news was cabled out that donald byrd passed away on february the 4th and on social media various musicenthusiasts have been expressing their sympathies and the love for the music of byrd. for me it was a case of that i hadn't really gotten around to listen to his full discography and i'm mostly familiar with the repetoire from the seventies. that has to do with that i know his work through the fact that this period has been the subject of sampling by hiphop and house producers/acts.
for instance "think twice", which is one of donald byrd's crossover records, houses the source material for two hiphop-classics that i enjoy and a gorgeous house-track. they are a tribe called quest's "footprints", main source's "looking at the front door" and armand van helden's "flowerz". the norweigans that are the ralph myerz & the jack herren band did a version of the song in '03 that is nice and in most places it's stated as a cover but i would just call it a version. it focused more on the groove and used the bassline, the chorus and some of the keyboards.
it became the lead single for the band's debut album titled "a special album" and became remixed by the likes of attaboy, the juan maclean and swag. attaboy kicked up the tempo a bit and turned up the funky a smidge, the juan maclean went for a synthy robotic themed kraftwerk meets george clinton meets silicon scally type of version. swag's version is the one i like the most and it's hones more to donald byrd's original than ralph myerz' rendition.
sure the focus is still on the bassline and the groove but it's more of how swag would have done if they chopped up and looped the original and included the trumpet hook. it kind of sits on that fence between deep and funky that you would hear from miguel migs during the naked music era. i was deeply into this sound at the time and i think i banged swag's remix out in plenty of sets and still like to pop it on.
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