It was literally impossible for any HBCU (Historically black colleges and universities) college student of the mid and late 1970's not to know who Donald Byrd was. Our musical diet consisted of the usual Funk stuff of the day, but also the Jazz turned Soul-Jazz and Funk artists like Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones, the Crusaders, George Benson, Roy Ayers, Harvey Mason, Ramsey Lewis and Donald Byrd. He was popular amongst college students. Perhaps it came from the fact that he spent so much time as a professor in various universities around the country and he knew the likes and dislikes of a young college student especially of the HBCU. Also, the connection might have come from the fact that he had created three to four groups mainly made up of his former students from HBCU’s namely The Blackbyrds. We loved Donald Byrd and he identified with us. Donald Byrd also represented something to a lot of us. He became a bridge between the popular music of the day (R&B, The Funk and Disco) and Jazz. I first saw Donald Byrd perform in 1975 when I was freshman at St. Augustine’s College. He was one of the headliners of a Jazz series located at NC State University that year. The opening act was the Blackbyrds, who also were the rhythm section behind Dr. Byrd.  This had been one of my first live Jazz concert experiences. The other acts in the series were Dizzy Gillespie, Dave Brubeck, and Herbie Mann and I saw all of them.  This had become a part of my foundation of Jazz appreciation. Jazz had been around me all of my life, but this experience had opened the door much wider to it.

I remember in the winter of 1977 a college friend and myself were sitting in RDU airport waiting for our gates to open. It was a long wait and I remember we were just sitting watching people and just discussing what ever world events were happening at that time. You could not help but notice the tall beautiful woman who was dressed in a fur hat, a long fur coat, boots and expensive looking jewelry walking back and forth between the seat where she and her husband were sitting and the airline check-in counter. I remember Jeff and I agreeing that we could not afford a woman like that. We continued sitting and talking and I noticed that the woman’s husband kept looking in my direction. As a matter of fact every time I turned my head he was staring at us. I then said “Jeff, I don’t know if you noticed, but that guy over there keeps staring at us”. He said “Man, I noticed that too and it’s ticking me off! Let’s go say something to him!” Well we started walking over towards the man and I remember thinking what am I going to say to him when I get in front of him. He had his cap pulled down over his eyes. After I got maybe six feet away from him, I said to Jeff “Hey, that’s Donald Byrd!” He said “Yes! You’re right that is Donald Byrd!”  By that time Dr. Byrd saw that we had recognized him and he had a big smile on his face. Both of us in turn also had big grins on our faces as well. He knew that we were college students and he just wanted to have someone to talk to.  He invited us to sit down with them and he asked us where we went to school. He began to tell us about his Jazz career and Blue Note Records. He talked about Howard University and The Blackbyrds. He talked some about North Carolina Central University and asked us if we had heard the new music from N.C.C.U. That was his new group from North Carolina Central University. I immediately responded “absolutely!” Soon it was time for he and his wife to leave and he said “I only have one of these, but here is a cassette of some of my music”. After they left we both looked at each other and said “Man that was Donald Byrd!”

Dr. Donald Byrd was born Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II in Detroit in 1932. He played in a military band in the Air Force and then joined Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers while working on his masters at Manhattan School of Music. He would replace the great trumpet player Clifford Brown in the group. While still an active member of Blakey’s group, he would also record with other Jazz Legends like Jackie McLean, Horace Silver and others. His first solo recording with his own group resulted in the At the Half Note Café album. He co-led this group with baritone saxophonist Pepper Adams.  BY 1961 he recorded the classic Royal Flush album and then the Free Form album in 1962. He would record about 59 albums initially. Some were on Brunswick, Colombia, Savoy, Prestige and Esquire, but the majority were on Blue Note Records.

In 1969 Donald Byrd ventured in the same direction as Miles Davis and experimented with blending Jazz with other musical elements like Rock and R&B. The album was called Fancy Free which became a Jazz-fusion project. Other albums would follow like Electric Byrd and Ethiopian Knights which were in the Jazz Fusion or more modern Acid Jazz style. These would be the prerequisite to the partnership with Donald Byrd and the Mizell brothers. The first product from this collaboration would the 1973 LP Blackbyrd.  It became a hit and soon would be the blueprint for the new sound that Donald Byrd would be known for. The sound was funkier and also included vocals from Fonce and Larry Mizell. The popular Bluenote album contained two hits like Blackbyrd and Flight Time. The follow-up was Street Lady later on that same year with the same Byrd – Mizell formula. It two was a hit. Donald Byrd was now developing a whole new audience with his new sound of funk elements. The hits from this LP were the title track and Lansana's Priestess. That same year Donald Byrd would use the same formula with the Mizell brothers to produce a group of his former students from Howard University. They would take their name from his 1973 LP Blackbyrd and the debut album by the Blackbyrds was released in 1974. Donald Byrd’s franchise continued to be a success with his solo efforts and his Blackbyrds projects. His newest audience was the college aged students from the mid and late 1970’s.

During this period Donald Byrd would release Stepping Into Tomorrow (1975), Places And Spaces (1975), and Caricatures (1976) all with the Mizell brothers. He would produce the soundtrack to the movie Cornbread, Earl and Me in 1975. However, in 1978 he would record Thank You... For F.U.M.L. (Funking Up My Life) for Electra Records which he produced himself. This was a pure funk album. This would be followed by three more funky albums on Electra under the name Donald Byrd & 125th Street, N.Y.C. Two out of the three were produced by Isaac Hayes.

Donald Byrd like Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and others, was important because he created new forms of Jazz mixed with Rock, R&B and Funk. He stood out from these other artists because his musical influence continued to live and grow through groups like the Blackbyrds, The Three Pieces, N.C.C.U. and beyond. When you would hear the Blackbyrds, you thought of Donald Byrd. He was Jazz, he was Funk and he was the Blackbyrd.

Howard Burchette

He Played Pretty for the People (The Story of Sil Austin)

In the late 1980’s I was offered a job assignment by my employer in Atlanta, Georgia. I worked at a site called IBM Riveredge and like most new jobs my days were stressful and at times the end of the day was a relief. I quickly noticed a second shift security staff employee, who was very friendly and everyone in the building liked him. He would speak to me every day, and I soon found myself engaging in conversation with him daily before I went to my car. Our conversations would generally be centered on what we saw or heard on National Public Radio or on CNN. It was mostly on political topics like the Gulf War and the George H. W. Bush presidency. Occasionally; we would engage in conversation about yard work and home maintenance, but never on music. A day never went by without me stopping and speaking with my friend that I only knew as Sil. A year had gone by and on April 3, 1990 I had heard on NPR that Sarah Vaughan has passed away. That evening while walking to my car, I heard Sil call to me and he said “Hey Howard .. did you heard that Sarah Vaughan passed today?” I told him that I did hear about it and he said to me “She was a good lady”, “She was a grand lady”. I then began to run down Sarah Vaughan’s history that I knew and he acknowledged it and said that he knew her. It startled me and I said “You knew Sarah Vaughan?” he said “Yes, I worked for her?” I said “You worked for Sarah Vaughan? Wow!” I then asked him what he did for her and was he her chauffeur. He told me no, that he played saxophone for her. I then said “You played saxophone for Sarah Vaughan?” Holy Cow! I said “I did not know that you were a musician?” and he said to me “You never asked!”. He then began to tell me his history that he had recorded over 30 albums and that he recorded for Mercury Records, and SSS Records. I went home that evening and looked Sil Austin up in my Soul Music, Jazz and Rhythm and Blues books that I had at home (this was pre internet) and there he was. After that Sil began to tell me about his musical history of working for and with Roy Eldridge, Cootie Williams, Tiny Bradshaw, Red Prysock, Hank Ballard, Maxine Sullivan, Chuck Berry, Jerry Butler and others. I began to tell everyone at IBM who Sil Austin was and soon he was our celebrity.

Sylvester Austin was born on September 29, 1929 in Florida and he had told me that at a very young age he joined the circus and traveled with them playing in the band. He soon moved to New York and signed with Mercury Records as a recording artist. One of his first recording dates occurred on January 15, 1957. That day he recorded the tracks Cat Walk, The Hungry Eye, The Indians Are Coming and Crazy Rhythm. He recorded heavily in 1957 resulting in seven recording sessions which created two albums Slow Walk Rock, and Everything's Shakin'. His first release was actually in 1956 called Slow Walk. It became a top 20 Pop hit. His version of Danny Boy became his second hit in 1957 and was his signature song. He soon would release other albums; Soft Plaintive and Moody and Sil Austin Plays Pretty for the People in 1961. The latter became the album that he was most remembered for. The album cover was photographed in New York’s Central Park and the Ray Charles Singers were hired to sing the background chorus on the album. Sil Austin Plays Pretty for the People is a classic and as Sil once told me, “this is my masterpiece”. Also, that year the album Golden Saxophone Hits was released. In 1963 The Sil Austin With the Merry Melody Singers album was released called Sil Austin With Strings And Choir Plays Folk Songs. His last notable album on Mercury records would be called Plays Pretty Melodies of the World in 1964. In the later 1960’s, he would switch to SSS Records and some of his more notable albums were Honey Sax in 1969, Songs of Gold and Sil & The Silver Screen. One highlight in Sil Austin’s career was the album Sil Austin vs. Red Prysock Battle Royal! in 1959. This is a timeless classic and Sil was very proud of this recording session which included Sil Austin, Red Prysock (ts) Dave Martin (p) Everett Barksdale, Kenny Burrell (g) Milt Hinton (b) David "Panama" Francis (d). During the time that I had met Sil, he had recorded a very nice CD called Go Girl! with Sil Austin, Grady "Fats" Jackson, and Mark "Kaz" Kazanoff. "Fats" was a former saxophonist with the Big Joe Turner band. They called themselves the Tri-Sax-Ual Soul Champs. Sil did not own any of his albums when I met him. I was helping him to build back his collection of his material. After moving to North Carolina in the 1990’s, I had mailed Sil a couple of his albums which I had recently found. I soon received a phone call from his wife the Rev. Vernice Austin, that Sil had passed away on September 1, 2001. It was a sad day for me that I had lost my friend who had shared so many stories about his life in the music business. On how he had experienced hard times and bad business from record companies and management who did not pay him and ripped him off and good times on how he had helped his younger brother go to college with the money that he had earned in the business. Sil Austin was a modest man and he hardly spoke about his music career unless asked. He was a saxophonist, a songwriter, a band leader, a recording artist and a business man. 

Unfortunately, for me Sil passed away before I got into radio and an interview about his life on THE FUNK SHOW would have been perfect. The title of his 1961 album says it all about his life: Sil Austin Plays Pretty for the People.