Charles L. Byrd (September 16, 1925 - November 30, 1999), better known as Charlie Byrd, was a famous jazz guitarist, born in Suffolk, Virginia. His identifiable sound comes from playing his guitar in a more classical style, without a pick.

Byrd primarily looked up to Django Reinhardt. He studied classical guitar with Andrés Sergovia , who introduced him to the Latin styles of music which he would later perform professionally. Byrd was largely responsible for introducing a combination of American jazz styles and bossa nova to the mainstream.

He is perhaps most well known as a collaborator with Stan Getz on the Jazz Samba album, which featured many themes of bossa nova, and of course, samba.

He died in 1999 of bladder cancer.