Received just before Christmas, this message from Étienne Champagne, host of the essential program Rhythmology (them Thursdays, 8 p.m., on CISM) : “I suggest you listen to the jewel found in the vaults of Blue Note” that groove experts, like DJ Gilles Peterson and him, dreamed of hearing: the recording of the concert that trumpeter Donald Byrd and his orchestra offered at the Montreux Jazz Festival in July 1973, shortly after the release of the albums Black Byrd and street-lady, monuments of jazz-funk-soul fusion so crucial to the development of neosoul and hip-hop. Of the ten musicians on stage, several were regulars at studio sessions with Byrd, the members of the jazz-funk group The Blackbyrds or even the brilliant Mizell brothers, composers and producers, Fonce on the trumpet, Larry linking with his synth pads the impulses of drummer Keith Killgo and bassist Henry Frankiln. Jazz and funk and space, the sound of the orchestra is more crisp here than in the studio, Byrd sliding his solos on robust rhythms. A jewel is the right word.
Click here for an excerpt.
To see in video