60636

Donald Byrd - Live At Montreux

Released - 2022

Recording and Session Information

"Montreux Jazz Festival", "Casino De Montreux", Switzerland, July 5, 1973
Fonce Mizell, trumpet; Donald Byrd, trumpet, flugelhorn; Allan Barnes, tenor sax, flute; Nathan Davis, tenor, soprano sax; Kevin Toney, electric piano; Larry Mizell, synthesizer; Barney Perry, electric guitar; Henry Franklin, electric bass; Keith Killgo, drums, vocals; Ray Armando, congas, percussion.

Poco-Mania 

You've Got It Bad, Girl 

Untitled No. 3 

Black Byrd 

Flight-Time 

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Black Byrd	Laurence C Mizell	July 5 1973
You've Got It Bad Girl	Stevie Wonder	July 5 1973
The East	Donald Byrd	July 5 1973
Side Two
Title	Author	Recording Date
Introductions
Kwame	Donald Byrd	July 5 1973
Poco-Mania	Donald Byrd	July 5 1973

Liner Notes

As teenagers in Detroit during the 1960s, my friends and I regarded Donald Byrd with the same lofty respect reserved for other hometown musical heroes like Smokey Robinson, the MC5, Elvin Jones. Mitch Ryder, Aretha Franklin and John Lee Hooker...they were all amazing artists who were changing the face of music by exporting the sounds of our city to the rest of the world.  

The music of Donald Byrd was ubiquitous back then...cats like the legendary Motor City jazz disc jockey, Ed Love, would hit tracks like "Nai Nai" from Free Form and "Cristo Redentor" from A New Perspective on a nightly basis...Later on, in the 1970s, Mr. Byrd started adding a healthy dose of Detroit-style funk to his records and his innovative music could be heard blasting out of dashboard mounted 8 track players and back seat subwoofers all over town...He was a Motor City Trumpet Revolutionary and his timeless music will never be forgotten.  

Shortly after Mr. Byrd's passing in 2013, we got an email from the noted British music icon, Gilles Peterson, inquiring about a legendary performance from 1973's Montreux Jazz Festival. Inexplicably, the tapes had been tucked away in the Blue Note vaults. When we listened, we were knocked out: the 16-track, 2" analog master tapes revealed a more raw and gritty side of Donald Byrd's 70's music.  

As a special tribute to this Jazz Immortal and as a gift to the legions of aficionados who, like all of us at Blue Note Records, treasure the music he's left behind, we are honored to present - on vinyl and CD for the first time - Donald Byrd, Live at Montreux from July 5, 1973.  

Don Was  

President, Blue Note Records 

 

My brother Fonce and I were invited by Blue Note Records (President George Butler & Donald Byrd) to travel with the Blue Note artist roster to attend and perform at the 1973 Montreux Jazz Festival. At the time, Donald Byrd's "Black Byrd" album was a big success for Blue Note, along with Bobbi Humphrey's "Blacks and Blues". The American Airlines plane was playing various cuts from "Black Byrd" as part of the cabin music. We flew from NYC to Boston to change planes and while waiting, saw Bobby Hutcherson (wearing a denim suit with a red scarf) walk up to an airport security guard and told him to watch out for a weird guy walking around the airport wearing a denim suit with a red scarf, and then Bobby walked away. We knew this flight would be quite the experience.  
 
The plane ride over was fun, energetic, and wild. The stewardesses were pleading for the passengers to go back to their seats as the aisle was packed with non-stop exuberance.  Byrd poured a packet of salt into the open mouth of a sleeping (unnamed) horn player. Woody Shaw was holding court throughout the flight. We stopped in London and bought the latest wooden clogs and stumbled around throughout the city. Byrd took us up to a friend's house in the mountains above Montreux. There we played tennis and Stan Smith was on the adjoining court. We saw drummer Kenny Clarke (Klook) on the streets and waved, he was living over there. We stopped in to watch McCoy Tyner warming up in one of the Piano rooms. We visited the well-known Chateau de Chillon Castle on Lake Geneva - beautiful. Fonce and I bought these Bulbul Tarang (Indian Banjo) keyboards with typewriter keys and jammed in the hotel room 'til late at night until someone complained to the front desk.  
 
Afterwards Byrd gave us the keys to his apartment Paris. There we spotted a clothing store in the city named "The Jackson 5" and Fonce took pictures with the owners. We & a friend took the train over to the University of Paris and listened to Weather Report's latest album in a dorm room filled with students loving the music.  
 
Unforgettable moments for sure.  
 
Larry Mizell