Donald Byrd and Me… — Vinyl Magic

I skipped school one day to see Dizzy Gillespie, and that's where I met (John) Coltrane. Coltrane and Jimmy Heath just joined the band, and I brought my trumpet, and he was sitting at the piano downstairs waiting to join Dizzy's band. He had his saxophone across his lap, and he looked at me and he said, 'You want to play? So he played piano, and I soloed. I never thought that six years later we would be recording together, and that we would be doing all of this stuff. The point is that you never know what happens in life.
Donald Byrd

***2 Trumpets (1956) signed by Donald Byrd, Art Farmer, Barry Harris, Jackie McLean***

He was the first person to let me be a permanent member of an internationally known band. He has always nurtured and encouraged young musicians. He's a born educator, it seems to be in his blood, and he really tried to encourage the development of creativity.
Herbie Hancock on Donald Byrd

Born in Detroit in 1932, Donald Byrd could do it all. A true Renaissance man, he was a trumpeter, composer, teacher, lawyer, mentor, producer, pilot, and influential band leader across many genres. A brilliant and devoted educator, Donald received a Masters at the Manhattan School Of Music, a PH.D in Music Education from Columbia University and a law degree. He taught at Rutgers, New York University, Howard University, Cornell and he helped countless students and musicians.

***The Young Bloods (1956) signed by Donald, Phil Woods***

Donald started out playing hard bop trumpet and joined Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in 1955, a fertile and potent training ground. Blakey had some incredible trumpet players in his band through the decades, including Kenny Dorham, Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, and Wynton Marsalis. In 1955 and 1956, Donald recorded some early solo work for Savoy and Prestige Records and he was the leader on over fifty albums in his distinguished career (especially for Blue Note records), and a sideman on hundreds of other sessions. Like Art Blakey, Donald was very adept at hiring and nurturing talent. A twenty-one year old Herbie Hancock made his recording debut on Royal Flush in 1961. In the liner notes, Donald presciently writes, " Herbie is very learned, very studious, and sounds almost like a combination of Bill Evans, Ahmad Jamal and Hank Jones... I'm sure he's going to be very important." Indeed, he was!

***Royal Flush (1961) signed by Donald***

Blessed with a curious and wildly inventive mind, Donald broke new ground with many of his recordings. After study in Paris with French composer and conductor Nadia Boulanger, Donald returned to the studio and recorded A New Perspective (1963) where he melded an eight voice gospel choir with the tenor sax of Hank Mobley, the guitar of Kenny Burrell, the piano of Herbie Hancock, and the crystal, clarion call of his trumpet. For this record, Donald wrote three compositions, and pianist/arranger Duke Pearson composed two, including "Cristo Redentor", a haunting melody inspired by a 1961 trip to Brazil while Pearson accompanied singer Nancy Wilson. It is easily one of my favorite songs, part ruminative funeral dirge, part elegiac gospel affirmation.

***4, 5, and 6 (1956) signed by Donald, Mal Waldron, Jackie McLean***

In the ensuing years, much of Donald Byrd's catalog has been sampled by hip hop artists whom he fully embraced like Guru, Nas, Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest, and Tupac Shakur. "Cristo Redentor" is exceptional with more than fourteen samples cited by various artists. For me, the most dazzling use of this song was in Dave Chappelle's 2004 skit "WacArnold's", a cautionary tale of the adventures of 'Calvin' as he joins the fast food industry in the ghetto and succeeds. Until he doesn't. The song becomes an elegy for the abject misery that befalls 'Calvin' and his family under the toxic spell of "WacArnold's", leavened with the Chappelle Show comic genius. It is extraordinary.

***Pairing Off (1956) signed by Donald, Phil Woods, Tommy Flanagan***

In 1974, Donald produced The Blackbyrds, a group of students whom he was teaching while a Professor of Music at Howard University in Washington, DC. Flying Start (1974), The Blackbyrds’ second album was hit, spawning the top five R&B track, "Walking In Rhythm." They would go on to release seven albums over an eight year career, not bad for some college kids who hooked up with the coolest college professor ever.

Not all jazz purists were happy with Donald Byrd’s progression into funk and jazz fusion as tenor sax colleague Gary Bartz explained: "We got a lot of flack for all of that. You know, 'They're selling out, they're selling out.' We're not selling out. First of all, when you make a record you want to sell it. There are no genres. There are no different types of music. You can't have different types of water. You can have dirty water, you can have clean water, you can have Perrier, you can have Evian, but when it boils down, it's water. ... It's just music."

***All Day Long (1956) signed by Donald, Kenny Burrell, Tommy Flanagan, Frank Foster***

Regrettably, I only saw Donald Byrd once. In the mid 1990s, noted pianist and fellow educator Dr. Billy Taylor was doing a series of interviews and performances with jazz artists at the Kennedy Center Theater Lab in Washington, DC. The Theater Lab was small, maybe 150 folding seats. The format was Billy Taylor would host and interview the guest, then the artist would perform selections with Billy and his trio. The series was recorded and broadcast through the sponsorship of NPR. I was thrilled to hear both Dr. Taylor and Dr. Byrd discuss music, as they were both as articulate as they were erudite. About two gorgeous songs in, they had a break and discussed "Cristo Redentor", the origins, meaning, etc. The song began as Billy comped an intro with his trio and then Donald started to play. His trumpet was so magisterial and pure, I was tinglin' and had goose bumps. About ninety seconds in, Donald abruptly stopped and left the stage. There was complete shock, as Dr. Taylor explained there would be a short break. The crowd grew restless in their absence.

***Sonny Rollins Vol. 1 (1957) signed by Donald, Sonny, Max Roach***

Twenty minutes later, Dr. Taylor returned to the stage, and he explained that Dr. Byrd was a diabetic and had undergone a bit of a shock. He was going to return to the stage for an interview, but they would not be playing any more music. The two old friends then reunited on stage and completed their genial and fascinating conversation.

After the show, I stalked Donald and waited for him in the labyrinthine hallways deep in the bowels of the Kennedy Center. I found him as he was leaving with his trumpet in his hand. I told Donald how worried the audience was and we were glad he was all right. He was sheepish but happy to sign some albums. His signature was more like a first grader's doodle. I have a lot of signatures in my collection and Donald's might be the most illegible. It was similar to Jose Feliciano signature (see below) who gets a pass because he is blind (although vastly talented). I remember pianist Tommy Flanagan laughing when he saw the All Day Long album, "Who signed that?" pointing to Donald's scrawl. I told him it was Donald Byrd. Tommy's brow furrowed, he shook his head and shrugged, "Ain't that some shit."

Yes Tommy, Donald Byrd was the shit. Yes, he was.