Donald Byrd
Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II was an American jazz and rhythm & blues trumpeter and vocalist. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd was known as one of the rare bebop jazz musicians who successfully explored funk and soul while remaining a jazz artist. As a bandleader, Byrd was an influence on the early career of Herbie Hancock.
Biography
Early life and career
Byrd attended Cass Technical High School. He performed with Lionel Hampton before finishing high school. After playing in a military band during a term in the United States Air Force, Byrd obtained a bachelor's degree in music from Wayne State University and a master's degree from Manhattan School of Music. While still at the Manhattan School, he joined Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, as the successor to Clifford Brown. In 1955, he recorded with Gigi Gryce, Jackie McLean and Mal Waldron. After leaving the Jazz Messengers in 1956, he performed with many leading jazz musicians of the day, including John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk, and later Herbie Hancock.Byrd's first regular group was a quintet that he co-led from 1958 to 1961 with baritone saxophonist Pepper Adams, an ensemble whose hard-driving performances are captured "live" on At the Half Note Cafe.
Byrd's 1961 LP Royal Flush marked the Blue Note debut of Hancock, who came to further attention with Byrd's successful 1962 album Free Form, and these albums also featured the first recordings of Hancock's original compositions. Hancock has credited Byrd as a key influence in his early career, recounting that he took the young pianist "under his wings" when he was a struggling musician newly arrived in New York, even letting him sleep on a hide-a-bed in his Bronx apartment for several years
He was the first person to let me be a permanent member of an internationally known band. He has always nurtured and encouraged young musicians. He's a born educator, it seems to be in his blood, and he really tried to encourage the development of creativity.
Hancock also recalled that Byrd helped him in many other ways: he encouraged Hancock to make his debut album for Blue Note, connected him with Mongo Santamaria, who turned Hancock's tune "Watermelon Man" into a chart-topping hit, and that Byrd also later urged him to accept Miles Davis' offer to join his quintet.
Hancock also credits Byrd with giving him one of the most important pieces of advice of his career – not to give away his publishing rights. When Blue Note offered Hancock the chance to record his first solo LP, label executives tried to convince him to relinquish his publishing in exchange for being able to record the album, but he stuck to Byrd's advice and refused, so the meeting came to an impasse. At this point, he stood up to leave and when it became clear that he was about to walk out, the executives relented and allowed him to retain his publishing. Thanks to Santamaria's subsequent hit cover version of "Watermelon Man", Hancock was soon receiving substantial royalties, and he used his first royalty check of $3,000 to buy his first car, a 1963 Shelby Cobra which Hancock still owns, and which is now the oldest production Cobra still in its original owner's hands.
In June 1964, Byrd played with Eric Dolphy in Paris just two weeks before Dolphy died from insulin shock.
Electric Byrd
By 1969's Fancy Free, Byrd was moving away from the hard bop jazz idiom and began to record jazz fusion and rhythm and blues. He teamed up with the Mizell Brothers for Black Byrd which was, for many years, Blue Note's best-selling album. The title track climbed to No. 19 on Billboard′s R&B chart and reached the Hot 100 pop chart, peaking at No. 88. The Mizell brothers' follow-up albums for Byrd, Street Lady, Places and Spaces and Stepping into Tomorrow, were also big sellers, and have subsequently provided a rich source of samples for acid jazz artists such as Us3. Most of the material for the albums was written by Larry Mizell.In 1973, he helped to establish and co-produce the Blackbyrds, a fusion group consisting of then-student musicians from Howard University, where Byrd taught in the music department and earned his J.D. in 1976. They scored several major hits including "Happy Music", "Walking in Rhythm" and "Rock Creek Park".
During his tenure at North Carolina Central University during the 1980s, he formed a group which included students from the college called the "125th St NYC Band". They recorded three albums; Love Byrd and Words, Sounds, Colors and Shapes featured Isaac Hayes. "Love Has Come Around" on Love Byrd became a disco hit, reaching number No. 4 on Billboard's U.S. Dance Club Songs and in the UK and reached No. 41 on the charts.
Beginning in the 1960s, Byrd taught at a variety of postsecondary institutions, including Rutgers University, the Hampton Institute, New York University, Howard University, Queens College, Oberlin College, Cornell University, North Carolina Central University and Delaware State University. Byrd returned to somewhat straight-ahead jazz later in his career, releasing three albums for Orrin Keepnews' Landmark Records.
Byrd was a resident of Teaneck, New Jersey. He died on February 4, 2013 in Dover, Delaware, at age 80.
Discography
As leader
These are the year of recording.- Byrd Jazz
- Byrd's Eye View
- Byrd's Word
- 2 Trumpets with Art Farmer
- The Young Bloods with Phil Woods )
- Modern Jazz Perspective with Gigi Gryce
- Jazz Lab with Gigi Gryce
- New Formulas from the Jazz Lab with Gigi Gryce
- Byrd Blows on Beacon Hill
- At Newport with Gigi Gryce
- Jazz Eyes
- Jazz Lab with Gigi Gryce
- Off to the Races
- Byrd in Hand
- At the Half Note Cafe
- Byrd in Flight
- Fuego
- The Cat Walk
- Royal Flush
- Free Form
- A New Perspective
- I'm Tryin' to Get Home
- Mustang
- Blackjack
- Slow Drag
- The Creeper
- Fancy Free
- Electric Byrd
- Kofi
- Ethiopian Knights
- Black Byrd
- Street Lady
- Stepping into Tomorrow
- Places and Spaces
- Caricatures
- Thank You...For F.U.M.L.
- Chant
- Donald Byrd and 125th Street, N.Y.C.
- Love Byrd
- Words, Sounds, Colors and Shapes
- Harlem Blues
- Getting Down to Business
- A City Called Heaven
As sideman
- 1995 '
- 1962: Snap Your Fingers
- 1956 The Jazz Messengers
- 1956 Originally
- 1957 Art Blakey Big Band
- 1958 Holiday for Skins
- 1957 Art Farmer/Donald Byrd/Idrees Sulieman – Three Trumpets
- 1957 Taylor's Wailers
- My Babe
- 1964 Soul Sauce
- 1955 Discoveries
- 1959 Ballads of the Sad Cafe
- 1964 One Flight Up
- 1965 Ladybird
- 1958 Blues in Trinity
- 1956 Watkins at Large
- 1962 Hush!
- 1964 Wahoo!
- 1956 Informal Jazz
- 1955 Top Brass
- 1964 Naima
- 1964 Last Recordings / Unrealized Tapes
- 1956 Jammin' with Gene
- 1977 Tone Tantrum
- 1955 Live at the Bohemia
- 1956 Jazz for the Carriage Trade
- 1957 The New York Scene
- 1957 Jazz at Hotchkiss
- 1957 Jazz Lab
- 1957 Gigi Gryce and the Jazz Lab Quintet
- 1957 At Newport
- 1957 Modern Jazz Perspective
- 1957 New Formulas from the Jazz Lab
- 1993 Jazzmatazz, Vol. 1
- 1995
- 1955 Quartet-Quintet
- 1955 Bluebird
- 1956 The Jazz Message of Hank Mobley
- 1956 Mobley's Message
- 1956 Jazz Message No. 2
- 1956 Hank Mobley Sextet
- 1957 Hank
- 1963 No Room for Squares
- 1963 Straight No Filter – released 1986
- 1963 The Turnaround!
- 1967 Far Away Lands
- 1963 My Point of View
- 1956 Silver's Blue
- 1956 6 Pieces of Silver
- 1955 Presenting... Jackie McLean
- 1956 Lights Out!
- 1956 4, 5 and 6
- 1959 New Soil
- 1959 Jackie's Bag 3 tracks
- 1963 Vertigo – released 1980
- 1957 A Date with Jimmy Smith Volume One
- 1957 A Date with Jimmy Smith Volume Two
- 1963 Swamp Seed
- 1958 Gilbert and Sullivan Revisited
- 1958 Lush Life
- 1958 The Believer
- 1958 The Last Trane
- 1958 Black Pearls
- 1958 Johnny Griffin Sextet
- 1956 All Night Long
- 1957 All Day Long
- 1957 2 Guitars
- 1955 Bohemia After Dark
- 1956 Klook's Clique
- 1957 This Is New
- 1957 Wailing With Lou
- 1957 Lou Takes Off
- 1959 Something New, Something Blue
- 1958 Legrand Jazz
- 1959 TV Action Jazz!
- 1955 Another One
- 1957 Winner's Circle
- 1958 10 to 4 at the 5 Spot
- 1956 Whims of Chambers
- 1957 Paul Chambers Quintet
- 1956 Pairing Off
- 1957 All Mornin' Long
- 1957 Soul Junction
- 1957 High Pressure
- 1956 The Cool Voice of Rita Reys
- 1967 Dimensions & Extensions
- 1964 African High Life
- 1957 Sonny's Crib
- 1959 My Conception
- 1956 Sonny Rollins, Volume 1
- 1978 Don't Stop the Carnival
- 1967 A Bluish Bag
- 1959 The Thelonious Monk Orchestra at Town Hall
- 1959 Davis Cup
- 1965 Goin' Out of My Head