Byrd's 1961 LP Royal Flush was Hancock's Blue Note debut. The ensemble's hard-driving performances are captured live on At the Half Note Cafe. īyrd's first regular group was a quintet that he co-led from 1958 to 1961 with baritone saxophonist Pepper Adams. 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. In 1955, he recorded with Gigi Gryce, Jackie McLean and Mal Waldron. While still at the Manhattan School, he joined Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers as Clifford Brown's successor. During this period, his first professional recording session was in 1949 at Fortune Records in Detroit with the Robert Barnes Sextette for the single "Black Eyed Peas" / "Bobbin' At Barbee's." After playing in a military band during a term in the United States Air Force, Byrd obtained a bachelor's degree in music from Wayne State University and a master's degree from Manhattan School of Music. He performed with Lionel Hampton before finishing high school. His mother, Cornelia Taylor, introduced Byrd to jazz music and it was her brother who gave Byrd his first trumpet. His father, Elijah Thomas Byrd, was a Methodist minister who greatly valued education and oversaw his son's schooling. His family came from the African-American middle-class. As a bandleader, Byrd was an influence on the early career of Herbie Hancock and many others.īiography Early life and career īyrd was born in 1932 in Detroit, Michigan. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd was one of the few hard bop musicians who successfully explored funk and soul while remaining a jazz artist. Donald Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II (December 9, 1932 – February 4, 2013) was an American jazz and rhythm & blues trumpeter and vocalist.
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