Donald Byrd

choreographer

Personal Information

Born July 21, 1949, in New London, NC.
Education: Attended Yale University, 1967; Tufts University, BA, 1974; studied with Mia Slavenska for six years; attended Alvin Ailey American Dance Center; attended Cambridge School of Ballet; attended Harvard Summer Dance Center; attended London School of Contemporary Dance.

Career

Member of Twyla Tharp dance company, 1972; member of Gus Solomons Jr. company, 1976; dance instructor, California Institute of the Arts, 1976-82; choreographer for a variety of companies, 1976--; formed dance company Donald Byrd/The Group, Los Angeles, 1978; taught at University of California-Santa Cruz, Ohio University, and Wesleyan University, among others; moved Donald Byrd/The Group to New York City, 1983; established Donald Byrd Dance Foundation, 1985; choreographed Crumble for Ailey Repertory Company, 1987; choreographed Shards for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, 1988; pieces created for The Group include Prodigal, 1990, The Minstrel Show, 1991, Drastic Cuts, 1992, and Bristle, 1993; associate artist, Yale Repertory Theater; member of board of directors, Dance Theater Workshop and Dance USA.

Life's Work

Donald Byrd is one of the most important choreographers in modern dance. Building on the foundation created by such predecessors as Talley Beatty and Alvin Ailey, Byrd has gone on to forge his own unique style. His work has been molded by a diverse range of influences, from classical ballet--especially that choreographed by the legendary George Balanchine--to modern dance giants like Twyla Tharp. Through collaborations with other artists, including composer Peter Sellars and playwright Robert Wilson, he has also ventured across the barriers of dance into theater, opera, and film.

Although he has been based on either the East or West Coast throughout his professional career, Donald Byrd was born and raised in the South. Byrd's parents were divorced shortly after he was born. Soon after that, his mother moved with her young son from North Carolina's Stanly County to Clearwater, Florida, where Byrd was raised primarily by his grandmother. As a child, his first love was music. Byrd's earliest artistic training was as a classical flautist; he performed with both his school band and the county youth symphony. He was also active in his school's theatrical projects and on the debate team.

Byrd's first exposure to dance came when he was 16 years old. Two dancers from Balanchine's New York City Ballet, Edward Villella and Patricia McBride, conducted a lecture-demonstration in Clearwater. Since it was near his home, Byrd decided to attend. The dancers left quite an impression on Byrd, and though it would be several years before he received any formal training in dance, the mark was permanent.

An excellent student, Byrd was accepted by Yale University and received a scholarship for minority students. Initially he majored in philosophy, though he had thoughts of becoming an actor. At Yale, Byrd attended every play produced by the School of Drama and the Long Wharf Theatre. Yale was also where Byrd experienced overt racism for the first time, in the form of slurs and insults, these contrasting with the institutionalized racism of segregation that he had encountered growing up in the South. The summer after his freshman year, Byrd's prowess on the flute earned him the opportunity to join an ensemble that toured Europe. On his return from Europe, Byrd decided to leave Yale, where he did not feel entirely welcome, and enroll in Tufts University in Boston.

One of the first friends Byrd made at Tufts was actor William Hurt. By this time, Byrd had begun to study acting seriously. It was from Hurt that Byrd first heard about the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater. On Hurt's suggestion, Byrd attended a performance of Ailey's signature work, Revelations. The performance was indeed a revelation for Byrd; for the first time in his life, he became aware of the theatrical power of dance. At that point, Byrd became, above all, a student of dance. He began taking dance classes at Tufts. At the end of the school year, he quit the University and moved to New York City to immerse himself in dance.

For the next several years, Byrd studied dance at a variety of schools, both in the U.S. and abroad. Along the way, he also managed to graduate from Tufts. Byrd spent two years in the early 1970s at the Ailey School in New York. He also studied with Twyla Tharp and was invited to join her company. He was shown the door after only two months, however. The rejection left him deeply depressed for months. While still rebounding from that disappointment, Byrd met choreographer Gus Solomons. Spotting his untapped potential, Solomons invited Byrd to join his dance company in 1976. When Solomons was named dean of the dance program at the California Institute of the Arts, he brought Byrd along to the West Coast to teach.

In California, Byrd's career began to blossom. He began choreographing on a regular basis, and his earliest work was well received in Los Angeles. Word of his talent spread back East and by 1977, Byrd was producing shows of his own work at the Dance Theater Workshop in New York. Eager for a steady outlet for his choreography, Byrd founded his own company, Donald Byrd/The Group, in 1978. Byrd's style around this time was largely an extension of the work of Talley Beatty, particularly in its combination of classical ballet, modern dance, and urban street dancing. Byrd also experimented with punk rock for a short time in the early days of The Group.

The Los Angeles press was quite taken by Byrd's brash approach, and the company's success brought invitations for residencies at several universities. Success also contributed to a struggle with drugs and alcohol that would last for the next several years. In 1983, Byrd relocated his entire company back to New York. There he quit using drugs for six months, but his drinking intensified. He began taking classes at the Merce Cunningham studio in hopes of finding the necessary discipline to stay away from both substances.

When Byrd returned to New York after a residency in Minneapolis in 1984, his problems with cocaine and alcohol reached a peak, and their effect on his work became increasingly apparent. Then, in 1985, New York Times dance critic Jennifer Dunning, a longtime admirer of Byrd's work, wrote a scathing review of a Byrd performance at LaMaMa. In the review, Dunning questioned what had become of the promise Byrd's career had once held. Stung by this response, Byrd acknowledged that he needed treatment. He entered the Hazelden Clinic in Minneapolis for a 31-day rehabilitation program; he has been sober ever since.

With his drug and alcohol problems behind him, Byrd was able to reignite his stalled career. In 1987 he was asked to choreograph a piece for the Ailey Repertory Company, the junior Ailey ensemble. The resulting work, Crumble, was well received, especially by Ailey himself, and soon Byrd was a regular contributor of works to the main Ailey group. His first piece for the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater was Shards, a work heavily influenced by Balanchine, originally staged in 1988. "Shards," Byrd told Chris Pasles of the Los Angeles Times, "was about a deconstruction of the vocabulary that people considered, quote-unquote, black movement."

Byrd's association with the Ailey company continued over the next several years. In 1991 the Ailey Dance Theater debuted Dance at the Gym, a piece about adolescent bravado. A Folk Dance, premiered the following year, was created specifically for the Ailey company's four senior members, Sarita Allen, Marilyn Banks, Gary DeLoatch, and Dudley Williams, and featured original music by Byrd's longtime collaborator Mio Morales, a close friend from his days at Tufts. Meanwhile, Donald Byrd/The Group was gaining international attention in its own right; in 1990 The Group premiered Prodigal, a piece inspired by Balanchine's Prodigal Son.

In 1991 Byrd and The Group presented Minstrel Show, a controversial dance addressing racial stereotypes. In Minstrel Show the company's dancers appeared in blackface, which aroused a spectrum of responses, from amusement to rage, in audience members of all races. The show won a prestigious Bessie Award in 1992. That year also marked the premier of Drastic Cuts, an evening-length suite of abstract dances that, according to company literature, "investigates the basic elements of theatre and performance," relying on a stripped-down theatricality without sophisticated sets or props.

By 1993 Byrd's work was in demand all over the world. Donald Byrd/The Group toured throughout the United States and Europe, and work choreographed by Byrd was presented, among other places, in New York by the Ailey company, in Paris by Concordanse, and in Boston by Boston Ballet II. 1993's premier offering from The Group was Bristle, a long work exploring tensions between the genders. Plans for the 1994-95 season included Domestic Violence Project, inspired by German playwright's Bertolt Brecht's ideas about theater, and the development of The Harlem Nutcracker, an African American take on that classic Nutcracker using Duke Ellington-style big band arrangements of Tchaikovsky's original music.

Although his work owes much to predecessors such as George Balanchine and Alvin Ailey, Donald Byrd has succeeded in developing his own vision as a choreographer, producing more than 80 works during his career thus far. Many of his pieces are about social issues, but they always leave room for the audience's interpretation. The dances often hint at telling a story, but generally the narrative is stripped away, revealing the bare bones of movement itself, unencumbered by a concrete plot line. This ability to jump back and forth between social commentary and abstract movement, as well as between classical and modern influences, is key to Byrd's work. As he stated in a Los Angeles Times interview, "One of the opportunities of being a choreographer in this generation is that finally there's enough dance history and enough ideas that ... maybe our job is to synthesize all this information that's popped up over the last 100 years, since Sleeping Beauty."

Awards

Special mention, 3rd Grand Prix International Video Dance Festival, 1990; Bessie Award, 1992, for The Minstrel Show; Emerging Dance Award, Metropolitan Life Foundation; numerous grants and fellowships.

Further Reading

Sources

• Dance Magazine, July 1993, p. 42.
• Los Angeles Times, April 25, 1993, Calender, p. 5.
• New York Times, February 20, 1992, p. C26; December 13, 1992, p. H23; August 14, 1994, p. H24.
• San Diego Reader, January 23, 1992.
• Washington Post, April 25, 1994.
• What's Up (Durham, NC), January 28, 1994, p. 21.

— Robert R. Jacobson

See Donald Byrd Lyrics

• Born: December 09, 1932, Detroit, MI
• Active: '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s, 2000s
• Genres: Jazz
• Instrument: Trumpet, Flugelhorn
• Representative Albums: "Black Byrd," "A New Perspective," "Electric Byrd"
• Representative Songs: "Cristo Redentor," "Black Byrd," "Street Lady"

Biography

Donald Byrd was considered one of the finest hard bop trumpeters of the post-Clifford Brown era. He recorded prolifically as both a leader and sideman from the mid-'50s into the mid-'60s, most often for Blue Note, where he established a reputation as a solid stylist with a clean tone, clear articulation, and a knack for melodicism. Toward the end of the '60s, Byrd became fascinated with Miles Davis' move into fusion, and started recording his own forays into the field. In the early '70s, with the help of brothers Larry and Fonce Mizell, Byrd perfected a bright, breezy, commercially potent take on fusion that was distinct from Davis, incorporating tighter arrangements and more of a smooth soul influence. Opinions on this phase of Byrd's career diverge wildly -- jazz purists utterly despised it, branding Byrd a sellout and the records a betrayal of talent, but enraptured jazz-funk fans regard it as some of the most innovative, enduring work of its kind. In fact, proportionately speaking, Byrd is held in even higher esteem by that audience than by straight-ahead jazz fans who enjoy his hard bop output. Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II was born in Detroit, MI, on December 9, 1932. His father, a Methodist minister, was an amateur musician, and Byrd was already an accomplished trumpeter by the time he finished high school, having performed with Lionel Hampton. Byrd served a stint in the Air Force, during which time he played in a military band, and subsequently completed his bachelor's degree in music at Wayne State University in 1954. He moved to New York in 1955 to get his master's at the Manhattan School of Music, and soon began performing with pianist George Wallington's group. In December of that year, he was invited to join Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, filling a chair once held by his idol, Clifford Brown, and Kenny Dorham. Byrd also began his recording career during this period, leading several sessions (mostly for Savoy) and working often as a sideman, particularly at the Prestige label. He left the Jazz Messengers in 1956 and joined up with Max Roach; he went on to play with the likes of John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, and Red Garland, and also co-founded the Jazz Lab Quintet with altoist Gigi Gryce in 1957. In 1958, Byrd signed an exclusive recording contract with Blue Note, and also formed a band with baritonist Pepper Adams, who would remain Byrd's regular partner until 1961. Byrd's Blue Note debut was 1958's Off to the Races, and he and Adams collaborated on a series of excellent hard bop dates over the next three years, including Byrd in Hand (1959), At the Half Note Cafe, Vols. 1-2 (1960), The Cat Walk (1961), and Royal Flush (also 1961), among others. Another 1961 recording, Free Form, found Byrd giving a young Herbie Hancock some of his earliest exposure. Following this burst of activity, Byrd took a sabbatical to continue his studies in Europe, where he spent some time under the tutelage of the legendary French music educator Nadia Boulanger. He returned to the U.S. in 1963 and recorded A New Perspective, a now-classic set that broke new ground by incorporating gospel choirs into its arrangements; its signature piece, "Cristo Redentor," became quite popular. In the mid-'60s, Byrd focused more of his energies on teaching, and worked diligently to make jazz and its history a legitimate part of the college curriculum. He taught at Rutgers, Hampton, New York University, and Howard in the late '60s, and the last one remained a steady association for much of the '70s. In the meantime, Byrd continued to record occasionally, cutting a final spate of hard bop albums over 1966-1967 that included Mustang! and Blackjack. Byrd also began to study African music, inspired partly by the emerging black-consciousness movement, and became interested in Miles Davis' efforts to woo a younger audience (including Byrd's own students) by experimenting with electronics and funk rhythms. 1969's Fancy Free found Byrd using electric piano for the first time, with a spacy sound that recalled Davis' In a Silent Way. 1970's Electric Byrd had more of a Bitches Brew flavor, and the jams on 1971's Ethiopian Knights were longer, funkier, and more aggressive. Byrd truly came into his own as a fusion artist when he hooked up with brothers Larry and Fonce Mizell, who began to handle production, writing, and some musical support duties. Their first collaboration was 1972's Black Byrd, an upbeat, funky blend of jazz and R&B. Jazz critics detested the album and called Byrd all sorts of names, but the record was a smash hit; it became the biggest seller in Blue Note history, and just missed hitting number one on the R&B albums chart. In the wake of its success, Byrd formed a supporting group, the Blackbyrds, who were culled from the cream of his music students at Howard University and recorded through the rest of the '70s. Byrd went on to release a string of successful LPs in partnership with the Mizell Brothers, including the imaginary blaxploitation soundtrack Street Lady (1974), Stepping into Tomorrow (1975), the much-lauded Places and Spaces (1976), and Caricatures (1977). All made the Top Ten on the R&B album charts, and the Places and Spaces single "Change (Makes You Wanna Hustle)" even got substantial play in discotheques. Jazz-funk fans revere this period in general, but usually reserve their highest praise for Street Lady and, especially, Places and Spaces. As a side note to his musical career, Byrd finished law school in 1976, and went on to teach at North Carolina Central University. Following Caricatures, Byrd parted ways with Blue Note and the Mizell Brothers and moved to Elektra. He recorded several albums over 1978-1983, but even the most commercially successful, 1978's Thank You...for F.U.M.L. (Funking up My Life), didn't match the infectiousness of his Blue Note jazz-funk outings. In 1982, Byrd received his Ph.D. from Columbia Teachers College. He spent a few years in the mid-'80s away from recording, due in part to ill health, but continued to teach, moving on to North Texas State and Delaware State. In the late '80s and early '90s, Byrd returned to the hard bop of his early days on several sessions for the Landmark label. He participated in rapper Guru's Jazzmatazz project in 1993, and with the advent of the jazz-rap movement and England's acid jazz revival, his '70s albums became hugely popular sources for samples. In the meantime, Byrd continued his activities as a jazz educator. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide

Royal Flush Buy this CD	Off to the Races [RVG Edition] Buy this CD	Parisian Thoroughfare Buy this CD	Jazz in Paris: Donald Byrd Quintet Parisian Thoroughfare Buy this CD	Jazz in Paris: Byrd in Paris Buy this CD
Transition Sessions Buy this CD	Fuego Buy this CD	Fuego Buy this CD	Fuego Buy this CD	New Perspective Buy this CD

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