NEWS

The winner of the Samuel Barber Rome Prize for Composition, Don Byron took up his residency at the American Academy in Rome in September to work on a chamber opera loosely based on "Gentleman's Agreement," the Laura Z. Hobson novel about anti-Semitism that was made into a movie starring Gregory Peck. He returned to the US for several fall concerts with his New Gospel Quintet, his Ivey-Divey Trio, and his quartet, including performances at Duke University, Amherst College and Seattle's Earshot Jazz Festival. He also performed at the San Francisco Jazz Festival in a special concert at Grace Cathedral, playing solo and duets with Iva Bittová (read a San Francisco Chronicle article here). He reconvenes his klezmer band, Don Byron Plays the Music of Mickey Katz, for a special appearance at the Chicago Humanities Festival on November 14. A new album featuring Byron's compositions for piano, performed by Lisa Moore and entitled Seven, will be released on Cantaloupe Music in December. The recording's center piece, 7 Etudes for Piano, was a finalist for the the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Music. For more information, please visit Cantaloupe Music.

Listen to streaming audio of the Don Byron New Gospel Quintet
Live on tour in Europe, May 2009
and
Live at the Jazz Standard, NY



Free music downloads available now!

We're offering occasional free downloads of an unreleased Don Byron track.
Please click below to download a MP3 file of a live recording from the
Jazz Standard in New York on November 15, 2008,
featuring the Don Byron Quartet.

Track: Fosbury Flop (15:22) Don Byron, clarinet & tenor saxophone Edward Simon, piano Kenny Davis, bass Eric Harland, drums

Recent Don Byron features on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross and in the Wall Street Journal! Listen to: Fresh Air with Terry Gross Read: The Wall Street Journal

:: CHECK OUT THE VIDEO ::
of "I'm A Roadrunner" shot in New York City at Jazz Standard

CLICK HERE to listen to Don's music

MOST RECENT CD RELEASES

Don Byron :: Do The Boomerang
The Music of Junior Walker

In December 2005, Don Byron launched a new group dedicated to the music of soul legend, saxophonist and singer Junior Walker. Featuring Byron on tenor saxophone, Dean Bowman on vocals, guitarist David Gilmore, George Colligan on Hammond B-3 organ, bassist Brad Jones, and Rodney Holmes on drums, the group recently recorded a new album, Don's sixth for Blue Note Records. Singer/guitarist Chris Thomas King appears as special guest on several tracks. Entitled "Do The Boomerang," the new CD contains covers of several of Junior Walker's biggest hits, including "Shotgun," "Roadrunner," and "What does it take to win your Love," as well as a version of James Brown's "There It Is." Don Byron Plays Junior Walker will be touring in the US and Europe following the CD release on October 3, 2006.

The Bang On A Can All-Stars & Don Byron :: A Ballad For Many

The Bang On A Can All-Stars, one of the world's leading contemporary music ensembles, recorded a new CD featuring exclusively Don Byron's music, entitled "A Ballad for Many," released on Cantaloupe Music in June of 2006. Included are two soundtracks for short films: "Eugene" was written for a 1960 TV episode with comedy legend Ernie Kovacs and has been performed live with the film by the BOAC All-Stars, who also commissioned the piece. The suite "Red Tailed Angels" is the score for Cara DeVito's documentary about the Tuskegee Airmen, the African-American combat pilot unit formed and used during WWII. The film is on permanent display at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, New York.