Fancy Free (Vinyl)

Donald Byrd set the standard for hard-bop trumpet in his days as a regular on the Prestige and Blue Note labels. His brassy tone and adventurous solos, coupled with a deep sense of the blues, made him one of the most in-demand trumpeters of the 1950s and '60s. Later, Byrd turned to the R&B-influenced side of jazz, which sustained him through several successful years in the late '60s. By the 1970s, Byrd had fully embraced funk and R&B in the form of his popular group, the Blackbyrds. In the '90s, Byrd was introduced to a new crowd when he was a featured performer on rapper Guru's groundbreaking JAZZMATAZZ.

• Category:  Music  »  Jazz  »  Trumpet
• Format: Vinyl   Learn more about the Vinyl format using Tower WIKI.
• Release Date: September 7, 1993
• Label: Blue Note Records (USA)
• UPC: 077778979616
• WAPI (Tower ID): 106716978
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Personnel: Donald Byrd (trumpet); Frank Foster (tenor saxophone); Julian Priester (trombone); Lew Tabackin, Jerry Dodgion (flute); Duke Pearson (electric piano); Jimmy Ponder (guitar); Roland Wilson (bass); Joe Chambers, Leo Morris (drums); Nat Bettis, John Robinson (percussion).

Recorded on May 9 & June 6, 1969. Originally released on Blue Note (84319). Includes liner notes by Nat Hentoff.

It was with 1969's FANCY FREE that Donald Byrd began to break away from the hard bop that had defined his sound through the '50s and '60s. Inspired by the early fusion experiments of Miles Davis on FILLES DE KILIMANJARO and IN A SILENT WAY, Byrd brought in an electric pianist (Duke Pearson) to play on these open-ended, rhythm-centered tracks. Pearson's piano lends a cool, otherworldly feel to the compositions (and links them with Davis's work at the time), and the addition of numerous percussionists indicates Byrd's growing interest in funk and African polyrhythms.

"Fancy Free," the album's opener, clocks in at almost 12 minutes, and features solos from all of the session's major players, including tenor saxophonist Frank Foster, flautist Lew Tabackin, trombonist Julian Priester, and guitarist Jimmy Ponder. The beautiful "I Love the Girl" finds Byrd playing with the use of open space in his compositions, creating an floating, airy feel heightened by Pearson's electric keys. Unlike Byrd's commercially successful R&B-flavored fusion from the '70s, FANCY FREE is still firmly rooted in traditional jazz principles, but contains enough forward-thinking funk and compositional innovation to set it apart from his earlier Blue Note releases.

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