9. Donald Byrd, “The Onliest” (Getting Down to Business; Landmark, 1989)
After disappearing down the crossover R&B rabbit hole in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, Byrd disappeared from the music scene entirely for several years to focus on teaching (he’d earned his Ph.D. in 1982), years during which he apparently didn’t even practice much on the horn. He made a comeback in the late ‘80s, making music clearly inclined in the acoustic direction that the “Young Lions” had brought back. By 1989’s Getting Down to Business, made with fellow elder Joe Henderson, then mid-career Al Foster, and several of the aforementioned Young Lions (Kenny Garrett, Donald Brown, Peter Washington), Byrd had brought his chops back up to snuff. He brings brilliant figures and a quite daring harmonic conception to his original “The Onliest,” gladly taking on the younger generation’s complex harmonic language and speaking it with ease—and easy swing. At least, Byrd makes it sound easy, though it’s clear how hard his bandmates (including Henderson) are working to make it so. Byrd was back.
