| Photos in Black, White and Gray | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | March 13, 2007 | |||
| Recorded | November 2–3, 2007 | |||
| Studio | Leon Lee Dorsey Studio | |||
| Genre | Jazz | |||
| Label | Smalls Records | |||
| Producer | Luke Kaven | |||
| Chris Byars chronology | ||||
| ||||
Photos in Black, White and Gray is an album by American jazz saxophonist Chris Byars.
The album features Byars playing the music he played at Smalls Jazz Club in the 90s, taking great inspiration from the bebop era, and specifically the composer-saxophonists Gigi Gryce and Lucky Thompson. [1] On most tracks, the quartet plays the head, then a saxophone solo, piano solo, bowed bass solo, drum solo, and repition of the head, in that order. [2]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [3] |
| Tom Hull | A- [4] |
In a review for AllMusic, Ken Dryden wrote that "Byars displays a mature sound on alto, tenor, and soprano saxes in eight catchy original compositions." [3] Tom Hull wrote that "Byars sounds fresh even working in such a well-worn form." [4] A PopMatters reviewer criticized the "numbing predictability" of the album's soloing pattern, but praised the "bright, easy tone" of Byars' alto saxophone playing. [2] Similarly, a reviewer for Coda magazine stated that Byars alto playing had a "bebop-derived fluidity shot through with melodic loopholes and a rhythmic sensibility that works in short, irregular bursts", and that the album was "an excellent addition to Byars' small but impressive body of recordings". [1]
All tracks are written by Chris Byars
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Aquarian Epoch" | 8:03 |
| 2. | "Milton" | 7:25 |
| 3. | "Safe at Home" | 7:12 |
| 4. | "Acoustic Phenomenon" | 9:28 |
| 5. | "Manhattan Valley" | 7:49 |
| 6. | "Cliff Diving" | 6:46 |
| 7. | "Riddle of the Sphinx" | 6:38 |
| 8. | "A.T." | 6:35 |
The saxophone is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to produce a sound wave inside the instrument's body. The pitch is controlled by opening and closing holes in the body to change the effective length of the tube. The holes are closed by leather pads attached to keys operated by the player. Saxophones are made in various sizes and are almost always treated as transposing instruments. A person who plays the saxophone is called a saxophonist or saxist.
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B♭ (while the alto is pitched in the key of E♭), and written as a transposing instrument in the treble clef, sounding an octave and a major second lower than the written pitch. Modern tenor saxophones which have a high F♯ key have a range from A♭2 to E5 (concert) and are therefore pitched one octave below the soprano saxophone. People who play the tenor saxophone are known as "tenor saxophonists", "tenor sax players", or "saxophonists".
The soprano saxophone is a higher-register variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument invented in the 1840s. The soprano is the third-smallest member of the saxophone family, which consists of the sopranissimo, sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass, contrabass saxophone. Soprano saxophones are the smallest and thus highest-pitched saxophone in common use.
Richard Malden "Dick" Heckstall-Smith was an English jazz and blues saxophonist. He played with some of the most influential English blues rock and jazz fusion bands of the 1960s and 1970s. He is known for primarily playing tenor, soprano, and baritone saxophones, as well as piano, clarinet and alto saxophone.
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