BST 84319

Donald Byrd - Fancy Free

Released - January 1970

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, May 9, 1969
Donald Byrd, trumpet; Julian Priester, trombone; Lew Tabackin, flute; Frank Foster, tenor sax; Duke Pearson, electric piano; Jimmy Ponder, guitar; Roland Wilson, bass; Joe Chambers, drums; Nat Bettis, John Richardson, percussion.

4279 tk.2 Weasil
4278 tk.8 I Love The Girl

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, June 6, 1969
Donald Byrd, trumpet; Julian Priester, trombone; Jerry Dodgion, flute; Frank Foster, tenor sax; Duke Pearson, electric piano; Jimmy Ponder, guitar; Roland Wilson, bass; Leo Morris, drums; Nat Bettis, John Richardson, percussion.

4276 tk.10 Fancy Free
4277 tk.23 The Uptowner

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Fancy Free	Donald Byrd	June 6 1969
I Love the Girl	Donald Byrd	May 9 1969
Side Two
The Uptowner	Mitch Farber	June 6 1969
Weasil	Charles Hendricks	May 9 1969

Liner Notes

THE PROTEAN DONALD BYRD — composer. educator, trumpeter, producer of his own television series, band leader, and most recently, law student - continues to create music that remains remarkably intact, considering the speed and intensity Of Donald's existence.

Consider the airy title song, "Fancy Free." "It is relaxed. isn't it?" Donald said in recollection. "That's partly because of the fact that the musicians on the date all fit so well together, and it's partly the nature of the piece. The progressions run in minor thirds, reflecting the prevalent use these days of irregular resolutions which give you the feeling that the chords can go on and on. Here. the harmonies and the melodic feel of the song are the cause of its running long. Everybody wanted to play on it."

I mentioned the attractive sound - silvery yet pungent - of Duke Pearson's electric piano. "That was my idea - having Duke play the instrument. Now he's so gassed with the sound, he's buying one. This, by the way, is the first album on which Duke has used an electric piano. It's appeal to me is like that of a celeste in an orchestra. "

I told Donald I'd been particularly beguiled by "I Love The Girl" - his own soaringly clear playing, the bursting lyricism of Frank Foster, and the subtly shaded scoring behind Duke Pearson's electric piano. "I'll tell you how that song happened.' said Donald. "I had Barbra Streisand in mind. I wanted to see if I could write something in her idiom, and this is the result. No lyrics have been written to it yet. but the option is open to anyone who's interested."

"The Uptowner" is by Mitch Farber, whom Donald describes as his "assistant-at-large." A former student of Donald's at a Stan Kenton clinic at Michigan State some nine years ago, Farber is a consultant to Donald in his teaching and also does research for him. "At the various universities and colleges where I teach." Donald explains, "I usually have graduate student assistants, but Mitch is my over-all aide. He's also a good writer. This piece by him is a kind of portrait, as the title indicates. And it's also a fusion of modern idioms, a sort of rock-jazz in the general area in which Blood, Sweat & Tears and other such groups are working."

"Weasil" is by Charles Hendricks. "He's a student of mine at Howard." Donald points out. "One of the main problems in jazz education is that excellent young writers like him don't have a chance to get their music recorded. On my dates. however. I'm going to keep on introducing new composers. I accept anybody's music on the basis of its content - not on whether the writer has a 'name.' 'Weasil' is Hendricks' first tune to be recorded; it's like a blues with rock-type progressions."

The title. "Weasil," is the nickname Of a good friend Of Donald Byrd. "I met Louise West," says Donald, "when she was a student at North Carolina College in Durham. She wanted to be part of the general enlightenment of black people, with particular regard to law. and went on to take her law degree at American University in Washington. Then she was thinking about where to focus her energies specifically. and I pointed out there was a dearth of lawyers who could help musicians with contracts and with all the other elements connected with publishing and recording. And that's a field she's in now. I've also decided to take my own advice. and I'm working for a law degree at Howard."

Byrd the law student continues to also function as music educator at Columbia, New York University, North Carolina College. Hampton Institute, Howard, Rutgers' new Livingston campus. and other institutions. "This is just the beginning," Donald emphasizes. "I'm inspired by the growing number of young black and white jazz-oriented musicians who are going into education along these lines. Joe Henderson and Charles Davis, for example, are among them. And another of my own projects is the inauguration of the first jazz music camp to be run by young musicians of stature. As of present plans, the faculty will include Joe Henderson, Herbie Hancock and Duke Pearson. We'll do a lot of ethnomusicology and, of course, a lot of playing. And I want it to be structured so that it will be low-cost. "

As for Donald's television plans, he has already taped or is in the process Of planning programs with Eubie Blake, Duke Pearson, Mel Lewis and Thad Jones, as well as an expert on African music from the Ghana Institute, the Brooklyn jazz band, and New York University's Jazz Ensemble. "I talk with the guests," Donald says of the program, "and the point is that unlike most television interviews, they talk about what's on their mind, not about what's on the interviewer's mind. And then they play their music. It'll be shown on education channels and eventually, I expect, throughout the country."

And still, always, there is Donald's own music - this album being part of the continuum of the Byrd sound and his continually probing musical imagination. "The core of what I'm about musically," Donald emphasizes, "is that I play what's on my mind, what absorbs me at the time of the act of music. I'm not trying to be avant-garde or a hippie. I'm me, and a lot of different things interest me at different times. And since I'm not pressing to be something other than myself, the sessions come out as relaxed as I can make them. As this one did."

Donald is, to understate the case, an extraordinary man - in terms of his range of interests and most impressively, his scope of accomplishments. The latter is two-fold: the continuing growth of Donald as a musician and the accelerating influence of Donald as educator and as catalyst for the instruction and awakening of us all.

- Nat Hentoff