Joe Gene Byrd

Gene Herbert "Joe" Byrd (born May 21, 1933 in Chuckatuck , Virginia , † March 6, 2012 in Edgewater , Maryland ) was an American jazz guitarist and double bass player .

Live and act

Byrd, the youngest brother of guitarist Charlie Byrd , learned guitar from his father and then turned to the double bass. He studied at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore classical music, played this time but as a bassist in local jazz clubs and on the weekends with his brother in Washington, DC in 1962 it moved this to the recordings of the album Jazz Samba by Stan Getz as additional bass player with us; on some tracks he also worked as a rhythm guitarist . In 1963 he became a bassist in the Charlie Byrd Trio , to which he belonged for almost forty years. He also went on several worldwide tours with the Great Guitars ( Barney Kessel , Herb Ellis and Charlie Byrd) and was involved in several albums for Concord . Since the late 1970s, he occasionally ran his own trio, which he focused on after his brother's death in 1999.

In the Showboat Lounge in Washington he also accompanied Teddy Wilson , with whom he became friends, Jimmy Witherspoon , Mose Allison and Coleman Hawkins . Byrd died in a car accident in March 2012.

Discographic notes

Stan Getz / Charlie Byrd Jazz Samba (1962)
Laurindo Almeida / Charlie Byrd: Tango (1985)
Charlie Byrd / Herb Ellis / Barney Kessel Straight Tracks (1990)
Basically Blues (2001)
Joe Byrd, Howard Alden Duets (2006)

Lexical entries

Leonard Feather , Ira Gitler : The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0-19-532000-X .

Web links

Individual evidence

personal data
SURNAME	Byrd, Joe Gene
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Byrd, Gene Herbert (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American jazz musician
DATE OF BIRTH	May 21, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH	Chuckatuck ( Virginia )
DATE OF DEATH	March 6, 2012
Place of death	Edgewater