William N. Law Blog: Billy Byers: Byers' Guide

Monday, August 15, 2016

Billy Byers: Byers' Guide

Of the many great post-war jazz arrangers, the one we probably know least about is Billy Byers. Despite his superlative credits as an orchestrator and player, very little has been written about him. Part of the problem is that from the late 1950s onward, Byers operated behind the scenes as a ghost. In this capacity, Byers was paid by big-name arrangers to score for them, and the arrangers then took credit for the charts. [Photo above of Billy Byers by Sol Schlinger]

The practice was fairly common in the LP era, as enterprising marquee arrangers for major labels became de facto subcontractors. As studio workloads increased, prominent arrangers with LP, television and movie assignments typically hired lesser-known arrangers who could write fast and in their style. Byers was among the best.

Given Byers's many talents, it's surprising that he recorded only three leadership albums in a career that notched 340 jazz sessions. Perhaps he was more comfortable in the confines of his office than leading an orchestra. Or perhaps he had a family to feed and work-for-hire projects were easy money. Whatever the reason, precious little is known about Byers today, including which charts were his and which were by the big-name arrangers he worked for.

So how good was Byers? He was exceptional. From his first recordings with Georgie Auld in 1949, Byers's confident and supple ability on the trombone was remarkable and his arrangements were uniformly taut, hip and packed with punch. All three of his leadership albums—Billy Byers: Jazz Workshop (1955), Byers' Guide (1956) and Impressions of Duke Ellington (1961)—remain tasty swingers.

This is certainly true of Byers' Guide. The album was billed as a co-leader session with trumpeter Joe Newman. Recorded for the Concert Hall Society label and reissued by Jazztone Records, the sextet included Joe Newman (tp), Billy Byers (tb), Gene Quill (cl,as), Lou Stein (p), Milt Hinton (b) and Osie Johnson (d).

According to the original liner notes by Paul Shapler, "Byers was born in Los Angeles in 1927 and was something of a musical prodigy. He was composing by age 11, and in his early teens he could play the piano, organ and trombone with professional skill. Then by 16, he worked in both motion pictures and radio as a trombone player.

"He attended Harvard University, and after his military service was completed, he played with the bands of Georgie Auld and Benny Goodman on the West coast before moving to New York with Charlie Ventura. In New York City, Byers soon became prominent as an arranger and conductor as well as a pianist and trombonist and was pretty much fully occupied working in the studios of both radio and television. His first love, however, has always been to play jazz, and for this session Billy chose Joe Newman as his co-leader."

All of the arrangements on the album and most of the compositions are by Byers, while Dialogue in F and April's Delight were by composer-pianist-singer Judy Spencer, a pseudonym for Judith Dvorkin, who died in 1995. Every single song on this album is smartly arranged and beautifully played. Byers had a gently insistent sound on trombone that seemed influenced by Urbie Green and Bill Harris. Newman and Gene Quill are exquisite, and the three of them make for an exciting front line. The rhythm section also was smartly chosen, particularly pianist Lou Stein.