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  • Photos In Black, White And Gray

    SRCD0021

    Artist: Chris Byars

    Label: Smalls Records

    Chris Byars (tenor sax, alto sax, soprano sax), Sacha Perry (piano), Ari Roland (bass), Andy Watson (drums). Recorded 11/3/06 at Leon Lee Dorsey Studio.

    It seems as though we’re only beginning to catch up with Chris Byars. That’s our fault. Byars-the-artist himself was established in New York first at age 7 with the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, and later with George Balanchine. His career between ages 7-14 encompasses over a thousand performances around the world. He starred notably in Balanchine’s production of The Spellbound Child (L'Enfant et les Sortileges), which the New York Times (5/25/81) called “…quite magical and enchanting…a television classic.” I think it’s fair to say he was a prodigy. The continuation of his musical and artistic career as a composer, arranger, and multi-saxophonist for over 20 years has been just as distinguished. This is where we walked in. Now Chris Byars is one of the most brilliant players alive today, in a league with the late Frank Hewitt and very few others. We’ve documented some of Byars’ art in previous releases (Across 7 Street-Made In New York/SRCD-0002; Sasha Dobson with the Chris Byars Octet-The Darkling Thrush/SRCD-0005; The Frank Hewitt Quintet-Four Hundred Saturdays/SRCD-0010; The Chris Byars Octet-Night Owls/SRCD-0013; Ari Roland-Sketches From a Bassist’s Album/SRCD-0012). Here though is the first small group record documenting Byars exclusively on compositions from his book. But that’s a big book, so catching ...