Jaki Byard Blues for Smoke

Jaki Byard's Solo Debut Album Blues for Smoke on LP. All-Analog Remastering by Bernie Grundman. Available on Vinyl in the U.S. for the First Time!

Originally recorded in 1960, briefly released in Japan in the early ’70s, it wasn’t until 1988 that Jaki Byard’s solo debut, Blues for Smoke, was widely released. Even then it was more of a secret handshake among fans than the catalog cornerstone it should have always been. Now, Candid has finally created the definitive edition of this lost masterpiece for all to experience.

Byard backed generations of jazz icons, including Charles Mingus, Art Blakey, Roland Kirk, and Quincy Jones. As a bandleader and soloist, he went on to build his own catalog of iconic recordings across three decades while establishing himself as an educator and mentor to the next generation of artists, most notably, Grayson Hugh, Fred Hersch, and Jason Moran. Blues for Smoke is where it all began.

Recorded as a solo-piano showcase for Byard’s incredible gifts as a player, composer, and jazz historian, the exquisitely engineered session is given new life by Bernie Grundman’s sensitive remastering. With this release, Candid is hoping to make Jaki Byard’s very first album the rosetta-stone of jazz piano it was intended to be.