* En anglais uniquement
Although arthritis forced
Billy Byers to give up playing piano as a teen, he still became a prolific arranger.
Byers switched to trombone and later played in his Los Angeles hometown with Karl Kiffle's Hollywood Canteen Kids. Following Army service in 1944 and 1945,
Byers worked as an arranger and trombonist in the bands of
Georgie Auld,
Buddy Rich,
Benny Goodman,
Charlie Ventura, and
Teddy Powell in 1949 and 1950. Then he joined the staff of WMGM in New York, writing music for radio and television. He did similar duties in Paris for
Ray Ventura in the mid-'50s and also recorded a combo album as a bandleader.
Byers returned to Europe in the late '50s, playing with
Quincy Jones' orchestra, and played for
Harold Arlen from 1959-1960.
Byers was
Jones' assistant at Mercury Records for five years in the '60s; he did the arrangements for a series of
Count Basie albums and also recorded some arrangements of
Duke Ellington pieces under his own name. He later did extensive work as an arranger and conductor on film scores, and toured Europe and Japan with
Frank Sinatra in 1974. ~ Ron Wynn