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Blackbyrds - Happy Music: The Best Of The Blackbyrds
Career of trend-setting funkateers chronicled
In 1972, jazz trumpeter Donald Byrd had a huge hit on his hands with the Blue Note album Black Byrd, a collection of accessible jazz-funk grooves helmed by writers/producers Larry and Fonce Mizell. Unable to entice both the Mizells and the top studio musicians that played on the album to go out on the road with him, Byrd (who was enjoying a parallel career teaching music at Howard University) assembled a backing band from students in his music department. Christened The Blackbyrds, in 1974 they became an autonomous unit, inking an album deal with Fantasy. The group’s distinctive fusion-lite sound, a melodic amalgam of jazz, funk and soul that is undoubtedly the precursor to today’s much-maligned smooth jazz, proved popular with the public on both sides of the Atlantic. For those unfamiliar with the group, the 14-track retrospective Happy Music is essential, showcasing a clutch of infectious, breezy jazz-funk grooves such as Rock Creek Park, Walking In Rhythm and the buoyantly funky, Blackbyrds Theme.
Fantasy | 0888072301948
Reviewed by Charles Waring
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