Archive for Donald Byrd

Happy 85th Birthday, Herbie Hancock!

Posted in Jazz with tags , , , on April 12, 2025 by telescoper

Prolific jazz pianist, composer, and arranger Herbie Hancock was born on 12th April 1940, which means that today is his 85th birthday. I’ve posted quite a few pieces of music featuring Herbie Hancock over the years so I thought I’d put up something a little different to mark his birthday in the form of this unusual but very cool version of The House of the Rising Sun, featuring Donald Byrd on trumpet, Hancock on piano, Kenny Burrell on guitar, Bob Cranshaw (bass) and Grady Tate (drums) and the Donald Byrd Singers. This track appeared on the album Up With Donald Byrd which wasn’t well received when it came out in 1964, but I like it!

P.S. I did a Google search for Herbie Hancock House of the Rising Sun and found this:

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Speak Low

Posted in Jazz with tags , , , , , , on January 19, 2025 by telescoper

It’s been a while since I shared any music on this blog, so here’s a favourite track of mine from the late Fifties. The tune, Speak Low, which was written in 1943 by Kurt Weill and rapidly became a jazz standard. The following is an instrumental version but it’s worth mentioning that the lyrics were written by Ogden Nash, a man much more known for humorous verse than for beautiful love songs.

Anyway, this version is from a great album called Sonny’s Crib recorded in 1957 by a band led by pianist Sonny Clark and released on the Blue Note label in 1958. Clark was an excellent piano player but he’s not as well known nowadays as he should be, largely because he died very young (in 1963, at the age of just 31, from a heart attack caused by a heroin overdose). I bought the album on vinyl when I was still at school, perhaps 45 years ago, and I still have it. This particular track has also featured in many “best of” collections.

Alongside Sonny Clark (piano), the sextet contains John Coltrane, no less, on tenor sax who, just a couple of weeks before, had recorded the album Blue Train as leader, also for Blue Note. Coltrane does plays a prominent role in this track and indeed in the whole session. There’s also fine Curtis Fuller (trombone) and Donald Byrd (trumpet), Art Taylor (drums) and Paul Chambers (bass). Credit must ago to Rudy van Gelder for producing that very distinctive Blue Note sound that does justice to the great musicians that recorded for the label.

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Cristo Redentor – Donald Byrd

Posted in Jazz with tags , on June 2, 2020 by telescoper

Duke Pearson was inspired by the famous statue that looks down over Rio de Janeiro to write this tune, of which this is the very first version, put on record in 1963 and released a year later in 1964 to become an instant classic. It’s a wonderful fusion of jazz, blues and gospel music but above all it’s a gentle hymn to peace and respect.I don’t think I have to explain why I think it’s apt to put it up today.

Front and centre is Donald Byrd on trumpet, but the rest of the band includes Hank Mobley (tenor), Herbie Hancock (piano), Donald Best (vibes), Kenny Burrell (guitar), Butch Warren (bass) and Lex Humphries (drums). The choir consists of 8 voices (4 male, four female) but sadly they are not named on the liner notes.

 

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The Jazz Legends we lost in 2013

Posted in Jazz with tags , , , , , , , on December 29, 2013 by telescoper

I’ve become rather slow to find out about things since I gave up buying  newspapers regularly. That’s why I only found out yesterday that Jazz musician Yusef Lateef had passed away on 23rd December, at the age of 93. He had a good innings, but it’s still sad to lose someone who was there at the birth of the modern era of jazz; Lateef played with Dizzy Gillespie’s band way back in the 1940s before going on to carve out his own career as a bandleader and a pioneering figure in the development of world music.

The death of Yusef Lateef got me thinking about all the other great jazz  musicians who also passed away in 2013 to whom I haven’t yet found time to pay tribute. The list I’ve selected is sadly rather long, and I could have included more. I’ve added links to examples of their playing:

  • Cedar Walton (August 19, aged 79).  Terrific piano player in the hard bop tradition, who came to prominence with Art Blakey’s band of the 1960s as pianist and arranger. Listen to him clearly enjoying himself playing Duke Ellington’s Satin Doll here.
  • Chico Hamilton (November 25, aged 92). Drummer and bandleader who, among many other things, sought to merge jazz with classical forms (e.g. by bring a flute and cello into his band). Check out Blue Sands Live , recorded at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958.
  • Jim Hall (December 10, aged 83). Brilliant jazz guitarist, also played at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958, with Jimmy Giuffre and Bob Brookmeyer on The Train and the River.
  • Donald Byrd (February 4, aged 80). Began his career as a bebop trumpeter, but later moved towards a more popular jazz funk/rhythm & blues/fusion style. Listen to him on his famous Blue Note recording of Cristo Redentor.
  • Marian McPartland (August 20, aged 95). British born pianist who presented a long-running radio series on piano jazz on US Radio. Here she is playing a duet with Dave Brubeck. You might just recognize the tune!
  • Stan Tracey (December 6, aged 86). Uniquely gifted British pianist with an instantly recognizable style.  House pianist at Ronnie Scott’s Club in London for many years, in which role he earned the respect and admiration of the very best musicians in the world.The one musician on this list that I’ve seen live. I’ve seen him several times, in fact, and could never take my eyes off his hands:

People such as these are irreplaceable, of course, but at least they will live on in our hearts through their music. I hope they all knew how much we loved them.

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