Don Byas was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma in 1912. He was trained in classical music. He played the violin and later the clarinet. He played the alto sax through his teens. When he was about twenty he switched to playing the tenor.

Byas lived much of his life in Europe were he gained popularity and had a lot of musical success. Meanwhile, he was mostly forgotten in the US. In 1970, he returned to the US to perform. He didn’t receive the acclaim that he expected, so he returned to Europe.

This is a performance from 1958.