To print this page, select "Print" from the File menu of your browser salon.com > People Dec. 3, 1999 URL: http://www.salon.com/people/obit/1999/12/03/byrd Jazz guitarist Charlie Byrd dies at 74 He was a musician of extraordinary range and versatility who "re-established that the Spanish guitar can play swinging jazz." - - - - - - - - - - - - Charlie Byrd was a versatile guitarist who left a mark on Brazilian jazz, his innovative play even helping launch a U.S. dance craze. In fusing Latin, classical, and jazz styles in a career that spanned five decades, Byrd recorded more than 100 albums – one as recently as September – many with his Charlie Byrd Trio, which included his brother, Joe Byrd, on bass. He died on Thursday of cancer at 74. Impressed with Brazilian music during a 1961 State Department-sponsored South American concert tour, Byrd saw the potential for using the samba rhythm in conjunction with jazz improvisation. His 1963 collaboration with Stan Getz, "Jazz Samba," combined Getz's subtly graceful improvisation and Byrd's harmonic and rhythmic ingenuity. It was an artistic success and is credited with launching a U.S. bossa nova craze. Byrd grew up in Virginia and learned guitar from his father, a mandolin player. He was inspired to study jazz while stationed in Paris in 1945, and returned to New York to study jazz theory and composition at Harnett National Music School. He added classical guitar to his repertoire after moving to Washington, D.C., in 1950, and he traveled to Italy in 1954 to study by invitation with the great Spanish classical guitarist Andres Segovia. Byrd also made an album, "Romance," with classical guitarist Aldemaro Romero. John Tynan once wrote in Down Beat, the jazz magazine, that Byrd "re-established that the Spanish guitar can play swinging jazz." In 1997, Byrd was honored as the first Maryland Arts Treasure. This year, he was honored as a Knight of the Rio Branco by the government of Brazil. "He's so versatile and so widely experienced, and his technique is so solid in so many different kinds of music," said John Spitzer, who teaches music history at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore. "There's really a great range of expression that you don't find in any other jazz guitarist that I know of." Byrd is survived by his wife, Rebecca, two daughters, one granddaughter and two brothers. salon.com | Dec. 3, 1999