Donald Byrd
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Biography
Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II (born December 9, 1932) is an American jazz and rhythm and blues trumpeter, born in Detroit, Michigan. 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. After leaving the Jazz Messengers in 1956 he performed with a wide variety of highly regarded jazz musicians.
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 hip-hop 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".
Albums
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 Love Byrd: Donald Byrd and 125th St, N.Y.C.
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
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