Jazz musician Donald Byrd, a leading trumpeter of the 1950s who collaborated on dozens of albums with leading artists of his time, has died at the age of 80.
He died on February 4 in Delaware, according to Haley Funeral Directors in a Detroit suburb, which is handling arrangements.
It did not have details of his death.
Byrd, who was also a pioneer in jazz education, attended Cass Technical High School in Detroit, played in military bands in the US Air Force and moved to New York in 1955.
The trumpeter, whose given name was Donaldson Toussaint L’Ouverture Byrd II, rose to prominence when he joined Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers later that year, filling the seat in the bebop group held by his idol Clifford Brown.
