Donald Byrd

Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II is an American jazz and rhythm and blues trumpeter, born in Detroit, Michigan in 1932. he performed with Lionel Hampton before finishing high school. After playing in a military band during a term in the United States Air Force, he obtained a bachelor's degree in music from Wayne State University and a master's degree from Manhattan School of Music. While still at the Manhattan School he joined the Jazz Messengers, replacing Clifford Brown. After leaving the Jazz Messengers in 1956 he performed with a wide variety of highly regarded jazz musicians, and in the 1970s started recording in the jazz fusion and rhythm and blues genres.

He has taught music at Rutgers University, the Hampton Institute, New York University, and Howard University.