Donald Byrd's Workshop at BAM

This is from "Four Measures of the Blues and a Bar to Spare: A BAM Line Review Supplement" by Kelly-Marie Berry.

April 9, 1974

Donald Byrd's Workshop was that of the educator-musician which is what Byrd has evolved into but I perhaps the reverse order: Musician-Educator. For years, a leading trumpet soloist and recording artist, in 1967 he received his doctoral degree in college teaching and administration from Columbia Teachers' College of Columbia University in New York.

Informative and thought provoking, Byrd's workshop was straight up lecture format and the contents of his lecture dealt with some fundamental aspects of educational philosophy. His remarks/direct and pointed:

"When you got to school, the reason why they teach you white Western history is because it is supposed to be part of your heritage. So when they talk about Beethoven they are not just talking about him because he was suppose to be a great musician, but because he was also German. And that is part of the German culture and heritage.

"When you go into a Black situation and you talk about Beethoven and Bach, well the students aren't supposed to relate to it because it is not part of their heritage. So people wonder why Black people are turned off by classical music. They are supposed to get turned off. It's alien. There is nothing absolute about Western history. Whites in this country get you to believe that everything that they teach you is absolute as if it were written by some divine person. So what the mistake is that by training Black people in the white tradition, the presumption is that their grand and great grandparents came from Europe. And that's not true. It's an alien thing."

UW History of Jazz Lecture Notes

These lecture notes were taken by Ken Soapes for Music 331A "History of Jazz" taught by Professor Joe Brazil.

Monday, April 8, 1974

Today in class we were fortunate to have Donald Byrd as a guest lecturer. Mr. Brazil and he grew up together and played together in Detroit. He left for New York when he was 18. Since that time he has played with a number of jazz artists such as Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane (with whom he has done many albums), and Herbie Hancock who he helped introduce to the scene. Dr. Byrd has had a very diverse past - besides being a musician he has also been an airplane pilot, a law student; he studied in Europe for four years, attended law school, is currently head of the Black Music Studies Department for the School of Music at Howard University, and is one of the foremost historians on Black Music and its ramification in society.

Directly before coming to class Dr. Byrd was notified by promoters that the concert he flew out from the East Coast to do had been cancelled.

Dr. Byrd, as noted above, has become highly educated by the standards of Western academia. He stated that he was put on the defensive by the "standards" of the academic society and had to become the "Super-Nigger." He has now grown tired of that game. Henry B. Durham once asked him why he said "Shit" all the time because he should know better with the advantage of so much education. Byrd's reply was that he does it because he does know better. He stated he has been uptight for 40 years and if he makes other people uptight that will be too bad. Academia in his eyes is an extension of Western philosophy.

Bob Antolin


In an 2000 article in Northwest Asian Weekly, Bob Antolin talks about Joe Brazil.

"At the University of Washington, he studied with Joe Brazil.

'He was a good influence,' says Antolin. He would bring Bill Evans, Joe Henderson, Dexter Gordon, Chico Hamilton... (to class)... (when) they came to town to play in local pubs.... It was quite an occasion to see them and hear them up close and in person.'

Antolin laments about losing contact with Brazil, who was not tenured by the university following a huge controversy.

'Joe had a direct connection with the musicians. In terms of academic environment, what better way to (learn) than by bringing in (those) musicians like he did.'

Fortunately, Antolin took lessons with Brazil while he was still there.
'He was introducing all the jazz bebop vocabulary.... It was a very enriching situation.'"

Ken Kubota

In a 2011 issue of International Examiner, Ken Kubota mentioned Joe Brazil.

"Kubota initially started piano lessons in second grade and began saxophone in fourth grade. He continued to study saxophone with University of Washington Professor Joe Brazil, who was a great influence, he noted.

"I learned so much from him," said Kubota.
Brazil would invite musicians travelling through town to speak in class, like McCoy Tyner.
"I always appreciated that," he said.

Note from Pete Leinonen

I was at the UW when Joe was teaching and attended many of his classes, even playing for a couple, although I wasn't enrolled in them. After Joe left I was asked by some faculty members who I thought they should hire. I had some credibility with the faculty because I was also Bill Smith's bass player. I advocated for Monk, but they really wanted Herbie, who was practically a pop star by then.

Joe was a dear friend and I'm glad you're  keeping his name alive. I played with a band of veterans of various Joe Brazil groups at his first memorial, where everyone was rather shocked by his lack coverage in the Seattle press. That was my first reunion with George Griffin after his return from California. Ed Lee organized and led the band.

I met Joe early in 1962. I was working a summer job at Boeing then as a design trainee (a short lived career) when I started hearing about Joe from coworkers who were jazz fans. It seemed like everybody knew him even then. I heard him play in a lot of small clubs in those days, and some early jazz concerts. Eventually I would play myself in some of the same rooms, including the Mardi Gras and The Checkmate.