Donald Byrd

Donald Byrd (born Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II, December 9, 1932, Detroit, Michigan) is an American jazz and rhythm and blues trumpeter. A notable sideman for many fellow Blue Note Records artists, Byrd is best remembered as one of the only bebop jazz musicians who successfully pioneered the funk and soul genres while simultaneously remaining a pop artist.

In 1973, he created the Blackbyrds, a fusion group consisting of his best students. They scored several major hits including "Happy Music" (#3 R&B, #19 pop), "Walking In Rhythm" (#4 R&B, #6 pop) and "Rock Creek Park".

Biography
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, 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,as replacement for 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.

Byrd's first full-time band was a quintet that he co-led from 1958-61 with Pepper Adams, an ensemble whose hard driving performances are captured "live" on At the Half Note Cafe. In June 1964, Byrd jammed with jazz legend Eric Dolphy in Paris just two weeks before Dolphy's death from insulin shock.

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. He teamed up with the Mizell Brothers (producer-writers Larry and Fonce) for Black Byrd in 1972. It was highly successful and became Blue Note Records' highest-ever selling album. The title track climbed to #19 on Billboard's R&B chart and reached the Hot 100 pop chart, peaking at #88. The Mizell brothers' follow-up albums for Byrd, Street Lady, Places and Spaces and Steppin' 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 1994, Byrd appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation album, Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool. The album, meant to raise awareness and funds in support of the AIDS epidemic in relation to the African American community, was heralded as "Album of the Year" by Time Magazine.

He has taught music at Rutgers University, the Hampton Institute, New York University, Howard University, Queens College, Oberlin College, Cornell University and Delaware State University.

In addition to his Masters from Manhattan School of Music, Byrd has two masters from Columbia University. Byrd received a law degree in 1976, and his doctorate from Columbia University Teachers College in 1982.

In September 2009, he was named an artist-in-residence at Delaware State University. Byrd lives in Teaneck, New Jersey.

As leader

 * Off to the Races (1958), Blue Note
 * Byrd in Hand (1959), Blue Note
 * Fuego (1959), Blue Note
 * Byrd in Flight (1960), Blue Note
 * At the Half Note Cafe (1960), Blue Note
 * Motor City Scene - with Pepper Adams (1960), Bethlehem
 * Chant (1961), Blue Note
 * The Cat Walk (1961), Blue Note
 * Royal Flush (1961), Blue Note
 * Free Form (1961), Blue Note
 * A New Perspective (1963), Blue Note
 * Up with Donald Byrd (1964), Verve
 * I'm Tryin' to Get Home (1964), Blue Note
 * Mustang! (1966), Blue Note
 * Blackjack (1967), Blue Note
 * Slow Drag (1967), Blue Note
 * The Creeper (1967), Blue Note
 * Fancy Free (1969) Blue Note
 * Electric Byrd (1969-70), Blue Note
 * Kofi (1969), Blue Note
 * Ethiopian Knights (1971), Blue Note
 * Black Byrd (1972), Blue Note
 * Street Lady (1973), Blue Note
 * Stepping into Tomorrow (1974), Blue Note
 * Places and Spaces (1975), Blue Note
 * Caricatures (1976), Blue Note
 * Thank You... for F.U.M.L. (Funking Up My Life) (1978), Elektra
 * Love Byrd (1981), Elektra
 * Words, Sounds, Colors and Shapes (1983) Landmark
 * Harlem Blues (1987), Landmark
 * Getting Down to Business (1989), Landmark
 * A City Called Heaven (1991), Landmark
 * Touchstone (2000)
 * The Transition Sessions (2002)

As sideman

 * 1955 Kenny Clarke - Bohemia After Dark
 * 1955 Cannonball Adderley - Discoveries
 * 1955 Oscar Pettiford - Another One
 * 1955 Hank Jones - Quartet-Quintet
 * 1955 Hank Jones - Bluebird - one track only
 * 1955 Ernie Wilkins - Top Brass
 * 1956 George Wallington - Jazz for the Carriage Trade
 * 1956 Jackie McLean - Lights Out!
 * 1956 Hank Mobley - The Jazz Message of Hank Mobley
 * 1956 Kenny Clarke - Klook's Clique
 * 1956 Art Blakey - The Jazz Messengers
 * 1956 Rita Reys - The Cool Voice of Rita Reys
 * 1956 Elmo Hope - Informal Jazz
 * 1956 Phil Woods - Pairing Off
 * 1956 Jackie McLean - 4, 5 and 6
 * 1956 Gene Ammons - Jammin' with Gene
 * 1956 Horace Silver - Silver's Blue
 * 1956 Hank Mobley - Mobley's Message
 * 1956 Hank Mobley - Jazz Message #2
 * 1956 Art Farmer - 2 Trumpets
 * 1956 Paul Chambers - Whims of Chambers
 * 1956 Phil Woods/Donald Byrd - The Young Bloods
 * 1956 Horace Silver - 6 Pieces of Silver
 * 1956 Hank Mobley - Hank Mobley Sextet
 * 1956 Doug Watkins - Watkins at Large
 * 1956 Sonny Rollins - Sonny Rollins, Vol. 1
 * 1956 Kenny Burrell - All Night Long
 * 1957 Kenny Burrell - All Day Long
 * 1957 Gigi Gryce/Donald Byrd - Jazz Lab
 * 1957 Art Farmer/Donald Byrd/Idrees Sulieman - Three Trumpets
 * 1957 Lou Donaldson - Wailing with Lou
 * 1957 Jimmy Smith - ''A Date with Jimmy Smith Volume One
 * 1957 Art Taylor - Taylor Wailer's
 * 1957 Gigi Gryce - Gigi Gryce and The Jazz Lab Quintet
 * 1957 George Wallington - The New York Scene
 * 1957 Various Artists - American Jazzmen Play Andre Hodeir's Essais
 * 1957 Kenny Burrell/Jimmy Raney - 2 Guitars
 * 1957 Kenny Drew - This is New
 * 1957 Hank Mobley - Hank
 * 1957 Paul Chambers - Paul Chambers Quintet
 * 1957 The Gigi Gryce/Donald Byrd Jazz Lab - At Newport - One side of LP which also features Cecil Taylor
 * 1957 Gigi Gryce/Donald Byrd - New Formulas from the Jazz Lab
 * 1957 Gigi Gryce/Donald Byrd - Modern Jazz Perspective
 * 1957 Sonny Clark - Sonny's Crib
 * 1957 John Jenkins - Star Eyes
 * 1957 Oscar Pettiford - Winner's Circle
 * 1957 George Wallington - Jazz at Hotchkiss
 * 1957 Red Garland - All Mornin' Long
 * 1957 Red Garland - Soul Junction
 * 1957 Red Garland - High Pressure
 * 1957 Lou Donaldson - Lou Takes Off
 * 1958 John Coltrane - Lush Life - one track only
 * 1958 John Coltrane - The Believer - two tracks
 * 1958 John Coltrane - The Last Trane - two tracks
 * 1958 Johnny Griffin - Johnny Griffin Sextet
 * 1958 Pepper Adams - 10 to 4 at the 5 Spot
 * 1958 John Coltrane - Black Pearls
 * 1958 Michel Legrand - Legrand Jazz
 * 1958 Dizzy Reece - Blues in Trinity
 * 1958 Art Blakey - Holiday for Skins
 * 1958 Jim Timmens - Gilbert and Sullivan Revisited
 * 1959 Jackie McLean - Jackie's Bag
 * 1959 Thelonious Monk - The Thelonious Monk Orchestra at Town Hall
 * 1959 Chris Connor - Ballads of the Sad Cafe
 * 1959 Sonny Clark - My Conception
 * 1959 Manny Albam/Teo Macero - Something New, Something Blue
 * 1959 Jackie McLean - Vertigo
 * 1959 Jackie McLean - New Soil
 * 1959 Walter Davis Jr. - Davis Cup
 * 1961 Pepper Adams - Out of This World
 * 1962 Duke Pearson - Hush!
 * 1963 Hank Mobley - No Room for Squares
 * 1963 Hank Mobley - Straight No Filter - released 1986
 * 1963 Hank Mobley - The Turnaround
 * 1963 Jimmy Heath - Swamp Seed
 * 1963 Herbie Hancock - My Point of View
 * 1964 Dexter Gordon - One Flight Up
 * 1964 Cal Tjader - Soul Sauce
 * 1964 Duke Pearson - Wahoo!
 * 1965 Dexter Gordon - Ladybird
 * 1965 Wes Montgomery - Goin' Out of My Head
 * 1967 Stanley Turrentine - A Bluish Bag
 * 1967 Sam Rivers - Dimensions & Extensions
 * 1967 Hank Mobley - Far Away Lands
 * 1977 Gene Harris - Tone Tantrums
 * 1978 Sonny Rollins - Don't Stop the Carnival
 * 1993 Guru - Jazzmatazz, Vol. 1
 * 1995 Guru - Guru's Jazzmatazz, Vol. 2: The New Reality