Tommy Flanagan and Jaki Byard
The Magic of 2 (Resonance Records)
A Review
Pianists Tommy Flanagan and Jaki Byard lived at different frequencies along the spectrum of jazz music. Flanagan, who was dubbed a “jazz poet” by critic Whitney Balliett, typically relied on fluidity, touch, and continuity. For many fans, he is best remembered as Ella Fitzgerald’s accompanist, though he led his own trios and played on such iconic
recordings as John Coltrane’s Giant Steps and Sonny Rollins Saxophone Colossus. Byard’s style tended to the spiky and episodic, mixing an
encyclopedic collection of genres, and his best-known associations were with the fearless Charles Mingus and Rahsaan Roland Kirk.
Putting the two on the same bill could be an instructive and entertaining study in contrasts. Putting them on stage together in a jazz club could be just plain odd. But that is exactly what Todd Barkan, manager and programmer of San Francisco’s legendary Keystone Korner, did in February 1982. Monster jazz musicians that they were, Flanagan and Byard made it work.