Charlie Byrd Music

As a tribute album to Reinhardt & Grapelli (Hot Club of France, 1930s) + some harmonica (remembering Toots Thielemans), this recording is a superb effort; I've seen Byrd, Grapelli, & Thielemans perform, and also own many CDs of these various jazz artists; the music on this disc is well done & harks back to these previous eras (much of my jazz collection pre-dates the 60s & 70s, so I enjoy this style). The combination of guitar, violin, & harmonica works out quite well here - this is certainly worth a listen (and a purchase) if you enjoy these historic performers. And by all means, ignore that 3* rating. :-) P.S. Only 4 of the 15 selections are Byrd originals.

Charlie Byrd was very strongly influenced by Django; so much so that after WWII, when Django was on a very brief U.S. tour, Charlie managed to have Django sit in with the band in which Charlie was performing!! Picture this: "Hey guys, is it O.K. if Django Rheinhardt sits it??"!!!
On this album, Charlie takes quite a contrapuntal approach to the arrangements; and they are all his arrangements (as well as quite a few compositions!). So, you know this is as good as it gets. A person at the height of his musical abilities, paying triubte to one of his, "guitar heros".
All members of the quintet do an absolutely marvelous job getting their ideas accross. My only complaint is that there was never a second (imagine a "live"?!) CD made by this incredible group.

I very much enjoyed this CD. The violin, guitar and harmonica went well together.

This fun album represents both a supergroup of venerable Concord Records' hottest artists as well as guitarist Charlie Byrd's tribute to one of his idols, Django Reinhardt. With violinist Johnny Frigo in the Stephane Grappelli role and Frank Vignola soloing and playing rhythm on a Favino guitar, the band is tight and inspired. Many of the songs are Byrd originals as well as some fun covers such as the camp classic "Besame Mucho." These 15 cuts are a nice collection of Hot Club-inflected acoustic swing.

...I almost passed this one up because it was only rated threestars. I bought it anyway and it has become one of my favorites (ofabout 12 Charlie Byrd CDs I have). Too bad Byrd, Stephane Grappelli and Toots Theilmans (three of my favorite musicians) never made an album together. It might have been better than this one, but not by much.