During his career, he worked with many well-known performers, including Bix Beiderbecke, Joe Venuti, Ruth Etting, and Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey.
Bix Beiderbecke | Bix Brent | Herbert P. Bix | The Beiderbecke Tapes | The Beiderbecke Affair |
He was seen at Carnegie Hall for the Tribute to Bix concert for the Newport Jazz Festival, and also at one of the early Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festivals in Davenport, Iowa.
He worked with Paul Whiteman from 1926 to 1937, and also recorded in the same period with Frank Signorelli, Frankie Trumbauer, Bix Beiderbecke, and Mildred Bailey.
# "Rhapsody for Bix: Davenport Blues/Royal Garden Blues/Singing the Blues/In a Mist/Rhapsody for Bix Theme/At the Jazz Band Ball/Jazz-Me Blues" (Bix Beiderbecke/Clarence Williams, Spencer Williams/Sam M. Lewis, Joe Young, Con Conrad, J. Russel Robinson/Beiderbecke/Schifrin/Beiderbecke/Tom Delaney) - 23:47
The music of Iowa includes such notable musicians as Slipknot, The Envy Corps, Radio Moscow, Modern Life Is War, Unknown Component, Bix Beiderbecke, Greg Brown, as well as Meredith Willson, composer of The Music Man, and Alice Ettinger who was renowned enough to perform in Europe in the 1890s.
He was again called on in 1977 to provide guitar tablature for three arrangements of Bix Beiderbecke's piano music for the Ry Cooder album Jazz Jazz (Ry Cooder album), which Byrd arranged and produced.
Bix Beiderbecke performed the composition on piano accompanied by Roy Bargy and Lennie Hayton at Carnegie Hall on October 7, 1928 at a jazz concert presented by Paul Whiteman.