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Donald Byrd: Donald Byrd Live: Cookin' With Blue Note at Montreux

By Peter Jones
December 30, 2022
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Donald Byrd: Donald Byrd Live: Cookin' With Blue Note at Montreux

What a treat it must have been in 1973 to attend the Montreux Jazz Festival: the featured artists that year included

Dexter Gordon

saxophone, tenor
1923 - 1990

" data-original-title="" title="">Dexter Gordon,

McCoy Tyner

piano
1938 - 2020

" data-original-title="" title="">McCoy Tyner,

Chico Hamilton

drums
1921 - 2013

" data-original-title="" title="">Chico Hamilton,

Sam Rivers

saxophone, tenor
1923 - 2011

" data-original-title="" title="">Sam Rivers,

Bobbi Humphrey

flute
b.1950

" data-original-title="" title="">Bobbi Humphrey, Dr John,

Marlena Shaw

vocals
1942 - 2024

" data-original-title="" title="">Marlena Shaw,

Bobby Hutcherson

vibraphone
1941 - 2016

" data-original-title="" title="">Bobby Hutcherson... and

Donald Byrd

trumpet
1932 - 2013

" data-original-title="" title="">Donald Byrd with his Tentet, whose July 5 performance is captured on this album.

It was also the year of

Herbie Hancock

piano
b.1940

" data-original-title="" title="">Herbie Hancock's Headhunters (Columbia Records) album, not to mention several Blaxploitation movie soundtracks, including

J.J. Johnson

trombone
1924 - 2001

" data-original-title="" title="">J.J. Johnson's for Cleopatra Jones and

" data-original-title="" title="">James Brown's for Black Caesar. At the time, Byrd was head of the black music department at Howard University in Washington, DC. He thought highly enough of his students to include several of them in the Tentet, and to record with them: pianist

Kevin Toney

piano
1953 - 2024

" data-original-title="" title="">Kevin Toney, guitarist

Barney Perry

guitar

" data-original-title="" title="">Barney Perry, drummer

Keith Killgo

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Keith Killgo, and saxophonist/flutist

Allan Barnes

saxophone, tenor

" data-original-title="" title="">Allan Barnes had all appeared on Byrd's best-selling Black Byrd (1973) album for Blue Note. Its producers, the brothers

Fonce Mizell

trumpet

" data-original-title="" title="">Fonce Mizell (trumpet) and

Larry Mizell

synthesizer

" data-original-title="" title="">Larry Mizell (synthesizer), were also members of the Tentet, along with tenor saxophonist

Nathan Davis

saxophone
1937 - 2018

" data-original-title="" title="">Nathan Davis.

Byrd subsequently drew the membership of his funk-soul outfit

The Blackbyrds

" data-original-title="" title="">The Blackbyrds from his Howard students. So far, so good. But after the Montreux gig—inexplicably —Blue Note shelved the recordings. It was not until Byrd died in 2013 that the label received an email from British jazz DJ Gilles Peterson, who had introduced his young UK club audiences to the dance possibilities of Byrd's music during the '80s. Peterson was sure the gig had been recorded, because all the Blue Note artists at Montreux that year were. He wanted to know what had happened to the Byrd tapes. It is not at all clear why it has since taken Blue Note nearly a decade to release them, but hey—we should be glad they finally have.

Beginning with Larry Mizell's Blaxploitation-style "Black Byrd" (the only representative of the eponymous album), Byrd plants his funky flag from the outset, the music dominated by Perry's wah-wah guitar, insistent electric bass from Henry Franklin, and some wailing tenor saxophone.

Stevie Wonder

vocals
b.1950

" data-original-title="" title="">Stevie Wonder's "You've Got It Bad, Girl" is next, a more spacious, impressionistic outing featuring Byrd's flugelhorn, while "The East" is an extended one-chord riff'n'rhythm workout. "Kwame" (another version of which is to be found on Byrd's Live at the Jazz Workshop, Boston [Echoes, 2014]), rather outstays its welcome, with its seemingly endless five-note riff, while "Poco-Mania" is a frantic hunk of burnin' funk. Exhilarating.

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Track Listing

Black Byrd; You've Got It Bad Girl; The East; Introductions; Kwame; Poco-Mania.

Personnel

Donald Byrd

trumpet

Fonce Mizell

trumpet

Allan Barnes

saxophone, tenor

Keith Killgo

drums

Nathan Davis

saxophone

Kevin Toney

piano

Larry Mizell

synthesizer

Barney Perry

guitar

Henry Franklin

bass

Ray Armando

percussion

Keith Kilgo

drums

Additional Instrumentation

Donald Byrd: flugelhorn, vocals; Fonce Mizell: vocals; Keith Killgo: vocals.

Album information

Title: Live: Cookin' With Blue Note at Montreux | Year Released: 2022 | Record Label: Blue Note Records

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