Don Byron

For over a decade, Don Byron has been a singular voice in a dizzying range of musical contexts, exploring widely divergent traditions while continually striving for what he calls "a sound above genre." As clarinetist, composer, arranger, and social critic, he redefines every genre of music he plays, be it classical, salsa, hip-hop, funk, klezmer, or any jazz style from swing and bop to cutting-edge downtown improvisation. He has been consistently voted best clarinetist by critics and readers alike in leading international music journals since being named Jazz Artist of the Year by Down Beat in 1992. Acclaimed as much for his restless creativity as for his unsurpassed virtuosity as a player, Byron has presented a multitude of projects at major music festivals around the world, including recent performances in Vienna, San Francisco, Hong Kong, London, Monterey, New Zealand, and on New York's Broadway.
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New Interview on Studio 360/WNYC Nov. 15, now available on-line. To listen click here .
Terry Gross interviewed Don on Fresh Air Nov. 1 - to hear the interview on-line on NPR's website, click here .
Just out ~ October 2006:
Get it at the megastore or
View the animated preview at Blue Note Records
featuring:
Don Byron, tenor saxophone
Dean Bowman, vocals
David Gilmore, guitar
George Colligan, Hammond B-3 organ
Brad Jones, bass
Rodney Holmes, drums
and special guest Chris Thomas King on vocals and guitar
"a smoking slab of greasy soul with a jazzman's sense of adventure."
Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
"rough-and-ready, down-and-dirty rhythm and blues."
John Kelman, All About Jazz
See blog page for reviews
Also new in 2006, from Cantaloupe Music:
Available from Cantaloupe , the megastore or
Review:

The combination of polymath composer-clarinetist Don Byron and the six post-minimalist virtuosos of the Bang on a Can All-Stars is a match made in musical heaven, and this collection of Byron's short, illustrative pieces is almost sinfully exciting. Most of the music is aggressively rhythmic but with a whimsical undercurrent, a blend of impulses that winds up shooting metallic sparks in all directions. "Eugene," a suite of jittery pieces written for a 1961 television broadcast by Ernie Kovacs, is pugnacious, sharp and always unpredictable like the Three Stooges if they were funny. Other squibs are as cartoonish as their titles ("Fyodorovich," "Blinky Blanky Blokoe"), but Byron also works a more traditional vein with the soundtrack for the documentary "The Red-Tailed Angels." And for sheer beauty there is "Basquiat," a luxuriant slow waltz that will make you melt.
(Rating "Excellent")"

Joshua Kosman, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE