DonByas was a seminal figure in the development of the tenor saxophone and a transitional one twixt the schools of swing and bop.
Byas was a masterful swing player with his own style, and advanced sense of harmony and a confidence and adventurousness that found him hanging around the beboppers and asking to play.
Byas' playing was also to suffer in his last few years; he seemed tired, he was losing a battle with alcohol.
DonByas was a seminal figure in the development of the tenor saxophone and a transitional one twixt the schools of swing and bop.
Byas' style evolved in the lush, rococo, full-bodied tenor tradition of Coleman Hawkins, but his sound was unmistakably his own, immediately recognizable.
Byas was a masterful swing player with his own style, an advanced sense of harmony, and a confidence and adventurousness that found him hanging around the beboppers and asking to play.