Since he just passed days ago, I figured I would be topical in a way my posts rarely are, and share one of my Donald Byrd records. I bought this one at a yard sale from a strange European woman. I also bought
The Clapper.
Trumpeter Donald Byrd (1932-2013) played alongside just about every notable Jazz legend throughout the 50's and 60's as a sideman and solo artist, and eventually blazed the trail for Jazz Fusion and took the genre to commercially-friendly places that Jazz purists probably will never forgive him for.
Besides the cool Afrocentric artwork (hey, it's Black History Month! Topical x 2!!), this record was one of Donald's most successful in his long career recording for Blue Note Records, and happens to be a pretty seminal Jazz/Disco Fusion record, so haters beware.
Black Byrd is pretty much entirely composed and produced by Larry Mizell of the Mizell Brothers/Sky High Productions, who interestingly enough were both students of Donald Byrd's when he was teaching at Howard University. Even more interestingly, Larry Mizell once worked as an electrical engineer, and played an important role in the Apollo space program, as well as the development of liquid crystals, which you are probably using in whatever display you are reading this on. How's that for Black History??
The sound of this album is a mix of joyful, mellow Disco grooves with airy horn and flute solos peppered in to Jazz things up. It probably won't pack a dance floor, but is pretty much perfect for winding things down when they get too sweaty. This is far from Donald's most challenging material, but it conveys such a positive vibe, I can't help but want to remember him this way.
