Don Byas: Don Byas at Nalen with Jan Johansson – review

(Riverside)Don Byas was a tenor-sax genius whose name never appeared in lights as bright as those of Lester Young, Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins or Sonny Rollins. Patchy live recordings of decades-old jazz by non-stars rarely qualify for this slot, but these tracks from Stockholm's Nalen club in 1962 are special cases: for his inventiveness, his importance as a 1930s-swing player who got the point of 40s bebop, and for the piano-playing of the shortlived Swedish player Jan Johansson. Four Nalen t...

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