Many of you may not know of Bill Byrne, but in Woody Herman’s last sixteen or seventeen years, Bill managed the band. But Bill didn’t just manage the band; he kept it afloat. When I joined the band, in the fall of ’65, Bill Byrne had been on the band less than a year and was only playing in the section. Some of the players on the band during my stay with the band were saxophonists Sal Nistico and Frank Vicari; tromobists Carl Fontana and Henry Southall; trumpeters Bill Chase, Alex Rodriguez, Paul Fontaine and Dusko Goykevich, Bill Byrne and myself. The rhythm section was Nat Pierce, piano; Michael Moore, bass; Ronnie Zito, drums.

This being long before Bill managed the band, I came to know him just as a player and section-mate. Bill was an excellent musician, a well-trained classical trumpet player who possessed a beautiful, warm and full sound. I loved and was envious of Bill’s sound, which was more orchestral in nature than most of the Jazz or lead trumpet players I had played with. We always planned to play duets together, but were constantly too “road weary” to do so. I have no idea how Bill played during the later years when he was managing the band, but knowing him from that earlier period, I imagine he continued playing well.

During my tenure with the band, Bill was always the quiet sort - kind of slow-moving, relaxed and unflappable; but that was the exterior Bill. On the inside he was a person of wonderful intellect and great curiosity about life. Bill Byrne was interested in so many things; he was well-read and had a store of knowledge that was way ahead of most musicians at that period in our lives. And like Bill Chase, he was much farther along in exploring things of sophistication – food, wine and such - than were the rest of us, most of who were into “I just wanna blow my horn, man!”

But Bill never came off as being above or apart from the rest of us. He didn’t pick just a few guys to hang with, but seemed more than anyone to develop relationships with everyone on the band. He was a very warm, very “real” person who also was a true friend. He was just that kind of person. If he felt you were distressed, he found an appropriate way to approach you and let you know he was there if you needed him. I remember one instance when Woody was really pissed at me and I was quite taken aback by it all. Bill found out about it and quietly came up and talked with me, telling me that Woody was quick to anger at times. He told me to just play my horn - do my job - and it would all pass over. He was perceptive about so much and seemed to always be there for you, knowing just what to say to help you or make you feel better.

Bill Byrne was one of those extraordinary human beings, a special person, and in his quiet way, was really an example to so many of us.. Most people would say, “If there were only more people like Bill,” but he was one of a kind. Maybe we didn’t realize it at the time, but certainly we did later on. I know I won’t forget him; I doubt anyone who ever got to know him will. Rest in peace, Bill.

Can you imagine what it is like to play with someone who always makes you “push the envelope,” encouraging you to reach down and create from your deepest resources? Someone who weaves such tapestries for you to meld with and then to take flight from that you always feel as if you could ascend to great heights from that place? Well, this is what I experience working with pianist Bill Mays.

Those of you who are familiar with my work know of my being involved in many areas of music – past and present. These include many years of working with big bands like Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, Thad Jones and Mel Lewis and Duke Pearson. Even more of you are familiar with my being a studio musician for some twenty-three years and my work in Jazz education for thirty plus years. Because it probably is human nature to categorize people, fewer have recognized that in the last 12 years, I have devoted myself entirely to being a Jazz soloist. I point this out because of the subject of this piece.

While I love the many directions in which this present career has taken me, the true fulfillment of my musical fantasies lies with the duo and quartet with which I play. Bill Mays is an important member of both of these entities and an important catalyst to the ever-creative processes that takes place therein. He so strongly influences a great deal of what happens there.

So that you may know a bit more about Bill: Bill tours here and abroad throughout the year, performing with his own trio, with my quartet, and with Inventions – the duo he and I have formed. We perform chamber music concerts at venues such as the 92nd Street Y in NYC, present concerts and lecture recitals at universities such as Texas Christian Univ. and at high schools such as Houston’s High School for Performing and Visual Arts. He also works with groups led by others.

Bill is a prolific composer and arranger and has contributed music to the recordings of many artists, among them Woody Herman and Phil Woods. He has also written classical music that is performed by various combinations of chamber groups. Bill performs with me at most of my concerts with symphony orchestras and, as a composer/arranger, has contributed one of his most charming pieces, Play Song, to my orchestra library. Bill is well-trained in classical music and is a most exceptional player who brings a wealth of diversity and experience to his music and never fails to bring listeners along on a musical journey of great beauty. He is constantly writing, practicing and performing. So as not to type him as one-sided, he is also an ardent tennis player and fan of the game.

Bill was born into a musical family, beginning piano at age five; he had his first exposure to jazz as a teenager … a solo concert by Earl "Fatha" Hines. Upon discovering the music of Bill Evans, Art Tatum, Horace Silver and Jimmy Rowles, he found himself "hooked" and began his journey on a life in music. Bill joined the U.S. Navy at seventeen and was stationed at the naval base in San Diego where he met and played with many of the fine players in Southern California. He garnered a great of deal of experience playing various kinds of musical jobs, including local TV shows.

Upon leaving the Navy, Bill moved up the coast to Los Angeles where he became a well-known and very busy participant on both the Jazz and studio scene, remaining there until 1984. During his twelve years spent as a session player in Hollywood, he made many recordings and performed on hundreds of TV and movie scores. In 1984, Bill made the decision to move to the New York City area where he has resided since.

Over his career as a highly sought-after sideman, Bill Mays has performed with many of the greats in Jazz among them Gerry Mulligan, Clark Terry, Sonny Stitt, the Mel Lewis Orchestra, Shelly Manne, Benny Golson, Red Mitchell, and many more. Bill not only is an accomplished jazz soloist, he is a master accompanist as well and has been the musical director for Sarah Vaughan, accompanied singers Frank Sinatra, Al Jarreau, Mark Murphy and Helen Merrill.

Bill is the most sensitive pianist I have worked with. He is always listening and intuits the direction in which you are moving, many times arriving there before you, waiting to greet you and open the way. His rhythmic concepts too are quite broad, and he is unbelievably aware of your suggesting any new rhythmic or harmonic path you choose to follow. This makes working with him extremely adventurous, always exciting. The unexpected is always to be expected!

In the duo and quartet, we focus a great deal on remaining always “open” – that is, not leaning on planned concepts that lead to our repeating ourselves continually - but to let “the music, the moment” prevail and take us where it will. The ideal for us is to constantly be as adventurous as possible, depending always on our knowledge and musicality to lead us in new directions. If we are performing on two or more subsequent evenings, we try, if possible, not to repeat material. We also add new materials – originals and standards – as often as possible to keep us feeling fresh. Of course, in the quartet setting, Ed Soph and Rufus Reid are as much a part of this concept as are Bill and I.

Bill is grounded in all styles, and his repertoire is seemingly limitless. He is, as I have said, also grounded in the classics, and his technique and pedaling are marvelous – not for “show”, but for the music. While many pianists utilize only one or two approaches to their “touch” on the instrument, Bill has listened and developed his “touch” to fit and match the many different concepts and varied settings in which he finds himself performing. I truly feel he is the most versatile and flexible jazz artist I know, yet his playing never loses its own identity – its “voice.”

If it sounds too good to be true – so it seems to many of us who work with him! Many times we look at one another, smiling and shaking our heads in wonderment at the things he plays. Bill is a giver, not a taker. And whether swinging on a medium tempo, burnin’ on an up-tempo samba or touching you deeply on an introspective ballad, the joy, the “joie de vivre” is ever-present.

Strange title for an article written by me, yes? Well … I was confronted by issues recently that instigate this discussion, and I want to share my thoughts with you.

Last March, Bill Mays and I were invited by a friend of mine to perform a lecture/recital demonstrating what we do at his university. My friend has been the director of the Jazz ensemble at his school for a number of years and is a fine musician and marvelous composer. His Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra composed for the principal trumpet of the orchestra in his city is truly a masterpiece of present-day literature. I just wish I possessed the ability to perform it!

My friend’s university is the home of a premiere piano competition in the U.S., and the piano faculty and program there are highly regarded. This was the second time that Bill and I performed a lecture/recital at the school, though in past years, I have presented two workshops and a guest soloist appearance with the Jazz ensemble there. When our recent appearance was confirmed, my friend went to the piano faculty, telling them of our coming to the school and inviting them and all their students to come to hear Bill play.

None of them showed up! Not one! Neither students nor faculty came to hear this magnificent artist perform and talk.

Not to slight this school or my friend’s efforts – a number of other instrumental students showed up as well as members of his city’s music community because he informed as many people as possible of this event. Unfortunately, this is not a rare occurrence. At many of the schools, none of the classical faculty and few of their students show up when we do our concerts. And though I many times am aware of the respect accorded me by a number trumpet professors and local trumpet teachers at schools and towns around the country where I perform, at a number of the schools at which I appear, I never see hide or hair of the trumpet teacher.

This is not an “ego thing” as far as I am concerned! I am aware of what I do – the things I do very well and those things that I constantly have to work on to try to do better. I am not exclaiming either false modesty or sour grapes. But what is truly happening here is that the people who exhibit this behavior are depriving the students – their students – of being exposed to artists that may be able to open up new pathways and avenues of thought for them – and add to the knowledge that they themselves are trying to impart, knowledge they do not possess!.

And that is probably the crux of it all! Many teachers, especially at colleges and universities, live in a cloistered world, one in which they many times have to fight to maintain others’ respect for them. They do what they do and know what they know, but are frightened of what they don’t know, so therefore discourage their students from seeking in other places that knowledge that they themselves do not possess. They are frightened that their students will find out that they are not “all-knowing,” that there are things about which they are ignorant!

But no one possesses knowledge about every aspect of music (or any other subject for that matter), and we are all ignorant of many things. It is no sin to be ignorant of that to which you have not been exposed. The sin is to remain ignorant – or to encourage others (the students) to remain ignorant because the teacher doesn’t possess that knowledge and, for selfish reasons and exposure of his/her own ignorance, tries to deprive the students of that same knowledge.

When Bill and I, Ed Soph, Rufus Reid and the others who play with us perform with symphony orchestras, they consistently are confronted with the wonderment of the orchestra musicians, all of whom want to know, “How do you do that?” The orchestra players are taken in by the warmth and naturalness of these musicians and their tremendous musical taste and abilities. Slowly, they  begin approaching them at rehearsal breaks or before and after the performances to tell them how thrilled they are to hear Jazz musicians so dedicated to their art and the mastery of their instruments as are they. As they watch them and listen to them play, they are mesmerized by the same enormous musical control required to perform our music as that which is required of them. We have never left a performance without a tremendous musical respect being shared among us all. And they discover that Jazz and Classical music are not adverse positions in the universe of music!

I guess the point I am making is this – any musician who has practiced his/her art and, over a period of time, has risen to the top of their field deserves respect from others in the music community. If numbers of performing orchestral musicians show such great respect for us and what we do, how can someone sitting and hiding from reality in their ivory tower of Education deny their students the privilege of learning from and exposure to such musicians?  Exposure to musicians of this quality can only broaden any student’s or musician’s perspective and add to the knowledge they possess – and hopefully inspire them to work and strive to become ever better musicians. And it makes the teacher look good in the bargain! But to deny this to any student because the teacher is afraid that the student will discover their having “feet of clay” is criminal; what kind of teaching is this?  Unfortunately it occurs – much more often than one would like to admit.
 

The changes that have taken place this music over the years have been numerous, and, in my opinion, many of these have done more to turn people away from the music than bring them into it. It certainly has turned away from the path I followed when embarking upon this journey. Even with presentations like the Ken Burns’ extravaganza, Jazz, audiences for this music continue to diminish.

I don’t presume to know the answers to all the problems this music faces, but there are a number of things that seem to exacerbate and contribute to these circumstances. Among them are: ageism and racism, record companies’ business practices, musicians’ attitudes and Jazz presenters who mirror what this has all come to represent over the years and who now present “shows” rather than encouraging creative events.

I have discussed many of these issues in past editions of Cadenzas both in the online format and the former printed one. Rather than belabor these points again in this issue, I refer you to Edition III of Online Cadenzas  and the article, Time to End the Bitterness; Time to Heal the Wounds.

For me, a life in music seemed a simpler thing in times past, maybe even up to twenty years ago. If a person was taken by this music and decided to make it his or her life’s endeavor, they would strive to master their instrument and learn as much about this music as possible. They would then try to connect with people of like mind in order to become part of the Jazz community. It sounds simplistic, I know, but in many ways it was – and it worked!

A musician who played well could always find others cut from the same cloth with whom to play and would then move forward, continuing to grow musically while developing their creative skills. As time passed and the younger player was absorbed into groups, playing alongside more experienced musicians, they would develop their own voice and grow within the music to fulfill their dream of self-expression as a Jazz musician.

Today, not satisfied with being fine creative musicians, many players want to become “stars.” Managers, agents, record company PR departments – using all the hype one can dream up that goes under the heading of marketing – seems to be more important than the music itself. Selling an image instead of substantively creative music is the job of these entities, and, along with several other factors, has served to put the music and the recording industry in a state of suspension.

Listeners and fans are tired of buying CDs only to find their interest has waned after just a few playings. The product that today makes the most money for companies is the re-issue - taken from their archives and produced with only minimal cost to them and garnering the musicians nothing. But the music from these classic recordings are a valid and exciting today as when originally released.

What does this say for much of today’s music and musicians? And as far as the recording companies are concerned, they are not as interested in developing – a very important word in Jazz – their artists as in times past. Instead they want someone who fits the image they feel will sell, and do so quickly in order to make the company the most money.

I am extremely gratified to have grown up at a time when the music seemed the most important thing. With the help of the many wonderful and generous musicians I have had the great privilege to know and work with, I have developed a career that has rewarded me many times over with myriad experiences playing with those whom I consider to be the “best of the best.”  Today, I continue to find myself excited by those musicians with whom I play, artists who constantly challenge my musical knowledge and skills and contribute to my growth.