You only get three tracks on this 1972 proto-jazz funk set from Donald Byrd with the middle song, Jamie, coming in under four minutes; it’s is a sunny and light soul-jazz instrumental built around acoustic guitar chords, organ and congas, and it kind of serves as a musical pause between the churning intensity of the two other (thankfully way lengthier) tracks. Both Emperor and The Little Rasti are long, intricate, multi-layered street funk vamps, elongated, locked-in jams from players of the calibre of Joe Sample, Bobbi Humphrey and Wilton Felder, over which Byrd’s trumpet sails and wails.  You can hear him assembling all the elements for his outstanding Blue Note jazz funk album run that kicked off the following year once he teamed up with the Mizell brothers and they added their writing and production magic to the mix. This deep, heavy-duty album remains a super-prescient, sprawling, mutant funk-jazz excursion of the highest order.

While Donald Byrd is beloved of the hip-hop and neo-soul generation for his exquisite string of 1970s jazz-funk albums featuring immaculate production from the Mizell Brothers, the albums he released leading up to these hits gets neglected. Byrd’s 1972 album Ethiopian Knights is a serious funk workout worth diving into. It features two immensely long hypnotic tracks that go deep into the funk. Much likes Miles, Byrd was busy checking out Sly and the Family Stone and the Isley Brothers and gets his bassist to stay in one place while everything builds up around him. Featuring a band boasting the likes of Bobby Hutcherson on vibes, Harold Land on sax, three guitarists, and three members of the Jazz Crusaders, the band roots down while Byrd and Land soar.