1963 · Album
A New Perspective
Recorded 1964 · Blue Note Records · Catalog: BLP 4124 and BST 84124
Donald Byrd Steps Forward in 1964
Byrd sounds confident here, leading a tight group through material that lets everyone stretch without losing focus.
A New Perspective is the record where Donald Byrd stopped being a sideman who led dates and became something else entirely. The idea was simple and unlikely: pair a hard bop trumpet with a gospel choir and a rhythm section, write tunes that sat at the intersection of the church and the club, and see what happened. What happened was one of the most immediately appealing records Blue Note put out in 1964 music with swing and soul and a warmth that hard bop sometimes didn't allow itself.
The choir is the move nobody expected from Byrd. He'd spent years earning credibility as a serious modern jazz musician, and bringing in voices that sounded like Sunday morning was a risk. It paid off. The choir doesn't smooth the music out or make it easy; it opens it up, gives the trumpet something to respond to and push against. Byrd's playing here has a directness and joy that's hard to fake. Duke Pearson, who arranged and conducted the session, understood what Byrd was going for and built the arrangements around that feeling rather than around sophistication for its own sake.
This is one of Byrd's most beloved records, and it's easy to hear why. "Cristo Redentor" especially holds up a piece that sounds like it was always going to be written, inevitable in the way only the best tunes feel. If you know Byrd mainly through his later electric work or his earlier Blue Note sessions, this one sits apart from both and does something neither managed. It's the record that proved he had real personality as a bandleader, not just real chops.
Who's playing
Butch Warrenbass
Herbie Hancockpiano
Kenny Burrellguitar
Hank Mobleytenor saxophone
Donald Byrdtrumpet
Donald Bestvibraphone
Lex Humphriesmembranophone
Where next?
More by Donald Byrd
All 13 albums →
The musicians on this record
My Point of View 1963
Herbie Hancock
plays piano here
plays piano here
Soul Station 1960
Hank Mobley
plays tenor saxophone here
plays tenor saxophone here
Midnight Blue 1963
Kenny Burrell
plays guitar here
plays guitar here
