Issued in a four-panel Digipak. Donald Byrd & The Blackbyrds' The Jazz Funk Collection is the first time you have been able to acquire a collection of tracks by these artists on a CD package. All tracks on The Jazz Funk Collection are either written, produced or performed by Donald Byrd; the collection starts in 1973 around the start of the jazz funk era.
Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II (December 9, 1932 – February 4, 2013) was an American jazz and rhythm and blues trumpeter. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd was best known as one of the only bebop jazz musicians who successfully pioneered the funk and soul genres while simultaneously remaining a jazz artist. As a bandleader, Byrd is also notable for his influential role in the early career of renowned keyboard player and composer Herbie Hancock.
2 of the grooviest Verve 60s jazz funk sessions on one CD! Grant Green's His Majesty King Funk is a tight quintet session with Larry Young on organ and Harold Vick on tenor, and it grooves with a tightness that matches Green's best Blue Note sessions. The album is reissued here with the tracks in their full versions, and titles include "The Selma March", "Daddy Grapes", and "The Cantaloupe Woman". The record is paired with Donald Byrd's groovy Up album, a record that has his funky trumpet playing with a larger group arranged by Herbie Hancock, that also features some added vocal backing at times. The record has a very tasty version of "Cantaloupe Island", plus the cuts "Blind Man, Blind Man", "Bossa", and "Boom, Boom". Nice groovy 60's material, with 14 cuts in all!
One of his last efforts with the Mizell production team was definitely not his most critically acclaimed, but Caricatures continued Byrd's commercial winning streak that started years previous with 1969's Kofi and such '70s Blue Note classics as Places and Spaces, Black Byrd, and Street Lady. His last release for the label was no exception to the formula set forth from the previously mentioned albums. ~ AllMusic