Charlie Byrd / Чарли Берд
A jazz proponent of the acoustic, nylon-stringed, classical guitar, Virginia-born Byrd studied with Spanish master Andre Segovia and then began to make his mark as a recording artist in the late 50s. His biggest mainstream breakthrough was the innovative album Jazz Samba, recorded in tandem with saxophonist Stan Getz in 1962, which fused jazz improv with sinuous Brazilian rhythms and instantly put him on the map as one of the world’s best jazz guitarists. Byrd’s sound, with its finger-picked gossamer filigrees, is a unique one in jazz.