BST 84380

Donald Byrd - Ethiopian Nights

Released - 1972

Recording and Session Information

A&M Studios, Los Angeles, CA, August 25, 1971
Donald Byrd, trumpet; Thurman Green, trombone; Harold Land, tenor sax; Bobby Hutcherson, vibes; Joe Sample, organ; Bill Henderson III, electric piano; Don Peake, Greg Poree, guitar; Wilton Felder, electric bass; Ed Greene, drums; Bobbye Porter Hall, congas, tambourine.

8317 (tk.2) The Emperor
8318 (tk.4) Jamie

A&M Studios, Los Angeles, CA, August 26, 1971
David T. Walker, guitar; replaces Poree.

8319 The Little Rasti

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
The Emperor	Donald Byrd	August 25 1971
Side Two
Jamie	Donald Byrd	August 25 1971
The Little Rasti	Donald Byrd	August 26 1971

Liner Notes

THE Music

It was the music took them past the urine
In the blind bloodhole belly of the slave ships
Vomiting history culture religion language identity
Past the breasts of mamas forgotten before their faces would be familiar
Before their smiles would be warmth their eyes safety their navels home
To be gone for centuries now
It was the music bound the torn rag-red black backs
Lifted the abttered wooly cotton-dotted heads and squared the
sagging shoulders
Against the tillion suns of Macon and Martinique
Slowed the whipman's hands 'till the lash only killed
five outa ten
And sometimes made the strawboss go home and cry in
his nightbed
'Cause even niggahs need nice every leap year
It was the music borned the babychile
Put laughter in the ceiling of the 'cropper's' shack
It was the music dulled the ropebite cooled the gutburn
And hushed the neckcrack
As the manic crowdgrin of the lynchmob closed in on the deadbody
To take its final dignity and beat it shot it shread it divide it carry it
And display its parts in pickle jars on drugstore counters
It was the music pulled babychile through jailbars
And laid his spirit on a nine-foot cloud just out of fat sheriff's reach
Above foamflecked bloodhound jaws gnashing in the waterwarm dusk
Two gasps this side of lungs' burst
O shit now mama!
And set him down north-bound on 4/4-time boxcar wheels of smooth street
Rolling to broken brick ghettos everywhere across the landface
It's the music put the black soft thighs in his quiltbed
While white snow piles up against the frigid window
Leaving only room enough to see the budweiser sign at the top
And bright brown smileyes on the pillow
It's the music walks with him to the el station
Looking past hopeless stares of phased-out people in doorways Leading to inkwells of sorrow one flight up
Where walls soaked with tears and last year's fried chicken grease
Close in on pregnant welfare mothers
Who sit in the half-light watching the street below
Where the blank faces give him broken english orders
That break his heart if not his spirit
'Cause the music's there when he tells them to kiss his ass
And the music reaches under his armpits and holds him tall
As he rides above the scarred stone cliffs of the city
Back to brown smileyes with no promises in his pockets
But no shit in his cuffs either
The music takes him past the landlady
The black-and-white police squad the hospital the judge the jail the prison yard
Where boys are made girls with a collective hardon sponsored by resolutions
Rammed thru pioustown city council chambers
The music puts brass on his knuckles
As he wails on those chumps' cheeks
But afterwhile it gets hard to hit 'em
'Cause all he can see is brown smileyes
And the red line in that goddamned budweiser sign
The music tells him it's life or death now boy so kickass
Till the screws finally worry about the chaplain complaining
And come over to break it up for now
It's the music waiting for him on the otherside of the wall when he comes out into the sun again
And walks away way way into freedom's mouth
Only to find walls once more
It's the music says 'naw' when the scag man runs his game
It's the music says 'present' when the parole cat calls roll
The music says 'keep lookin' when he finds no gig
The music pours whiskey when he tries to forget
The music in all the secret places where he hunts brown smileyes
The music smoothing the wrinkles of his loneliness
The music Sitting on the curb With him
Just sitting in weary blues funky dirty drawers
terrible tiredness
Just sitting to weep thoughts
It's the music hunched him over to still the pain
It's the music closed his eyes
It's the music rolls him on his side
Kneeling down next to him
It's the music
And he sighs
He hears it
As he cries
He touches it
And he dies
And there will be music in the new nation
—Bill Quinn

1998 CD Reissue Liner Notes

ETHIOPIAN KNIGHTS album represents a major turning point in Donald Byrd’s musical growth as an artist. After a 1968 trip to Africa, Donald began exploring the African social and musical systems. This study helped him form a unique Afro-centric set of values that he applied to his music. Unlike many of his contemporaries, who seemed to take on Africanism’ as mere costuming, Donald’s artistic vision changed. His love for African art evolved during this period, and he began collecting African or Afro-American artists works for many years.

Donald had recorded (for BLUE NOTE) three important LP’s from 1969 that defined the moment, the tenor of the times. FANCY FREE (1969), KOFI (1969-70, not released until 1995) and ELECTRIC BYRD (1970) brought Donald into electronics, rock and soul-jazz rhythms, percussionists and electronic keyboards, loose improvisations and structures that were sometimes 15 minutes long. It was a golden time for his music, with an anything goes’ approach.

Many attitudes in the Jazz community were changed about Rock after BITCHES BREW became a big seller for Miles Davis. Donald (who had been moving towards a more African sound) and Miles (who at first went into a Rock sound but later got deep into the third world sound of Mtume’s percussion) both felt the need for change and used their recording contracts as a way of testing the waters. Both sought a ‘larger canvas’ to paint on. Miles found his moment with BITCHES BREW and never bettered himself commercially. Donald Byrd was just as patient. He experimented, fine tuned and searched for three more years until he found the sound he was looking for with 1972’s BLACKBYRD.

ETHIOPIAN KNIGHTS was recorded in August of 1971, at a time when the rock music explosion of the sixties was peaking. The jazz world had already exploded. By August of 1971, you could hear (on a somewhat regular basis) Miles Davis (with Keith Jarrett), The Herbie Hancock Sextet, Weather Report, The Mahavishnu Orchestra and The New Tony Williams Lifetime. This represented the cream-of-the-crop East Coast crossover musicians, who had developed what was then called the ‘jazz/rock’ sound. (In an Ironic twist, many of these musicians migrated to the West Coast by the mid-seventies).

Progressive pop and rock music was much more visible and viable on the West Coast, and soon groups like Frank Zappas Mothers Of Invention and the Grateful Dead demanded the attention of jazz musicians. The West Coast had primarily The Jazz Crusaders (soon to delete ‘Jazz’ from their name), the Bobby Hutcherson-Harold Land Group and Jean-Luc Ponty’s quartet with George Duke. These three groups had identifiable sounds and styles, with roots In the hard core jazz traditions. They started to embrace the rock (or soul) oriented developments in music, and as these musicians adapted to new things, a different kind of sound emerged from the West Coast.

In July of 1971, Bobby Hutcherson recorded his BLUE NOTE album HEAD ON, and on this album he used two keyboards, two bassists on one track, three drummers and three percussionists. In this cast were keyboardist Bill Henderson, Harold Land, and Stix Hooper from the Jazz Crusaders. These musicians were part of a collective group of musicians on the West Coast that worked together and had similar attitudes about music, and shared not only the bandstand, but lite together. It was easy tor Donald Byrd to go to Los Angeles and ‘hook up’ with these musicians.

For these August 1971 sessions, Donald assembled key members of this creative group of West Coast musicians. From Bobby Hutcherson’s band came Bobby himself, Harold Land, Bill Henderson and Thurman Green and from the Jazz Crusaders came Joe Sample (on organ) and electric bassist Wilton Felder. Guitarists Don Peak and Greg Poree were, along with drummer Edward Greene and percussionist Bobbye Porter Hall, top LA session artists.

The music released was a subtle mix of dense textures, grooves and improvisation. “The Little Rasti” is by far the most abstract of the tracks, with it’s 18 minute excursion aimed at the rock market. “The Emperor” crossfades into “Jamie”, a quiet groove. “The Little Rasti” ends the CD with fire and energy, as though you just listened to a ‘live’ Donald Byrd show from August of 1971.

Donald’s next adventure was the album BLACKBYRD, which catapulted him to stardom; not to the jazz audience, or the rock audience, but to a black audience made up of jazz and rock fans. The re-release of ETHIOPIAN KNIGHTS fills in an important chapter in Donald Byrd’s musical story. Hopefully this CD will provide both musician and fan greater Insight into Donald Byrd the artist, and the special place his music will take you.

—BOB BELDEN 1998