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The Blackbyrds - The Baby


There's a blizzard raging outside. I'm down in my basement thumbing through a stack of vinyl I've been neglecting for months. What am I in the mood for? Aha! Here it is. The Blackbyrds second record.

When jazz great, Donald Byrd, was head of Howard University's Department of Jazz Studies in the early 70s, he put together a collective of six gifted musicians and gave them flight as The Blackbyrds. Their second record, Flying Start, is loaded with jazz-funk grooves (some awesome drum breaks), Grant Green-esque lead guitar and a fair share of Kevin Toney's ARP synthesizer. The latter is what I dig the most. On this track, The Baby, Toney doubles up the synth with Joe Hall's bass to create a fat groove. For the entirety of the song, this bass/drum combination continues relentlessly, providing a perfect foundation for guitar, flute and synth pads. This is jazz-fusion at its finest. Very listenable, not too smooth and funky as hell. The perfect sound for enduring the bombogenesis that is piling up snow outside. Before you dig out, you just need to dig this!

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