American jazz trumpeter whose career ranged from hard bop sessions for Blue Note to 1970s jazz-funk crossover; reviews emphasize his Blue Note work and the stylistic shift marked by Black Byrd (1973).

Born December 9, 1932; died February 4, 2013. Recorded extensively for Blue Note. Black Byrd (1973) marked a move toward jazz-funk and involved arrangers/producers Larry and Fonce Mizell; several reviews cite recording locations including Rudy Van Gelder's Englewood Cliffs studio and the Sound Factory in Los Angeles.

Donald Byrd is presented across reviews as a Detroit-born trumpeter who moved from hard bop toward jazz-funk and crossover. Reviews highlight Blue Note-era sessions and the 1973 shift embodied by Black Byrd. Session personnel, recording locations (Van Gelder, Sound Factory) and arrangements (Mizell brothers) are frequently noted.

For:jazz listeners, Blue Note collectors, fans of hard bop and jazz-funk

 Some god of groove must have kissed or at least caressed, on a roughly indefinable day at the beginning of the seventh decade of the twelfth century, the Detroit trumpeter Donald Byrd, a first-hour hard-bopper and a glitzy funkster of the second.

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 With this album, Donald decidedly changes course and, leaving Hard Bop behind, skillfully sails toward crossover music and more specifically a jazz infused with funk with R&B and soul nuances.

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 This is Byrd’s last Hard Bop album before his “transition” to fusion, an artistic choice culminating in the 1973 masterpiece “Black Byrd.”

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 From the album cover, Donald Byrd lays down his royal flush, and that’s it—all bets are off.

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