Donald Byrd - Ethiopian Knights (1971) {Blue Note}
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Jazz / Fusion / Jazz Funk / Trumpet
Right from the
stop-start bass groove that opens "The Emperor," it's immediately clear
that Ethiopian Knights is more indebted to funk -- not just funky jazz,
but the straight-up James Brown/Sly Stone variety -- than any previous
Donald Byrd project. And, like a true funk band, Byrd and his group work
the same driving, polyrhythmic grooves over and over, making rhythm the
focal point of the music. Although the musicians do improvise, their
main objective is to keep the grooves pumping, using their solos more to
create texture than harmonic complexity.
That's why jazz purists began to detest Byrd with this album (though the
follow-ups certainly cinched it); in truth, even though Ethiopian
Knights did move Byrd closer to R&B, it's still more jazz than funk,
and didn't completely foreshadow his crossover. The dense arrangements
and lo-o-o-ng workouts (two of the three tracks are over 15 minutes) are
indicative of Byrd's continued debt to Miles Davis, in particular the
bevy of live double LPs Davis issued in the early '70s. Byrd again leads
a large ensemble, but with mostly different players than on his recent
sessions; some come from the group assembled for Bobby Hutcherson's Head
On album, others from the Jazz Crusaders. That's part of the reason
there are fewer traces of hard bop here, but it's also clear from the
title that Byrd's emerging Afrocentric consciousness was leading him --
like Davis -- to seek ways of renewing jazz's connection to the people
who created it. Even if it isn't quite as consistent as Kofi and
Electric Byrd, Ethiopian Knights is another intriguing transitional
effort that deepens the portrait of Byrd the acid jazz legend. |
Personnel:
Donald Byrd - trumpet
Thurman Green - trombone
Harold Land - tenor saxophone
Bobby Hutcherson - vibes
Joe Sample - organ
Bill Henderson III - electric piano
Don Peake, Greg Poree (tracks 1 & 2),
David T. Walker (track 3) - guitar
Wilton Felder - electric bass
Ed Greene - drums
Bobbye Porter Hall - congas, tambourine
tracklist:
01 - The Emperor
02 - Jamie
03 - The Little Rasti
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