WGXC-90.7 FM

Tribute to Donald Byrd

Feb 12, 2013: 12:02 am - 5am
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Tune in the jazz, the collaborations, the hip hop samples, of trumpeter Donald Byrd. Byrd died Feb. 4. From Wikipedia: "Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II (December 9, 1932 – February 4, 2013) was an American jazz and rhythm and blues trumpeter. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd was best known as one of the only bebop jazz musicians who successfully pioneered the funk and soul genres while simultaneously remaining a jazz artist.... While still at the Manhattan School, he joined Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, as replacement for Clifford Brown.... After leaving the Jazz Messengers in 1956, he performed with many leading jazz musicians of the day, including John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk, and later Herbie Hancock. Byrd's first regular group was a quintet that he co-led from 1958-61 with baritone saxophonist Pepper Adams, an ensemble whose hard-driving performances are captured "live" on At the Half Note Cafe. In June 1964, Byrd jammed with multi-instrumentalist Eric Dolphy in Paris just two weeks before Dolphy's death from insulin shock. In the 1970s, Byrd moved away from the hard-bop jazz idiom and began to record jazz fusion and rhythm and blues. He teamed up with the Mizell Brothers (producer-writers Larry and Fonce) for "Black Byrd" (1973). The Mizell brothers' follow-up albums for Byrd, Street Lady, Places and Spaces and Stepping into Tomorrow, were also big sellers, and have subsequently provided a rich source of samples for acid jazz artists such as Us3.... During his tenure at North Carolina Central University during the 1980s, he formed a group which included students from the college called,Donald Byrd & the 125th St NYC Band.... He taught at Rutgers University, the Hampton Institute, New York University, Howard University, Queens College, Oberlin College, Cornell University, North Carolina Central University and Delaware State University. In addition to his master's from Manhattan School of Music, Byrd had two master's degrees from Columbia University. He received a law degree in 1976, and his doctorate from Columbia University Teachers College in 1982. Byrd lived in Teaneck, New Jersey until his death on February 4, 2013 at the age of 80."
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