About

The Donald Byrd Acoustic & Electric Sessions is a tribute to the late American Jazz legend and educator’s acoustic mainstream jazz and electric music. This ensemble brings together two important innovative music legends and two young rising stars to bring life to the jazz icon’s music. 2 X Grammy nominated, award - winning Pianist, Kevin Toney attended Howard University and became the leader of "The Blackbyrds", which was founded by Donald Byrd, Saxophonist Azar Lawrence performed with Miles Davis, McCoy Tyner and Freddie Hubbard, Trumpeter Johnny Britt - Trumpet, and Songstress, Dominique Toney.

Dr. Donald Byrd is an icon and one of the leading jazz trumpeters of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Known for his pure tone and impeccable technique, he worked with some of the most prominent jazz musicians of that period, including John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins and Art Blakey.

In the mid -'70s, Byrd debuted his latest evolution. He formed a band out of his students at Howard University and called them "The Blackbyrds". His 1973 album Black Byrd would become Blue Note Record's top selling record ever and hit the Billboards R&B chart, the jazz chart and the pop chart. The Blackbyrds' subsequent albums were extremely popular as well. As producer of their records, the band had a string of gold selling albums and hit singles including "Walking in Rhythm," a #1 song on the pop, jazz, r&b and easy listening charts, Rock Creek Park," a remarkably distinctive single- you'll recognize that synth line anywhere- that became the theme song for the city of Washington D.C. and has been sampled by everyone from Grandmaster Flash to De La Soul and “Happy Music”. Dr. Byrd welcomed hip-hop and in the '90s, working with rapper Guru, who used his funk-fusion recordings for the Jazzmatazz project. Byrd’s recording legacy produced 43 solo albums, and 95 sideman albums with a who’s who list of various artists in jazz. He a pioneering force in establishing jazz studies programs in American colleges and conservatoires at Howard University, Hampton University, North Carolina and Delaware State University. Byrd was a 2000 recipient of Jazz Masters Award from National Endowment For The Arts.
 

Just as Miles Davis was seminal to the impactful creation of the Jazz Rock Fusion genre in the late 1960’s - 1970’s, Donald Byrd's recordings on Blue Note in the 70’s were equality impactful in the explosive emergence of the Jazz Soul/R&B Fusion genre. His pioneering artistic vision along with producers Larry and Fonce Mizell opened the door for many now legendary artists to follow and flourish in the jazz fusion realm, including, Herbie Hancock, Weather Report, Grover Washington, The Blackbyrds, Crusaders, and the popular jazz styles that came afterwards!

Donald's many hits include "Cristo Redentor", "Flight Time", "Steppin’ Into Tomorrow", "Places and Spaces", "Dominoes", "Change", and “Love Has Come Around”.