DEFINITELY BYASED

For the second time, Don Heckman has referred to Don Byas as a “honking, screeching” saxophone player (Jazz Spotlight, April 16).

I have been a professional saxophone player for over 35 years, and have a collection of 287 of Byas’ recordings (plus a few that I haven’t catalogued yet) that spans 1938-68. They include studio recordings and live performances.

There is not one screech or honk among them, but rather an extraordinarily beautiful sound and performances of consistently elegant taste, vivid imagination, a comprehensive knowledge of harmony, and technique unrivaled by anyone but Johnny Griffin, who, incidentally, calls Byas the “Art Tatum of the saxophone.”

DAVID M. SHERR

Santa Monica