Donald Byrd - 'Black Byrd'

First things first.  Over the next two weeks or so, new posts will not be as regular.  This year's holiday festivities, are taking place here at the button factory.  My children, their children, third generation "Baby Babs" (my great-granddaughter), and respective spouses will all be here.

And, without further ado.....

Trumpeter, Donald Byrd, was moving away from the hard bop jazz idiom in the late 1960s and early 1970s.  He was turning to electric jazz-fusion, that combined Jazz with R&B, Soul and Funk that at the time was de rigueur.

'Black Byrd', was recorded in Los Angeles in April and November 1972, for the Blue Note label, and is every bit as groundbreaking as a Jazz Messengers date from the mid-1950s or a Herbie Hancock session in the early 1960s, which poses a problem for some jazz purists who think Jazz should not evolve – a mindset not exclusive to jazz fans.

Blue Note Records had embraced a brave new world.

Ah, 70s fashion...

It's not possible to talk about Donald Byrd's 70s work without first mentioning how much of an uproar 'Black Byrd' caused in the jazz world.  By working with "street" and jazz musicians, entertaining R&B and Funk, including vocals over much shorter, more concise pieces, Donald single-handedly ripped up the jazz rule book and changed the genre forever.  "Selim Sivad" not withstanding.

Many jazz fans used to hearing Donald in the hard-bop/post-bop idioms were stunned at this move.  To the "Jazz Police" this album was sacrilege, with many accusing Donald of selling out.  Some of this was down to the fact that he took a jazz album onto the pop charts, reaching No. 19 on Billboard's R&B chart.  The delicious irony in all of this, of course, is how this album and Donald's 1975 album, 'Places & Spaces' pretty much single-handedly kept Blue Note afloat, at a time, when it looked like the label was going under.  Both of these records are two of the biggest selling albums in the label's history. 

Donald had the last laugh...

Listening to 'Black Byrd' in 2024, it sounds utterly fresh, inclusive and forward-thinking.  It's an exceptional mix of jazz, funk and soul, and best of all - it achieves true fusion because there is no over reliance on one of those genres.  It's also so obvious to see what later appealed to hip-hop producers who mined this album for samples, and musicians in the so-called "Acid Jazz" (a play on the popular 1980s dance genre "Acid House") scene who pretty much lifted this sound wholesale and repackaged it for the 1990s.

For the freeload, tell us about albums you like that when released caused an uproar.