A leading figure in bop, trumpeter Donald Byrd found greater success by merging jazz with soul and funk. In the '50s, he played with some of the biggest names in jazz, including John Coltrane, before focusing on teaching in the mid-'60s. By the following decade, he was exploring fusion and funk with his group, The Blackbyrds, whom critics hated but the public loved. By the '80s, Byrd had returned to teaching and his hard bop roots, while enjoying the response of a new audience who had discovered his '70s hits through various hip-hop samples.