Jazz Articles about Fred Irby

Howard University Jazz Ensemble 2013: A Tribute to Donald Byrd

by Jack Bowers
June 1, 2014

When Fred Irby III took the reins as director of the Howard University Jazz Ensemble in 1975, one of his earliest and most pivotal decisions was to usher the ensemble into a recording studio once each year to produce an album designed to offer a musical vignette of its proficiency at that point in time. From 1976-88 the albums were vinyl; since then, they've been recorded annually on compact disc. On their latest enterprise, HUJE 2013, Irby and the ensemble ...