Charlie Byrd

Charlie Byrd played jazz guitar with Django Reinhardt during his World War II army stint in France prior to studying classical music with Andres Segovia. He then applied these classical techniques to jazz for a uniquely academic approach to the instrument. In 1961, he toured Brazil, turning Stan Getz on to that country's swaying Bossa Nova rhythms. The album they recorded together, Jazz Samba, was an instant smash, ultimately setting off the Bossa Nova craze in the U.S. Byrd's solo albums in the '60s often straddle the fence between jazz and easy listening, but his technique always dazzles. In the '80s, he recorded fine albums with his fellow classical-jazz guitarist, Laurindo Almeida.