Yesterday I was awakened by a text on my iPhone from my buddy Kpup telling me Donald Byrd(DB) had passed away. I immediately grabbed my device and searched the web. The first site that came up was the Guardian out of the United Kingdom. I thought they usually have it right, well he was only a US resident of Delaware, so go figure.
I came to know Byrd in an odd way. I’ve always been into album covers, to me they tell a story. I knew of Byrd except at the time the only trumpet player I listened to was Miles Davis. During the mid 90s I was heavy into, you could call it soul or conscious Jazz. It was a time when musicians were finding their black roots and discovering their Afrocentric consciousness and said fuck the record labels and started playing, you know, black music inspired by their African roots. I remember driving on a snowy Saturday night in December back then to Barnes & Noble, I was looking for something new when I came across an album cover that struck my interest. It was a brother with an afro sitting behind a minstrel show sign, I immediately copped it, and there my love for DB was born.
I do have to mention this as a sidebar, it was during that drive that I first heard of the Wu-Tang but that’s for another day.
Donald Byrd was a short, stout individual who spoke loudly with his horn. He came to the public eye after replacing Clifford Brown of the Jazz Messengers who had just passed away. He later played with the likes of John Coltrane and Herbie Hancock. Donald later went solo and put out a slew of hit records for the Blue Note Label. He also started a fusion group called the Blackbyrds, who put out memorable music especially their biggest hit; “Rock Creek Park”. Byrd took his final flight at age 80, I leave you with “Flight Time”, a bidding farewell to a jazz giant.
Written by The NON-Conformist
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