DONALD BYRD

'Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II' (born December 9, 1932) is an American jazz and rhythm and blues trumpeter, born in Detroit, Michigan. He 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, he 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, replacing Clifford Brown. In 1955, he recorded with Jackie McLean and Mal Waldron. After leaving the Jazz Messengers in 1956 he performed with a wide variety of highly regarded jazz musicians, including John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Herbie Hancock, and Thelonious Monk.
In the 1970s, he moved away from his previous hard-bop jazz base and began to record jazz fusion, Jazz-funk, soul-Jazz, and rhythm and blues. Teaming up with the Mizell Brothers, they produced ''Black Byrd'', which was enormously successful and became Blue Note Records' highest-ever selling album. The Mizell Brothers follow-up production albums for Byrd, ''Places and Spaces'', ''Steppin' Into Tomorrow'' and ''Street Lady'' were also big sellers, and have subsequently provided a rich source of samples for acid jazz artists such as Us3.
He has taught music at Rutgers University, the Hampton Institute, New York University, Howard University, and Oberlin College. In 1974 he created the Blackbyrds, a fusion group consisting of his best students. They scored several major hits, including "Walking In Rhythm" and "Blackbyrds Theme".
Byrd lives in Teaneck, New Jersey.^[1]

Contents

Albums

External Links

References

Albums

2006 Pop-Jazz Volume 1
2005 In a Soulful Mood

2004 Mustang! (Japan Bonus Tracks)

2004 At the Half Note Cafe, Vol. 1-2 (Bonus Tracks)

2004 Blackjack (Bonus Tracks)

2004 Free Form (Bonus Track)

2004 Free Form (Japan Bonus Track)

2003 Out of This World

2003 At the Half Note Cafe, Vol. 2

2003 At the Half Note Cafe, Vol. 1

2002 The Transition Sessions

2000 Touchstone

1991 A City Called Heaven

1989 Getting Down to Business

1987 Harlem Blues

1983 Words, Sounds, Colors and Shapes

1981

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

1976 Caricatures

1975 Places and Spaces

1974 Stepping into Tomorrow

1973 Street Lady

1972 Black Byrd

1971 Ethiopian Knights

1970 Electric Byrd

1969 Fancy Free
1967 Slow Drag
1963 A New Perspective
1961 Free Form
1960 Byrd in Flight
1959 Byrd in Hand
Several other albums and re-releases originally recorded in the mid 1950's thru the mid 1960's exist mainly on Blue Note Records.

External Links

All Music Guide biography

References

1. The State of Jazz: Meet 40 More Jersey Greats, ''The Star-Ledger'', September 28, 2004