Donald Byrd

Donaldson Toussaint L' Ouverture Byrd II ( born December 9, 1932 in Detroit, Michigan, † February 4, 2013 in Dover (Delaware) ) was an American trumpeter (sometimes singer ) of the modern jazz. He was the best-selling musician of the Blue Note label; be published in 1973 jazz-funk album Black Byrd is considered the biggest sales success of the label. He later reached a new audience than many of sampled artist to hip -hoppers such as Nas, The Pharcyde and Jazzmatazz.

Life and work

Donald Byrd was the son of a Methodist pastor and musician. 1951/52, he played during his military service in an Air Force band. Then he studied until 1954 at Wayne State University, then at the Manhattan School of Music Music Education; In 1971 he received his doctorate from the University of Colorado School of Education. With the Detroit musicians Yusef Lateef and Bernard McKinney he took in August 1955 his debut album for Delmark on ( First Flight ). He joined with George Wallington, Max Roach (1956 ), Art Blakey (1955, as a member of the Jazz Messengers ), Sonny Rollins, Jackie McLean, André Hodeir, Red Garland (1957 ), John Coltrane, Gigi Gryce (with whom he shared 1957 a formation initiated ) and Thelonious Monk on, ran from 1958 to 1961 a jazz band with the originating also from Detroit Pepper Adams and went traveling around Europe. With the album Off to the Races began in 1958 his collaboration with the Blue Note label; its there rehearsed albums of the 1960s include, for example Cat Walk (1961 ) and A New Perspective (1963 ) with the popular, Accompanied by Christo Redentor choir, showing its proximity to gospel music. In the early 1960s he turned to the soul jazz and had his own quintet, and a with McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Butch Warren, Billy Higgins, Hank Mobley, Sonny Red, Walter Booker and Freddie Waits. He also taught in the early 1960s at the Music and Art High School in New York. 1962 and 1963 he studied at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau with Nadia Boulanger composition. In Paris he stepped on (load Recordings ) 1964 with Dexter Gordon and also with Eric Dolphy; In the same year he played on the Ruhr Festival in a big-band production with musicians such as Albert Mangelsdorff, Rolf Kühn, Klaus Doldinger and Sahib Shihab. 1965/66 he arranged for the Norwegian Radio Orchestra and turned around this time again reinforced the doctrine of the Music and Art High School in New York. He also gave private lessons and Clinic workshops for the National Stage Band Camps. In 1968 he studied African music at an Africa stay.

Its produced by Fonce and Larry Mizell album Black Byrd was a bestseller in 1973 in the company's history of Blue Note. After he had played in the 1980s, mainly funk -oriented music, he returned in the 1990s back to jazz and performed with musicians such as Joe Henderson, Bobby Hutcherson, Kenny Garrett and Mulgrew Miller. Since the 1950s, he played a more than fifty albums.

From 1971 to 1975 he taught at Howard University, where he was chief of Black Music Department; In 1974 he founded with his students, the band The Blackbyrds whose successful song Walking In Rhythm, he produced. He also taught at Hampton University, Rutgers University, North Texas State, and after a law degree (1976 ) at North Carolina Central University and Delaware State University.

Awards and prizes

2000 Byrd received the Jazz Masters Fellowship of the state NEA Foundation.

Disco printing specifications

  • Jazz Lab / Modern Jazz Perspective ( Collectables, 1957)
  • Freeform ( Blue Note, 1961)
  • A New Perspective ( Blue Note, 1963)
  • Mustang! ( Blue Note, 1966)
  • Black Jack ( Blue Note, 1967)
  • Electric Byrd ( Blue Note, 1970)
  • Black Byrd ( Blue Note, 1972)
  • Street Lady ( Blue Note, 1973)
  • Stepping Into Tomorrow ( Blue Note, 1974)

Lexigraphic entries

  • Ian Carr, Digby Fairweather, Brian Priestley: Jazz Rough Guide. Metzler, Stuttgart 1999; ISBN 3-476-01584- X
  • Martin Kunzler, Jazz Encyclopedia Vol 2 Reinbek 2002; ISBN 3-499-16513-9
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