After a campaign of corporate dumpster diving which has uncovered a treasure trove of lost gems, Blue Note are releasing a number of Live at Montreux sets. Alongside this one, other releases from Bobbi Humphreys, Bobby Hutcherson and Marlena Shaw are also coming out. The Donald Byrd set was recorded in July 1973 and featured the Mizell brothers who had become mainstays of his band by then as both writers and producers as well as musicians. They would stay with Byrd until after the Places and Spaces album, a favourite in this house.
By
1973 the Montreux Casino had been repaired after the fire immortalised in Deep
Purple’s Smoke on the Water (or Smirk on the Watter as they say in
Ashington) when ‘Some stupid with a flare gun burnt the place to the ground.’
This
is a useful addition to the Byrd discography as it captures the increasing soul
influence on Byrd, jazz generally and Blue Note in particular. He had
released Blackbyrd, his first album produced by ex-Motown producer Larry Mizell, earlier in the year and the title
track opens this album. Larry Mizell had written or co-written all of the tracks
on that album and Byrd had recorded another album of Larry Mizell compositions
or co-compositions in Street Lady just
a month before this concert took place. To cement the soul credentials, Live at Montreux also includes a Stevie
Wonder cover. Finally, and to pique the interests of any Donald Byrd
completists out there, (and I’m sure there must be some), three of the tracks
are available for the first time.
Miles
Davis was, of course, one of the first converts to combining jazz with soul and
there are elements of his influence here, but most of all, despite this being a
fairly large band the emphasis is mainly on Byrd’s trumpet playing. These tunes
make up a set of showcases for his lovely, burnished tone, which is front and
central all the way through. Points to Rachel Jones who produced the album for
release and to George Butler and Chris Penycote who captured it all in the
first place.
Opener,
Blackbyrd, could have been a
Parliafunkadelic thang or an out-take from a Blaxploitation thriller soundtrack
by Bobby Womack. A driving groove, explosions of colour, simple chanted lyrics
‘Walking along playing a song, Walk
along, starting us off, Listen to the horn carry on, Get in the groove and move,
Just can't lose’ provide the vocal backing for the saxes to take the limelight.
The Stevie Wonder song, You’ve Got It Bad Girl, is, again, a platform for improvisation.
With Nathan Davis’s soprano taking the lead and wailing sinuously over the
groove. A mellow laid back passage follows before it’s Byrd’s turn. He has a
full, rich tone and it becomes apparent that, although the Mizell brothers were
an important part of Byrd’s career at this point, everything is done in support
of moments like this when it is his voice on the trumpet to the fore.
The East is
another Byrd composition. Anchored by Franklin’s bass. It sounds like one of
Davis’ experiments where the band just groove whilst Byrd plays over them
before Barney Perry constructs a guitar solo that has its roots in the church.
To take it home there’s some lovely layering as the horns and brass move
between the front and back lines. It’s a great arrangement and impressive
ensemble playing.
Kwame is (I
presume) in tribute to Kwame Nkrumah the first President of the independent
Ghana who had died the previous year. It opens with a bold, widescreen riff
played by all of the band which shows the power in such a large group. It all
falls away and Byrd builds a solo over a muted rhythm section. As the solo
grows in energy, the rest of the band step back into the fray until it’s
another full on assault. As mentioned above though, Byrd always stays just
ahead of the pack.
The
closer, Poco-Mania, is just a full-on
funk charge with everyone running to get ahead of everyone else before Byrd,
again, takes off and scorches his way through a ferocious solo before handing
the baton onto, (I suspect), Barnes who takes over at the same energy level.
Exhilarating stuff.
Donald Byrd – Live at Montreux was released in December and is available through
all the usual outlets and there is more information about it HERE
on the Blue Note website. Dave Sayer
*This is Allan Curtis Barnes and not the Alan Barnes who did a Christmas Carol last month in Newcastle.
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