Thank You… For F.U.M.L. (Funking Up My Life)

US jazz trumpet player and bandleader Donald Byrd’s first album following his remarkably successful jazz funk run working with the Mizell Brothers was this self-produced 1978 set, where he moved toward a more accessible disco/R’n’B/soul sound. Although this inevitably annoyed some hardcore jazzers, it was a successful switch. The album has that late-seventies, warm and easy swing, with a chic, highly polished, radio-friendly production sound that also maintained firm disco-dance-ibility. The title track is a monster hard-churning ’80s soul weekender anthem equipped with an irresistibly chunky bass line and Funkadelic-ish stacked vocals. “Loving You” is a sweet strings and iron-clad rhythm section combo that switches between soft-focus disco and thumping sophisti-R’n’B, “Have You Heard The News” brings an accessible Kool & The Gang feel to its classy instrumentation, and gently steaming yacht rock creeper “Cristo Redentor” provides a slowed down, burnished palette cleanser, before the album checks out with another uplifting soulful-vocal disco-funk bouncer. An under-rated high-quality moment in Donald Byrd's catalogue.