Representative Albums: "Bug Music," "Do the Boomerang: The Music of Junior Walker," "Tuskegee Experiments"
Biography
An inspired eclectic, Byron has performed an array of musical styles with great success. Byron first attained a measure of notoriety for playing Klezmer, specifically the music of the late Mickey Katz. While the novelty of a black man playing Jewish music was enough to grab the attention of critics, it was Byron's jazz-related work that ultimately made him a major figure. Byron is an exceptional clarinetist from a technical perspective; he also possesses a profound imagination that best manifests itself in his multifarious compositions. At heart, Byron is a conceptualist. Each succeeding album seems based on a different stylistic approach, from the free jazz/classical leanings of his first album, Tuskegee Experiments (Nonesuch, 1992), to the hip-hop/funk of Nu Blaxpoitation (Blue Note, 1998). Byron's composition "There Goes the Neighborhood" was commissioned by the Kronos Quartet and premiered in London in 1994. He's also composed for silent film, served as the director of jazz for the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and scored for television. Byron was born and raised in New York City, the son of a mailman who also occasionally played bass in calypso bands, and a mother who dabbled on piano. As a child, Byron developed asthma; his doctor suggested he take up a wind instrument as therapy. Byron chose clarinet. His South Bronx neighborhood had a sizeable Jewish population, which partly explains his fascination with Klezmer. Byron was encouraged by his parents to learn about all different kinds of music, from Leonard Bernstein to Dizzy Gillespie. Byron's models on clarinet included Tony Scott, Artie Shaw, and especially Jimmy Hamilton. As an improviser, Joe Henderson was a prominent influence. As a teenager, Byron studied clarinet with Joe Allard. Byron attended the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied with George Russell. While at NEC, Byron was recruited to play in Hankus Netsky's Klezmer Conservatory Band. Byron moved from Boston back to New York in the mid-'80s, where he began playing with several of the city's more prominent jazz avant-gardists, including David Murray, Craig Harris, and Hamiet Bluiett. A year after recording Tuskegee Experiments, Byron made Plays the Music of Mickey Katz(Nonesuch), which put something of an end to his Klezmer career (at least in terms of recording). Byron's career built steadily over the course of the '90s. By the end of the decade he had signed with Blue Note records. While hardly a radical, Byron is an original voice within the bounds of whatever style he happens to embrace. ~ Chris Kelsey, All Music Guide
Though rooted in jazz, Byron's music is stylistically eclectic. He's worked in many different musical genres, ranging from klezmer music and German lieder, to Raymond Scott's "cartoon-jazz," hard rock/metal, and rap. Most of Byron's albums have been conceptual, devoted to works of a particular musician and/or style of music.
Byron was born in the Bronx, in New York City. The child of musician parents (his mother was a pianist and his father a bass player for calypso bands), he was exposed to a variety of musical styles through trips to the ballet and the symphony, and by listening to jazz recordings by Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and others.
Byron studied music at the New England Conservatory in Boston. He studied clarinet with Joe Allard and George Russell. While in Boston, Byron performed and recorded with the Klezmer Conservatory Band, founded by NEC faculty member Hankus Netsky. He is a gifted performer on clarinet, bass clarinet and (occasionally) saxophone, but on many of his albums he subordinates his own playing to the exploration of a particular style. Byron is representative of a new generation of conservatory-trained jazz musicians who explore and record in a rich array of styles; his first album, Tuskegee Experiments, is a stew of classical avant garde and atonal jazz improvisation, while albums such as Bug Music represent a straight-ahead exploration of the traditional jazz 'tune'. Byron is a jazz practicing historian, and some of his albums (such as Plays the Music of Mickey Katz, Bug Music, and Ivey-Divey) have been recreations (in spirit) of forgotten moments in the history of popular music. Byron has been nominated for a Grammy award for his bass clarinet solo on "I Want to Be Happy" from Ivey-Divey.
Byron was also a judge for the 2nd annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers.[1]
Byron was named a 2007 USA Gund Foundation Fellow and awarded a US$50,000 grant by United States Artists, a public charity that supports and promotes the work of American artists.
