Hi, I'm Marc from JazzGuitarLessons.net and you're listening to Album Deep Dives.
In this episode we will be covering Charlie Byrd and Stan Getz' seminal recording "Jazz Samba".
The importance of this record can't be overstated, it was one of the most influential recordings in the American popular music of the late 20th century. Although it was not the first recording to introduce Bossa Nova to the American public, it was the album that popularized the new Brazilian genre, and this would forever change jazz and western popular music in general.
Before we get into the record, let's begin with a little bit of background on Charlie Byrd. He was born in Virginia in 1925. He picked up the guitar from a very early age and was taught by his father who played both the guitar and mandolin. In 1943 Charlie Byrd was drafted into the USA army for World War II, and after seeing some combat, he was stationed in Paris, where he played for the Army Special Services band and toured Europe. That's amazing, being in Europe, because that's where Charlie Byrd had the chance to see and perform and jam with one of his heroes: none other than Django Reinhardt. And after returning from the war, he studied jazz and composition at the Harnett National School in Manhattan, and shortly after, he began learning classical guitar. And he studied for several years with the renowned classical player Sophocles Papas, and traveled to Italy to study with the legendary classical guitarist Andres Segovia. Around 1955 Charlie Byrd formed his own jazz trio, which fused classical guitar techniques with his love for blues and jazz. In 1961, Byrd was selected to go on a state department tour to South America. This would forever change Byrd's career and the future of American popular music as well, due to the huge impact that Brazilian music had on him and on the other members of the band that participated in this tour.
"Jazz Samba's" history is pretty controversial at times. It was recorded on February 13, 1962 at the All Souls Unitarian Church, in Washington D.C. So the record initiated the Bossa Nova craze of the 60s in the US, and sold half a million copies in 18 months, and was the only jazz album to ever be #1 on the Billboard Pop chart, and stayed on the charts for 70 weeks. So its monetary success was incredible, and this created a lot of friction throughout the years. In fact, Charlie Byrd filed a lawsuit against Stan Getz and Verve records for not receiving fair compensation.
There is no doubt that this album was the result of the previously mentioned state department tour to South America, but it is still unclear who exactly were the musicians that pushed for the album to happen. For many years, credit was given only to Charlie Byrd for coming up with the idea of recording a Bossa Nova album, convincing Verve Records to produce it, and getting Stan Getz to play. But 40 years after this album's release drummer Buddy Deppenschmidt (he was the drummer on both, the album, and the state department tour) came forward with a lawsuit issued against Verve Records, stating that he was monumental in the creation of the album, that he never received the recognition and compensation he deserved. After all, it is well known that he really loved Brazilian music, and that he spent a lot of time during the tour learning the rhythms and getting familiar with the Brazilian feel. Even Charlie Byrd stated before his death in 1999, that he wished Deppenschmidt good luck with the lawsuit, as he recognized his contributions to the album were indeed never adequately compensated. It is extremely difficult to set the record straight now on events that happened more than 40 years back, but the contributions of all the members of the band: Charlie Byrd on guitar, Buddy Deppenschmidt on drums, Keter Betts on bass, Gene Byrd on rhythm guitar and second bass, Stan Getz on tenor sax of course and Bill Reichenbach on drums and perc, should not go unnoticed.
[music clip "Desafinado" 00:00 - 00:38]
Alright, let's start with the album. So this album, this record starts with a really strong, famous tune: Jobim's "Desafinado". If you are not familiar with Jobim's history I strongly encourage you to check it out, as well as Gilberto's, of course, as they were the two most important composers and exponents of Bossa Nova. This tune starts by laying out the Bossa Nova groove in a pretty ingenious way. Brushes are used to play what would normally be played by the cabasa, an African-origin percussive instrument that is a big part of Brazilian popular music. And then the beautiful melody of this tune is played by Getz' rich velvet tone oh tenor sax, as both Byrds, that is Charlie and his brother, comp behind him with great taste. Gene plays more traditional Bossa Nova comping figures, while Charlie comps with a more jazzy approach. Charlie's solo has a funny story behind it. Actually, the musicians had agreed previously to vamp on a couple of chords behind Byrd for his solo, but Gene apparently didn't get the memo of the chord changes, and continued to play the changes to the tune. This resulted in a pretty strange harmonic background for Charlie Byrd's solo over, as the bass and perc stuck to the plan and vamped. And Charlie was forced to struggle his way through this mess, and in all honesty, the result was not as chaotic as expected. Byrd managed to combine bluesy vocabulary with more Brazilian-influenced melodies to navigate his way through the solo, and there is some pretty tasteful stuff in there, lets listen.
[music clip "Desafinado" 01:52 - 02:23]
Next up is Charlie Byrd's original composition "Samba Dees Days". This might be the tune that best summarizes this record. At the end of the day, no Brazilian musicians were involved in the production of this album, so it is difficult to argue this album is "genuine" Brazilian Bossa Nova. In fact, it was never the intention of the musicians involved for it to be as such, to be a copy of Brazilian music. It's more a homage, if you will, a tribute to the new and exciting music they discovered and came to cherish after their South American tour. "Samba Dees Days" is exactly that, it's a tune that combines lots of elements of the Jazz Manouche sound, the French sound, with Brazilian rhythms and melodies. The respect an excitement that Charlie felt for Bossa Nova can be heard here, as the rendition is driven by samba rhythmic figures all throughout. Charlie's comping again, doesn't follow traditional samba guitar figures for guitar, but instead uses lots of arpeggiated and syncopated chords to keep the momentum going. That's more I would say in the spirit of the classical guitar right? And his solo, Charlie Byrd's solo, is full of bluesy licks and Django inspired vocabulary, which makes this a pretty exciting and unique listen, let's listen.
[music clip "Samba Dees Days" 02:02 - 02:32]
"Samba Triste" by Baden Powell is a tune where Charlie Byrd's classical technique really shines. Baden Powell was a renowned Brazilian guitarist and composer that much like Byrd, combined elements of classical guitar technique with popular music. This performance, although very much rooted in the Brazilian Bossa Nova sound, has a definite Spanish guitar sound to it. This is very evident and obvious both in the introduction to the tune, along Charlie's solo. And it's not a particularly busy or flashy solo, but Byrd makes use of various classical guitar techniques to give his solo different textures and to add interest. His subdued sound and relaxed approach fits perfectly with the melancholic feeling of the tune, lets listen.
[music clip "Samba Triste" 02:07 - 02:38]
This group's version of Jobim's ingenious "Samba de Uma Nota So" is another great example of the fusion of the two worlds. Byrd plays the one note melody of course, of the tune together with the chords in the bottom, and then Stan Getz lightly improvises over it, that's brilliant. On the bridge section both instruments come together in unison and play the melody, resulting in a great contrast of texture. During Charlie's solo, we can listen to tasty bluesy ideas, to later evolve into a much more Brazilian inspired chord solo. It is pretty interesting to hear how these two different genres can live together on the same record and be so appealing to the listener. True, at this point Byrd's exploration of Brazilian music had just started a few months back, so the fusion might not be as refined than on his later albums, but we get a taste of what was to come in the near future.
[music clip "Samba De Uma Nota So" 03:19 03:49]
If you are interested in exploring more of Charlie Byrd's music, I would encourage you to check out his early records: there's "Jazz Recital", there's "Blues for Night People", "Guitar in the Wind", and "Charlie Byrd at the Village Vanguard". This last record introduced him to a much wider audience than the one he previously had in D.C. I would also strongly recommend to check out his seminal recording "The Guitar Artistry of Charlie Byrd". If you are interested in more of Charlie's approach to Bossa Nova sounds you can check out "Brazilian Soul" of course, a series of duet recordings with Brazil's great Laurindo Almeida.
I hope that you now have a better understanding and appreciation of how the record "Jazz Samba" impacted the American popular music world. Even though the album is by no means the best example of Bossa Nova music, its sounds are very appealing, and it merged the new music these musicians found in Sound America together with American jazz and blues. So this record was the catalyst for Bossa Nova to become part of the Jazz Standards repertoire forever, and it would be the first step in introducing huge exponents of this genre such as Jobim and Gilberto to the general American Public. After "Jazz Samba" Stan Getz would record with some of the most important exponents of Bossa Nova: Gilberto, Bonfa, and Almeida, and that would have a great amount of success. Charlie Byrd would also mine Bossa Nova heavily until his untimely death with lung cancer in 1999. It is unfortunate that the public didn't pay attention to Bossa Nova in its genuine form when the music first got to America with Gilberto and Jobim. But history is history, you know, and "Jazz Samba" piqued the interest of the public and opened the door for more and more Brazilian artists to show their worth in the American music scene.
