Sax Expat: Don Byas

Honorable Mention Recipient for the 2026 Jazz Book of the Year in Biography or Autobiography from the Jazz Journalists Association Don Byas (1913-1972) may be lesser known than the counterparts he played with--Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Dizzy Gillespie, among others--but he was an enigma. He never stayed with a band for long, and eventually went solo partly to make more money and partly due to his inability to work with bandleaders. Often drinking to excess, alcohol fueled his sometim...