Jaki Byard 'Besame Mucho' Keystone Korner, San Francisco, 1978

This performance of Besame Mucho is adventurous and, at the same time, completely accessible and fun. It's not that far removed from the extemporaneous rhapsodies of the great New Orleans pianist James Booker, who was coincidentally enjoying one of his career's best years in 1978 (Booker toured Europe that year and got some of the acclaim that never really came to him during his lifetime in the United States). Byard had bebop, post-bop, and avant-garde jazz chops that Booker never had an interest in developing, but Byard also had an interest in more popular genres like stride piano and rhythm and blues, and he like to mix it up in his solo performances. The bottom line is that both Booker and Byard were fabulously gifted solo pianists who in a perfect world would be much better known than they are.

The photo comes from the http://jakibyard.jazzgiants.net/ website, and unfortunately, no photo credit was given. No infringement is intended, and thank you to whoever took the photo, and to Jaki Byard and Todd Barkan. Please support them both by buying "Sunshine of My Soul: Live at the Keystone Korner" on High Note Records.

Видео Jaki Byard 'Besame Mucho' Keystone Korner, San Francisco, 1978 канала Jesus O'Nazareth