Donald Byrd – Electric Byrd (Blue Note, 1970)

Donald Byrd (tr); Jerry Dodgion (as, ss, fl); Frank Foster (ts, cl); Lew Tabackin (ts, fl); Pepper Adams (bs, fl); Bill Campbell (tb); Hermeto Pascoal (fl on "Xibaba" only); Wally Richardson (g); Duke Pearson (el p); Ron Carter (b); Mickey Roker (d); Airto Moreira (perc)  

Recorded on May 15, 1970

Electric Byrd is a fantastic album, and often overlooked.  Some have described the record as Donald Byrd’s response to Miles’ Bitches Brew.  I can understand why someone might say that, but I think the passing of time has revealed the important differences between the two.  For example, the music on Bitches Brew is churning, roiling, and dark.  Aside from Miles’ searing trumpet, the signal aspect of the music is Bennie Maupin’s seemingly ever-present bass clarinet, an inchoate, slithering, bottomless sound.  Electric Byrd, on the other hand, floats along on a spacey bed of percussion laid down by Airto Moreira and Mickey Roker.  Another difference: Bitches Brew often seems like a limbless torso, with normal markers removed, an irrational, flowing shape.  Producer Teo Macero’s work on Bitches Brew was indispensable.  After the music had been recorded, he assembled the album like an editor assembling an art-house film.  On the other hand, even with the shimmering “new” electrical sounds (on Byrd’s horn, Pearson’s piano, or Richardson’s guitar), Electric Byrd sounds like a relatively straight-forward studio date.  The music is played in real time.  Furthermore, Byrd’s compositions may sometimes be stretched out, elongated like silly putty—but they’re still recognizable as songs.

If Teo Macero exerted a huge influence on the creation of Bitches Brew, you could point to Duke Pearson as a sort of counterpart on Electric Byrd.  By the end of the 1960s, Pearson was moving past the soulful hard bop sound heard on Blue Note albums like Wahoo! (1965) and Sweet Honey Bee (1967) into newer realms.  Listening to Pearson’s The Phantom (Blue Note, 1968), you can hear musical elements that anticipate the sound of Electric Byrd.  Both albums feature increasingly complex harmonies, loads of colorful percussion, and liberal amounts of Brazilian seasoning (as heard on Airto’s “Xibaba” with fellow Brazilian Hermeto Pascoal sitting in on flute).  Pearson would continue moving in this direction with albums like I Don’t Care Who Knows It (Blue Note, 1968-70; released 1996) and It Could Only Happen with You (Blue Note, 1971, released 1974).  Donald Byrd’s involvement with the whole Brazilian bag proved to be a dalliance.  He took his future musical direction from “The Dude,” the final song on Electric Byrd, away from floating, ethereal sounds and into harder, earthier funk.

More Donald Byrd

If you want to hear more early-70s Donald Byrd, consider giving Ethiopian Knights (Blue Note, 1972) a spin. Featuring a much grittier sound than Electric Byrd, the album boasts a potent line-up of sidemen including Bobby Hutcherson, Harold Land, and Joe Sample, among others.