Donald Byrd - A Profile

Donald Byrd (Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II (9 Dec 1932 - 4 Feb 2013)) was an American jazz trumpeter born in Detroit, MI, who would have been 90 today. 

Before finishing high school, he performed with Lionel Hampton and made his first professional recording session in 1949 for Fortune Records with the Robert Barnes Sextette for the single "Black Eyed Peas" / "Bobbin’ At Barbee’s". 

Whilst studying for a Masters Degree at Manhattan School of Music in 1955 he joined  Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. Upon leaving Blakey in 1956, he played with some of the leading jazz musicians of the time including John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver, Lou Donaldson, and later Herbie Hancock who credits Byrd as one his major influences in his early career.

In 1973 he helped to form The Blackbyrds which consisted of a group of students he was teaching at Howard University, Washington D.C. He also formed the 125th Street Band from students at North Carolina Central University, where he was teaching, in the early 80s who recorded three albums as Donald Byrd & 125th Street Band and had is biggest hit single "Love Has Come Around" #15 R&B #4 Dance Chart and reached #42 on UK pop chart in1981.

Byrd is possibly best known to soul listeners for his 1975/76 jazz funk classics "Dominoes" and "Change (Makes You Want To Hustle)" from "Places and Spaces", co-written by an artist posted only last week Mbaji (aka Bradley Ridgell aka Backhouse Nation) and his writing partner Harold Clayton along with Sigidi.

His catalogue is far too vast (spanning five decades) to even scratch the surface with a playlist, therefore, I've focused on tracks from albums from 1972, when he teamed up with Larry and Fonce Mizell (the Mizell Brothers) and moved away from hard bop to fusion, through to 1982 which includes selections from the following albums (a few of The Blackbyrds tracks have also been tagged onto the end):

1972 - Black Byrd (Blue Note, 1973)

1973 - Street Lady (Blue Note, 1973)

1974 - Stepping into Tomorrow (Blue Note, 1975)

1976 - Places and Spaces (Blue Note, 1976)

1976 - Caricatures (Blue Note, 1976)

1978 - Thank You...For F.U.M.L. (Funking Up My Life) (Elektra, 1978)

1979 - Donald Byrd and 125th Street, N.Y.C. (Elektra, 1979)

1981 - Love Byrd (Elektra, 1981)

1982 - Words, Sounds, Colors and Shapes (Elektra, 1982)

A few tracks noteworthy of mention include his version of the unreleased Marvin Gaye song "Where Are We Going", the vocalist on "Sunning In Your Loveshine" is Syreeta Wright and on "Loving You" is Jim Gilstrap (featured a couple of weeks ago). The first six albums, above, were produced by the Mizell Brothers who also feature on backing vocals.

Blue Note/UMG has released a five track EP today "Live: Cookin' with Blue Note at Montreux".

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