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Donald Byrd: The Emperor

By Chris May
March 30, 2023
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"The Emperor" is the killer track on Donald Byrd's 1972 masterpiece Ethiopian Knights (Blue Note), an album which took Miles Davis' contemporaneous electric experiments, stripped them of their wannabe rockstar aspirations and reframed them with a deep funk sensibility. Byrd, tenor saxophonist Harold Land, trombonist Thurman Green, vibes player Bobby Hutcherson and others bounce off plugged-in guitarist and bassist Gordon Peake and Wilton Felder for 15:40 minutes of stone magic.

Contact Chris May on All About Jazz.
Chris May is a senior editor of All About Jazz. He was previously the editor of the pioneering magazine Black Music & Jazz Review, and more recently editor of the style / culture / history magazine Jocks & Nerds.

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About Donald Byrd

Instrument: Trumpet

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