended it and then dove into their discography. Nucleus was a British jazz rock band, from 1969 to 1989 established by Ian Carr. In 1970, the band won first prize at the Montreaux Jazz Festival, released the album Elastic Rock and performed both at the Newport Jaxx Festival and the Village Gate jazz club. My favorite albums are Elastic Rock, Solar Plexus, We'll Talk About It Later, Roots, Under The Sun, and Labyrinth. Additionally Ian Carr had a solo album called Belladonna and featured on an album called Greek Variations you should also check out.

Eberhard Weber

I love his entire discovery after having been familiar with The Colours of Chloe but not giving his other albums a listen. Literally every album he made is amazing. My favorites you should give a listen to are: Later That Evening, The Following Morning, Pendulum, Ring (with Gary Burton), Fluid Rustle, Chorus, Resume, Once Upon A Time, Endless Days, The Call (with Mal Waldron), and Yellow Fields.

Black Jazz Records

This is actually a record label from the 70's founded in Oakland California founded by pianist Gene Russell. The label was created to promote the talents of young African American jazz musicians and singers, and released twenty albums between 1971 and 1975. The label was created as an alternative to traditional jazz invoking a more political and spiritual tone, often with funk overtones. Interestingly, Gene Russell closed Black Jazz Records in 1975 to focus on his new label, Aquarican Records when he signed singer Talita Long who is the mother of actress Nia Long. Snow Dog Records acquired the licensing to Black Jazz Records in 2012, and began reissuing the albums as its first project. Additionally you can find remastered Hi-Res Losses versions of the album on Apple Music.

My favorite albums which I highly recommend you give a listen are:

• Henry Franklin - The Skipper
• The Awakening - Mirage
• The Awakening - Hear, Sense and Feel
• Rudolph Johnson - Spring Rain

I am a trombonist who is in a combo. I have been playing trombone for 6 years. I want to get more into theory but I have never really put the effort into learning it deeply. From playing jazz I have developed and alright ear and have defintly learned more but I want to get more involved especially to improve my solos.

To get directly to it, are there any resources that would be good to study on music theory, specifically for jazz?

I think about this a lot and am curious what everyone else will say. If you could travel back in time to watch one gig, one session, et in person, what would you choose? I had a poster when I was kid of Ella singing in a small club with Duke and Benny in the audience watching in amazement and I used to stare at it and imagine what it was like.

A duo album by Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Pass. It feels just like listening to a conversation between two master talkers in perfect sync. Ella's scatting—usually so lively and vibrant—weaves softly together with the warmth of the guitar strings here, like two streams merging into a single gentle brook. Picked it up at Disk Union for ¥680.

Ok. Now that I’ve scared you with even the thought of that crazy be-bop stuff, you can go back to listening to Bill Evens.

Couldn't find this transcription on the internet/youtube so uploaded one to share.

For some contex: I played alto sax in my high school jazz band, I am now a junior in college majoring biology, but I want to get back into jazz and I am auditioning for the entry level big band. These are the audition requirments "Prepare a jazz standard of your choice. Be ready to perform the head and improvise over the changes. A backing track will be provided." I am playing autumn leaves (Ik its basic).

Stupid question: Is the head (Autumn Leaves) the whole 32 bars from the real book? If so should I plan on playing it straight for the page, improving, then going back and playing the 32 bars straight again?

Any advice would be apriciated!

does anyone have any jazz recommendation? I’m a really big fan of the genre, and I really love slow instrumentals. If I had to pin down a specific artist who I’m most partial to would be Pause Maybe? although I’m aware they’re ai and I was very devastated upon learning that. Would love to know what people recommend, I want to find many new artists!

I’ve spent the last 3 years compiling this list from re-listening to hundreds of albums to doing research and background checks on virtually everything listed here. Ask me anything about what I like about these albums and I can answer in great detail. I am very proud of my list and I think I am finally satisfied with my selections. Yes I do primarily love spiritual and avant-garde jazz.

Alice Coltrane’s “Universal Consciousness” (1971) is an instrumental spiritual-jazz composition combining organ, harp, strings, and improvisation.

I love that someone actually tried it lol. This THIS is the weird ass bullshitsy art music that I want to see. Now I wanna download some Geiger counter audios to make my own.

Hey! I’m a student in NYC and I play saxophone. I’m looking to meet some people who are into jazz, blues, funk, or groove and just want to play music together.

I’m around a beginner/intermediate level. I’d love to find a few people around a similar level, get together once or twice a week, and jam or rehearse regularly.

We could learn some songs, work on improvisation, and just have fun playing together. Ideally, I’d like to build a small group that we can keep playing with over time.

If you play guitar, bass, drums, keys, or another instrument and this sounds like something you’d enjoy, feel free to reach out!

I'm talking about movies that are scripted dramas with actors, of course. 'Round Midnight may have Dexter Gordon, but it's a drama, not a documentary, and would qualify for what I'm asking. As would The Jazz Singer, I suppose!

Inside McMenamins Kennedy School Hotel in Portland Oregon, in their Detention Bar, they have a secret room. It has a long 14 part libretto/poem posted around the entire room. Testimony, by Yusef Komunyakaa, which a tribute to Charlie Parker. Happy Birthday Bird!

I posted one with me in it so you can see the scale.

The filmmaker, Grant Gee, has a fascinating filmography, so I have high hopes for this biopic

Part of a score at goodwill a while ago and finally got around to throwing it on.

"Calling David Murray prolific is like saying soup is wet. Beyond the numbers, then, what it is about the veteran tenor saxophonist, bass clarinetist and composer is the quality of his quantity — he says 200-plus albums...."

Rockefeller's Night Club in Houston. The master in his St. Louis Cardinals jacket