The American jazz guitarist who introduced bossa nova to a wide American
audience with the Jazz Samba album, recorded with saxophonist Stan Getz

Jazz And Brazilian Music

Brazilian Byrd
(1964)

Charlie Byrd devoted this album to the compositions of Antonio Carlos Jobim at the crest of the bossa nova wave. Byrd had been among the first American musicians, along with Jim Hall and Kenny Dorham, to encounter the Brazilian beat, and there's a sure grasp of the idiom, particularly well suited to his classical guitar. Along with Jobim's best-known compositions like "Girl from Ipanema" and "Corcovado," Byrd plays rarer, contemporaneous treasures like the beautiful "O Amor Em Paz" and "As Praias Desertas," unfolding their melodies with loving care and subtle embellishment. The string and big band settings are tasteful and unobtrusive, a pleasant backdrop for the essential dialogue between Byrd's guitar and Jobim's songs. --Stuart Broomer (Amazon.com)

Brazilian Soul
Charlie Byrd with Laurindo Almeida
(1980)

Laurindo Almeida has been a favourite of mine since the 60's (yes, I am just an aging hippie!). My wife bought this album on vinyl years ago - we wore it out. When we saw it as a CD we tripped over each other racing to the cashier! The subtle phrasing, the interplay of these masters, the choice of songs, every facet of this gem sparkles and becomes more lustrous with repeated listening. Sometimes a song or an interpretation sounds SO SIMPLE - until you try to do it! Then you begin to understand what mastery is necessary to make things sound easy. It's so very difficult to do; Charlie Byrd and Laurindo Almeida make the most beautiful music sound simple - wizards! --an Amazon.com reviewer
 

Bossa Nova Pelos Passaros
(1962)

Without a doubt, this is Charlie Byrd's greatest work. You will find yourself spellbound by his playing. He takes no backseat to other musicians in the lineup. It's Byrd out front most the time. 7 added tunes tacked on to the original vinyl reccordings don't do it any justice unfortunately. --an Amazon.com reviewer
 

The Bossa Nova Years
with Ken Peplowski
(1991)

Among the late Charlie Byrd's many albums and CD's, I still find this one the most satisfying. No orchestra, no over-production--just great material and the guitarist confidently trading solos with Ken Peplowski on tenor sax or clarinet. Byrd's distinctive, harmonically-inventive readings of these Jobim and Bonfa classics should appeal especially to amateur musicians (like myself) seeking to explore the potential of the nylon-string guitar. Highly recommended. --an Amazon.com reviewer
 

Byrdland/Brazilian Byrd

Charlie Byrd Plays Jobim

There are large number of artists who have done these Brazilian Jobim standards over and oevr...but here is the catch...what makes these Brazilian standards stand out is the Brazilian guitar tone...which is the main instrument...in this album Charlie Byrd the only American who made it as a Brazilian guitar master ..plays all these tunes with an instrument that was written for... to begin with.. so...seat back and listen to every tune ...so fresh..and so together..even the slow ones...no dinner music here...it's just kind of music..that you'd play anywhere, anytime for anybody..regardless of what kind of musical style they are from...I guarantee it...!! --an Amazon.com reviewer

Jazz Samba
Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd
(1962)

Guitarist Charlie Byrd was invited to travel and play in Brazil during a cultural goodwill tour sponsored by the Kennedy administration in 1961. He was completely enamoured by the music, and when he returned, he headed straight for the recording studio to make the now classic Jazz Samba. Collaborating with Stan Getz on tenor sax and backed by a band that included Gene Byrd (bass, guitar), Keter Betts (bass), and Buddy Deppenschmidt and Bill Reichenbach (drums), Byrd forged a new and brilliant sound. American record companies were to churn out hundreds of watered bossa-pop albums that have since given the style its lounge-addled image, but this album stands as a tribute to the vitality and adaptability of jazz. --Louis Gibson
 

Jazz & Samba
(1995)

I have hundreds of cds and i probably listen to this one more than any other. This album has it all. herb Ellis as a guest on electric guitar adds a terrific bluesey feel to the album. If you like albums like jazz samba or jobim's works, or if you are looking to try out some acoustic guitar jazz for the first time you should try this out. Even if you do not normally like jazz this is very accesible music and that is very hard not to enjoy highly reccomended. -an Amazon.com reviewer

Latin Byrd
(1966)
 

Mr. Guitar
(1998)

Music Of The Brazilian Masters
with Laurindo Almeida and Carlos Barbosa-Lima
(1989)

This outstanding mixture of some of Brazil's best performers was cleverely mixed with one track blending beutifully with another. I hghly recommend this CD for all who love the Brazlian sound. For anyone who is new to Brazlian music, this CD is where to begin as you hear from Brazil's best. Some of these songs brought back memories of days gone by and I still long for the beaches of Rio. I also highly recomend this CD for a romantic night at home. I have no complaints about this CD nor recomendations that could make it better. --an Amazon.com reviewer
 

My Inspiration: Music Of Brazil
with Trio Da Paz
(1999)

Guitarist Charlie Byrd has revisited bossa nova numerous times since his landmark collaboration with Stan Getz, Jazz Samba, helped start the worldwide bossa craze in 1961. But My Inspiration--The Music of Brazil is one of his most successful yet. Possibly this is because he is backed on "Inspiration" by the Brazilian guitar, bass, and drums of Trio Da Paz (featuring Romero Lubambo, Nilson Matta, and Dudaka Da Fonseca), which keeps the music's rhythmic and harmonic core intact. Or possibly it's because of the wonderful Brazilian singer Maucha Adnet, who sings six tunes here, or even tenor saxophonist Scott Hamilton's uncanny updating of Getz's sound. More likely though, it's because of Byrd himself, who again proves himself one of the few non-Brazilian masters of the genre, sprinkling his distinctive classical-meets-jazz guitar style all over lovely versions of Jobim's "So Danca Samba," "Fotografia," "Agua de Beber," and others. He even displays his adventurous side with a bossa arrangement of Chopin's Prelude in E Minor (here titled "Freddie's Tune"), proving that even a familiar classical melody can sound sensuously Brazilian. --Ezra Gale (Amazon.com)
 

Solo Flight
 

Tango: Laurindo Almeida and Charlie Byrd
(1990)

Limited Availability

Aquarelle
with the Washington Guitar Quintet
(1993)
 

Brazilville
with Bud Shank

In 1953 Bud Shank recorded Brazilliance with acoustic guitarist Laurindo Almeida. That record predated Stan Getz's ventures into bossa nova by several years. You might say Bud Shank was ahead of his time. After releasing that record, Bud Shank attempted to create a sequel by releasing Brazilliance Volume 2. The sequel never quite lived up to the original. It featured Bud's flute playing and contained standards that didn't quite fit the Bossa Nova gendre. Well, it took Bud Shank 20 years to get it right, but get it right he did with Brazilville. This CD is the real followup to the original Brazilliance. This CD swings with the fire of Rio. What we have here is an acoustic rhythm trio headed by co-leader Charlie Byrd that perfectly compliments the genius of Bud Shank's alto sax. Buy this CD. It's a masterpiece that was 20 years in the making. --an Amazon.com reviewer