Rifftides reader Rich Juliano comments on the Jaki Byard item in the previous exhibit :
Back in 1985 Jaki was a clinician at the Tri-C Jazz Festival in Cleveland where I grew up. As an aspiring jazz pianist I was excited to attend his piano clinic but terrified when he asked for duet partners and one of my teachers volunteered me. I was so nervous I called “Stella by Starlight” in the wrong key! Nonetheless Jaki got the tune started (in the key I meant to call) and was very complimentary and gracious, commenting on my relative youth when he asked my age (18 at the time). He’s been a favorite of mine ever since. Unfortunately that was the only chance I ever had to see/hear Jaki live. My encounters with him that week remain among the highlights of my jazz listening and studies. Thanks for featuring him today!
I’m happy to tell Mr. Juliano that today I came across two YouTube clips of Byard at a jazz workshop in Berlin in 1965. In the beginning of the first one (that’s a link), he plays free with Reggie Workman on bass and Alan Dawson on drums, then works his way into what sounds to me like “I Love Being Here With You.” In the second clip, towering eminences of the piano meet when Byard and Earl Hines face one another and play “Cherry.” To borrow a phrase from Louis Armstrong, “Chops is flyin’ everywhere.”