Joseph Byrd

Joseph Byrd (William Joseph Hunter Byrd Jr.) whose groundbreaking work as an avant-garde composer and musician helped shape the world of modern music, died suddenly in Medford, Oregon, on November 2, 2025. He was 87. He was born in Louisville, KY on December 19,1937 and moved to Tucson with his family in 1942. He grew up in Tucson, received his B.A. in music at the University of Arizona under Dr. Barney Childs, who arranged for him to have a Teaching Assistantship at Stanford, where he obtained his M.A. He moved to New York in 1960 to study under John Cage and became an integral part of the experimental and performance art and music scene there with LaMonte Young, Jackson Mac Low and others, becoming one of the founders of the Fluxus movement. His first performance was in Yoko Ono's loft. He arranged the Music of Jacksonian America and with Dorothy Moskowitz did the arrangements for "The Life Treasury of Christmas Music." After returning to Los Angeles he founded the band and produced The United States of America LP, which subsequently received widespread acclaim for pioneering styles and techniques that would later become commonplace in rock music. Ultimately 4 more albums followed, along with work for films, commercials, and after he moved to northern California, another band and 2 more albums. Even in retirement he collaborated in the avant-garde 'Dream of White Elephant' in 2006 when he was 79. He taught at California State University and ultimately at the College of the Redwoods in Eureka, where he was also a columnist and food critic. He was a respected voice in the scholarship of Jeffersonian and ante-bellum American music and at the time of his death was working on a history of American music. And he was a member of the famous Eccentrics Club of London.
As noted by his friend and former wife, Angela Blackthorne Biggs, "Joseph was a unique and quintessentially American man. For good or ill, freedom was his creed, and he lived life entirely on his own terms. He was a brilliant musician, who could pick up any instrument he happened upon and play a lovely tune extemporaneously. He was capable of profound empathy and eloquence. He made his mark on the world, much as he intended from the beginning."
He was predeceased by his wife and soulmate, Barbara 'Beni' Bennett, and is survived by his daughter, Clarissa Byrd, grandsons Cory Schimer and Ryan Skyfield, his brother Ruddell, and many friends.