For this excellent album, trumpeter Donald Byrd teams up with tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse, baritonist Pepper Adams, pianist Walter Davis, Jr., bassist Sam Jones and drummer Art Taylor. Together the sextet performs three Byrd originals, two Davis songs and the standard “Witchcraft.” Although none of the new tunes caught…
Slow Drag was one of trumpeter Donald Byrd’s final hard bop dates. Teamed with altoist Sonny Red, pianist Cedar Walton, bassist Walter Booker and drummer Billy Higgins (who takes a surprise vocal on the title cut), this quintet outing features originals by Byrd, Walton and Red along with the…
Beginning with a crack of thunder, like it was made to trail Gary Bartz’s “Mother Nature” (actually recorded at a slightly later date), Stepping into Tomorrow contains almost all of the Mizell trademarks within its title track’s first 30 seconds: a soft and easy (yet still funky) electric-bass-and-drums foundation,…
This unusual set (reissued on CD by Blue Note) was one of the most successful uses of a gospel choir in a jazz context. Trumpeter Donald Byrd and a septet that also includes tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley, guitarist Kenny Burrell, and pianist Herbie Hancock are joined by an eight-voice…
Donald Byrd, a talented hard bop trumpeter during his prime (although rarely reaching the technical heights of Lee Morgan and Freddie Hubbard), performs a varied repertoire on Mustang!. “Dixie Lee” has dated rhythms, and “Mustang” was an attempt to achieve a hit on the level of Morgan’s “The Sidewinder.”…
Reuniting with Larry Mizell, the man behind his last three LPs, Donald Byrd continues to explore contemporary soul, funk, and R&B with Places and Spaces. In fact, the record sounds more urban than its predecessor, which often played like a Hollywood version of the inner city. Keeping the Isaac…
Not so much a fusion album as an attempt at mainstream soul and R&B, Street Lady plays like the soundtrack to a forgotten blaxploitation film. Producer/arranger/composer Larry Mizell conceived Street Lady as a concept album to a spirited, independent prostitute, and while the hooker with a heart of gold…
1969’s Fancy Free marked the beginning of Donald Byrd’s move away from hard bop, staking out fusion-flavored territory that — at this juncture — owed more to Miles Davis than the R&B-dominated jazz-funk Byrd would embrace several years down the road. Recorded just a few months after Davis’ In…
Purists howled with indignation when Donald Byrd released Black Byrd, a full-fledged foray into R&B that erupted into a popular phenomenon. Byrd was branded a sellout and a traitor to his hard bop credentials, especially after Black Byrd became the biggest-selling album in Blue Note history. What the elitists…
Right from the stop-start bass groove that opens “The Emperor,” it’s immediately clear that Ethiopian Knights is more indebted to funk — not just funky jazz, but the straight-up James Brown/Sly Stone variety — than any previous Donald Byrd project. And, like a true funk band, Byrd and his…