Donald Byrd rocks my world!

There are a select group of jazz musicians who have managed to bridge both the traditional and more the modern forms of Americas greatest music. One of these is the great Donald Byrd. From his early days playing with the likes of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock and Thelonius Monk to his contributions to Guru's "Jazzmatazz" albums, he has become one of the most lauded and possibly most recorded trumpeters of all time. However, in the mid to late 70s he would record three albums for the mighty Blue Note Records that would catapult both him and his music into the unknown. "Black Byrd", "Stepping into Tomorrow" and "Places and Spaces" would become the embodiment of everything that was Jazz Funk and provide a plethora of inspirations for both the hip hop and acid jazz scenes. Of course a large amount of credit must be given to the Mizell Brothers whose shadows loom large across the entire black musical spectrum in this period, but we shall speak about them in much greater length at a later date. Along side his career as one of Blue Notes greatest recording artists he taught music at a number of American universities and last year was named as artist in residence at Delaware State University. So without further ado, I give you one of my all time favourite Donald Byrd tracks, the magnificent "Think Twice"