five star records

I have to admit that when I first picked this LP up way back in the mid-eighties I wasn't particularly impressed by it. First off, This Cat was going through his beatnik hard-bop phase, which kept me from appreciating the rolling funk grooves, the repetitive soft jazz vocals and the electric instrumentation. I was more used to Byrd's acoustic sound from the fifties and sixties, and at the time was spending most of my nights away from the real world watching black and white television, reading and listening to older jazz, immersing myself in the past and pretending I was living in that era. To be honest, I still pretend that I am sometimes, only it's much harder these days, what with cell phones, HDTV, the World Wide Web, those Blue Ray Tooth things and such.

Shoot, even the eighties were better than it is now, ya dig?

Of course I loved the cover, and the fact that it was a wraparound gatefold made the paltry $2.99 I spent on a used copy seem worth it for the cover alone. But I pulled the album out recently and have given it a few spins along with a long-overdue second chance. And you know what? It holds up just fine.

Not really jazz and not really fusion in the same sense as those ground-breaking Miles Davis sessions, the sound here is more semi-funk and R&B, and comes off closer in feel to some lost soundtrack to a Pam Grier film that never got made. When I listen to it now, I can almost see her sashaying down the big city sidewalk in summer heat, wearing skin tight leather pants and sporting a round afro. Hang on a sec... I'm gonna flip it over and listen to side one again...

Recorded in 1973, 'Street Lady' didn't exactly set the world on fire with the critics and it didn't produce much in the hit department, either, although the album did climb the jazz charts in 1974, the same year Byrd broke through with a charting single. 'Walking In Rhythm' was recorded by a group (aptly named The Blackbyrds) that Byrd put together right after 'Street Lady' consisting of himself and a handful of his best students (Byrd has taught music and theory at Rutgers, Howard, Oberlin College and NYU, among others), and it was with this group that he finally achieved mainstream success.

Seen as a bridge between jazz trumpeter Donald Byrd of the sixties and Byrd as leader of the Blackbyrds, 'Street Lady' was a logical transition and an important step in that direction. Solo artist became completely secondary to the group sound. You can hear some Chuck Mangione in Byrd's flugelhorn playing and there's lots of soaring flute (provided here by Roger Glenn) that fits well with the wah-wah guitar and the insistent funky punch of clavinet that helps drive the rhythm. So what if it's just a bunch of lengthy, feel-good groove jams. So what if it's not particularly hook-oriented. Just sit back, turn on the black light, burn some incense and let your neck go loose. You'll be head-bobbing in no time.

Byrd was born in Detroit in 1932, graduating from Cass Tech and moving on to the Air Force (where he played in a military band) before earning degrees from Wayne State and the Manhattan School of Music. On his way up, Byrd played with almost all the heavy hitters of jazz, including Coltrane, Lionel Hampton, Art Blakey and Thelonious Monk, just to name a few.

By the time the sixties rolled around, Byrd was a star at Blue Note, where he recorded a number of LPs in the traditional hard bop vein before making the transition towards funk fusion in the late-sixties (his 1969 LP 'Fancy Free' was the first of his to feature electric piano). Often under-appreciated in terms of virtuosity, Byrd has not only survived the test of time, but carved out a nice little niche for himself in jazz history and continues to be active to this day.

Oh, and if you happen to be a fan of acid jazz, you just might recognize some recycled stuff from 'Street Lady' STILL being played in clubs and on college radio.

I have to tell you that the biggest surprise I got when I pulled this LP out after so long was when I checked to see what it was going for on the almighty Internet. I found a sealed original copy with a corner cut on Ebay for $79.99! And it wasn't unusual to see other sites selling used original copies in the neighborhood of twenty to forty bucks! Ha ha! My copy is stone cold mint, cover AND disc!

I have a second copy that I picked up for 99 cents recently, too. I don't really know why I bought it. It just seemed like too good of a deal to pass up, even if I already did have another one at home. I guess I thought I'd be able to put the cover on display or something, but damn, maybe I can sell it on Ebay for five bucks, huh? Anybody interested? No?

Anybody OUT THERE? ANYBODY?!