The Blackbyrds - City Life (1975) & Unfinished Business (1976) [1999, Remastered Reissue]
R&B, Jazz-Funk, Disco | EAC Rip | WavPack (WV), Img+CUE+LOG+Scans (PNG) | 74:48 Min | 538,12 Mb
Label: Fantasy Records (USA) | Cat.# FCD-24751-2 | Released: 1999-05-03 (1975/1976)
This reissue combines two of the Blackbyrds' classic albums, City Life from 1975 and Unfinished Business from 1976, on a single 74-minute CD. To be sure, "classic" isn't a word that many jazz purists have used to describe the albums - when Donald Byrd produced them, bop's hard-liners were denouncing the Clifford Brown-influenced trumpeter as a shameless sellout and insisting that he should have stuck to straight-ahead acoustic jazz. But then, the Blackbyrds weren't going after jazz purists - their music was soul, funk, and disco with jazz overtones, and the people who bought their albums were more likely to be into Earth, Wind & Fire and Tower of Power than Sonny Stitt or Art Blakey.