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Isaiah taking notes on how to improve his bowling skills.

After rumors began circulating earlier this week, it has finally been confirmed that legendary jazz musician Donald Byrd has died.

According to a family member, the trumpet player and bandleader, born Donaldson Toussaint L’Ouverture Byrd II, died Monday, Feb 4., at the age of 80. His cause of death has not yet been disclosed.
Byrd’s nephew, Alex Bugnon, also a jazz musician, revealed to Amoeba that his family had been attempting to hide Byrd’s death.

“I have no more patience for this unnecessary shroud of secrecy placed over his death by certain members of his immediate family,” Bugnon explained in an email.

Byrd was born in Detroit in 1932, and joined Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in 1956, performing on over 50 recordings by the likes of John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Kenny Burrell, Jackie McLean and Hank Mobley, before leading his own group in 1958.

Perhaps best known for his Mizell Brothers-produced 1973 LP Black Byrd, which at one point was Blue Note’s highest-selling LP of all time, Byrd went on to score major hits with his R&B fusion group the Blackbyrds, including dance-floor favorite “Rock Creek Park” and “Walking in Rhythm.”

Byrd’s work spanned decades of jazz and funk, from bebop and soul to R&B, inspiring acid jazz and fusion, always progressive, always testing his limits.

When his output began to wind down, Byrd’s music became even more relevant: He became an essential part of hip-hop’s canon, sampled by everybody from De La Soul, Ice Cube and Tupac to house legend Armand Van Helden, and his sphere of influence became vaster still.

“Let’s remember Donald as a one of a kind pioneer of the trumpet, of the many styles of music he took on, of music education,” his nephew concluded in his statement to Amoeba. “In sum, Donald was an avid, eternal student of music, until his death. That’s what I try to be, everyday!! Rest in peace, uncle!”

Via- Spinner

As the Dalai Lama once said, “If a problem is fixable, if a situation is such that you can do something about it, then there is no need to worry.  If it’s not fixable, then there is no help in worrying.  There is no benefit in worrying whatsoever.”

In other words, worry will not strip tomorrow of its burdens, it will strip today of its possibilities.

How would your life be different if you stopped worrying and started truly doing what you are capable of doing?  Let today be the day you free yourself from worthless worry, seize the possibilities and take effective action on things you can change.

Make a stand.  Be proactive.  Stop simply worrying about…

1.  The challenges you face.

Challenges are not here to worry about; they are here to help you grow.

Challenges are what make life interesting, and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.  Many of history’s greatest accomplishments were responses to difficult challenges.  Many of your own greatest advances have been in response to challenging circumstances.

Each of life’s challenges is a test that helps you notice and understand your weaknesses, thus enabling you to transform these weaknesses into strengths.

2.  Less than ideal conditions you can’t control.

There is no good reason to deny yourself the opportunity to do something extraordinary.  Life is about making a difference, and you will never run out of ways to do that.

Whatever has happened, whatever others say, whatever the state of the economy or weather may be, you still have the ability to thrive.  Life is what you choose to make it.  You have unlimited power over your mind, not external objects and events.  Realize this, and you will find the source of strength you need to move mountains.  Read How to Stop Worrying and Start Living.

3.  The reasons it might not work.

Your doubts are little enemies living in your mind that make you lose battles you are capable of winning.  They stir fear into your conscious and keep you wishing instead of DOING.  In other words, they disrupt necessary action.

An idea or a wish is a good place to start, but then you have to get off your butt, face your doubts and make things happen.  You have to pick up the pen and paper and write your own story.

Don’t let your doubts get the best of you.  While intent is the seed of success, action is the water that nourishes the seed.  Your actions must reflect your goals in order to achieve something worthwhile in this world.

4.  Everyone else’s dreams.

Start worrying about your own dreams.  They are unique and undeniably yours for a reason.  They are showing you, and at the same time compelling you, to make the most of your life.  It is not selfish to be your very best.  What’s selfish is to let your enormous potential go unrealized.

What have you always wanted to know, always wanted to do, and always wanted to be?  It is never too late to honestly answer that question, and the answer to that question is your own truly beautiful and unique gift to the world.  Because when you fulfill your greatest possibilities, you raise the whole world up with you.  Read A New Earth.

5.  Love that isn’t true.

The true kind of love involves attention, awareness, discipline, effort, and being able to truly care about someone and sacrifice for them, continuously, in countless petty little unsexy ways, every day.  You put your arms around them and love them regardless, even when they’re not so lovable.  And of course they do the same for you.

This kind of love has little to do with falling.  It’s a long climb up the rocky face of a mountain, hard work that most people are too selfish or too scared to bother with.

If you want to know what a truly healthy relationship is, it’s one where both people wake up every morning and say, “This is worth it.  You are worth it.  I choose to be with you.”  Read The 5 Love Languages.

6.  Other people’s temper tantrums.

Losing your temper with people who have already lost theirs does not accomplish anything, but only sets you out upon a path of foolishness and frustration.

When you maintain enough self-control to stand firm at the moment when another person is in a temper tantrum, you will win in the end.  Because it’s not the one who has spoken a hundred words aloud who has won; it is the one who has perhaps spoken only one word:  “goodbye.”

7.  More and more work that ONLY makes money.

Forget about the easy street or fast lane mentalities.  If you really want to do something wonderful with your life, harness the power of the ideas and efforts that move you.  Honor your instincts.  Trust your heart and true wealth will come to you.

As Anthony Robbin’s once said, “Passion is the genesis of genius.”  Enthusiasm is the mother of all productive work; without it rarely does something great ever transpire.  When you connect with your work you always strive to become the best you can be.  And as you gradually become better and better, everything around you becomes better too.

Bottom line:  The more passion you have for your work, the more value you will create through it.  And value is ultimately what people are willing to pay a premium for.

Via- Marc & Angel