Donald Byrd II: The Birth of Disco?
I’m going to go out on a limb here and contend that the birth of disco occurs during 8 bars in the middle of Fight Time the first track on Donald Byrd’s 1972 Mizell-produced album Black Byrd. If you don’t believe me, skip through to 5’17. Remember this is April 1972! Flight Time is a complete production number, including the sample of the Boeing 707 that opens the track. Cheesy? Quite possibly, but it didn’t stop Black Byrd going on to become Blue Note’s best-selling record ever.
On Love’s So Far Away, the nascence of disco is even more apparent – check out David T. Walker’s killer rhythm guitar work. The band on Black Byrd includes Joe Sample (elp and synth), Wilton Felder (b) and the funkmonster himself, Harvey Mason (d).
Donald Byrd – Flight Time
Donald Byrd – Love’s So Far Away
From Black Byrd: Blue NOte 84466 [Buy]
I’ll also mention in passing how good it is to have the international cricket season underway again – especially when New Zealand sets a new world record for a 2nd innings run chase (332) to beat Australia. OK, Australia won the series 2-1, but the kiwis went out there last night in the final match in Christchurch and beat the best team in the world. They looked good doing it, and it was super, super-sweet.
8 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL
Disco ? Jazz Funk ? That is the question! .. or is it? I actually thought it was more disco and more funky before 5’17. Or maybe I’m not sure what you meant.
Hmmm, interesting how people hear music in different ways. I’ve had this album for 10 years, and I’ve always thought that the 8 bars starting around 5’17 were by far the most “disco” moment in the entire track.
(And I’ve had this impression ever since I listened to it for the first time – lying on a bed in my host family’s bedroom in Phoenix, AZ one April afternoon. I’d just bought a swag of hard-to-get-in-NZ jazz CDs at Best Buy Scottsdale, and this was the one I chose to play first..)
I listened again. And I stand by what I said before. What makes it LESS disco for me, is for instance that the bass goes into bumping (straight) eight notes. I would love to hear from you what disco song or band it reminds you off.
Maybe be (being a bassplayer) I have different “thougts” or opinions about disco. What I like about (many) disco songs is the groove, the basslines etc. and if it’s soulful it has a lot of other things I like as well. But when I heard these 8 bars the first time I just thought of “BAD DISCO” (if any) … you know … the mass produced one… (But then again I could not link it directly to something I had heard before) … Isn’t music fun? We should meet up and dance about architecture one day!
OK, we’re going to have to disagree on this one – I guess I focus on hornlines and melodies, for obvious reasons. But if those 8 bars do remind me of anything, it is commercial (“bad”?) disco. I just made that connection the first time I heard the song and I’ve never been able to hear it any different….
And I agree, let’s organise a waltz about Frank Lloyd Wright sometime.
OK, I said i was gonna stay out of this, but i just listened and gotta say i agree w/ etno all the way on this one. that horn line starting @ 5:17 is proto disco to my ears all the way. But my favorite thing about this track is the jazz funk funky section from 3:20-5:17, w/ the slap bass, wah wah guitar and byrd trading off w/ the flute. love the occasional touches of classic ’70s Rahsaan style overblown flute.
never had this album – so thanks etno!
p.s. great disco-ussion guys!
“Disco-ussion”. Nice! Thanks matt.
“Disco-ussion”. Brilliant!!
There is no slap bass on that track.
I’m obviously listening to the track from a more bass (groove) point of view than you horn guys. But I’m starting to “hear” your point about the brass line. I also favor the funkier part of the song (played finger style on bass btw) ..
Keep the groove alive !!!!!